Texting...believe me, it can wait until you get out of the car!

I got an email yesterday with the below video attached. We all know that we shouldn't text and drive, but I'm sure we've all done it at some point. And we all need to be reminded that we shouldn't do it. That the text can wait. That our lives, our passenger's lives, and the lives of the other people on the road with us are way more important than a text message! Please take 10 minutes out of your busy day to be reminded how important it is to NOT text and drive! And then make sure all of your friends and family see this too!

Video - AT&T - The Last Text Documentary

Rockets Run 2011 Race Report

The 1st race of 2011 is complete! I flew down to Houston to see my dear friend Sara, her husband Joe, and their beautiful new baby girl, Allison! I found the Rockets Run 5K online and thought I would run a race while I was there. It was great to be in the sunny, warm weather since we have tons of snow on the ground in Kansas!

The race was at the Toyota Center. We started in front of the arena and the race actually ended on the Houston Rockets basketball court! It was a pretty cool race to run in. Lots of people, lots of sponsors and lots of fun. Once I got into the tunnel in the arena, I lost the signal on my GPS. My Garmin said 3.04 miles at 28 mins 29 sec. So even thought the Garmin only shows 3.04 miles, I know I still ran 25 seconds or so after my Garmin lost signal. The time kept running though. This was definitely a 5K PR for me! I've always focused on just finishing the race, but time has become something I've started focusing on more. I hope to see many more PR's in 2011!

The Marines were a part of this race as well. They ran in sync the whole race and they chanted the whole time. It was so neat! I did run with my camera and I was trying to take a picture of them as I was passing them, but they were so blurry that I did stop to take a non-blurry picture. It was so worth it to take a picture of them, but the next 5K, there will be no distractions I hope!

The Marines are in the dark green running suits with orange letters.

Here is my race report from my Garmin:

Mile 1: 9:27

Mile 2: 9:13

Mile 3: 8:48

Mile .04: 59 seconds (The Garmin lost satellite signal in the arena, so it looks like I didn't go the full 3.1, but I did)

Total 5K: 28:29

I came in 645th out of 2000 overall participants. I came in 185th out of 982 women. And in the Female 30-34 age group, I came in 25th out of 187. I was very happy with my results in my 1st race of 2011!

I definitely got faster as it went on. Dodging in and out of people at the start of the race is always a little difficult, but I had a great time! Here I am after the race:

And here is the finish line:

NYC = Crazy Me!

I did the Bank of America Chicago Marathon in October of 2009. It was my first full marathon and it was an awesome experience! But, it was very challenging and since then I have said that I would rather stick to half marathons. Yesterday I got an email saying that the Chicago Marathon registration for this year is up now. I was looking on the website and saw a link for the World Marathon Majors: Boston, London, Berlin, Chicago, New York. That made me go to the NYC Marathon website to just check it out.

As I was browsing the website, I was looking at the registration info. There are 3 main ways to get entry into the marathon.
1. You have to have a good enough marathon or half marathon time based on your age. My time isn't close to fast enough and I'm okay with that.
2. You can raise money through one of their charities to guarantee your entry, which is what I did for the Chicago Marathon.
3. You can submit your application to be in the lottery drawing.

Something came over me at that moment and I submitted my application for the lottery! It kind of all happened so fast that my stomach was in knots as I pressed the Submit button! The lottery drawing will take place mid-March and if I get picked, I will do the New York City Marathon Nov. 6, 2011! I figured that if I ever did a full marathon again, I might as well do a big one! Who knows, maybe someday I'll be able to run each of the 5 World Marathon Majors - I already have Chicago crossed off the list!

The chances aren't great that I'll get picked, but it's random, so who knows? If I don't get picked this year, I will apply next year as well. If you don't get in 3 years in a row, the 4th year, you are guaranteed an entry, so I will for sure be running it in 2014 if not before! I think I'm crazy for submitting my application, but I'm a runner, so being crazy is a requirement, right? Crazy or not, I just might be headed to New York City in November and it makes me really excited thinking about it!

I Got An Award!

I've only been blogging a few months and I got an award today! So exciting! My friend, Amy, gave me this award! You should definitely check out her very inspiring blog, Life Follows Faith! I have known Amy and her husband about 5 years now and she is just an amazing person! Thanks for the award Amy!




Along with this award comes some responsibilities:

1. Thank and link back to the person who awarded you this award.
2. Share 7 things about yourself.
3. Award 10 other bloggers.
4. Contact these bloggers and tell them about the award!

7 Things About Me:

1. I got married August 28th of this year.

2. My husband and I have 2 dogs, a Shih-Tzu and a lab - they are our kids!

3. I love to Run.

4. I am watching the Jayhawks beat up on the Baylor Bears - I hope this continues the entire game!

5. I am a very organized and neat person, sometimes to a fault! :)

6. I have 4 year old identical twin nieces and a 2 year old niece. When I married my husband, I gained a nephew and 3 more nieces (all 4 of them are high school age and above).

7. I am a Taurus and I stayed a Taurus, even with the crazy astrology calendar changes!

The 10 bloggers that I'm giving this award to:

1. Miranda @ Living Locally

2. Why I Run

3. The Audrey Ross Way

4. Elaine @ Our Semi-Homemade Life

5. Milligan Family Adventures

6. Mama's Sweet Peas

7. Brand New Hoosier

8. Life is not a destination, it is a journey!

9. Losing Weight and Finding Myself

10. Words to Run By

Relax, Race, Recover

So this is a 3 part catch-up post. I seriously meant to post this past weekend, but I was honestly too busy relaxing to post. Well, not totally relaxing since I did a 7 mile run on Saturday, I cleaned the house, and my husband and I had a couple (or three) date nights. So not all relaxing, but I was relaxing away from the computer. And when you're at a computer all week like I am, it's nice to take a break!

Part 1: Relax: My husband and I rarely get a weekend off together, but this past weekend we did. We went out to dinner with some friends on Friday and planned on going to a movie after dinner. But, with the waiting for a table and all the good catching up we were doing, we missed the movie. But that was fine, because the conversation was way better than any movie! On Saturday we slept in a little, I went on my 7 mile run while he slept some more, and then we went to dinner just the two of us. Then on Sunday, we had a nice lunch out before running errands and then he made chili, which made for a yummy dinner while watching a Netflix movie. We watched The Lovely Bones. I won't say it was a great movie because it was totally not what I was expecting, but it was good. Glad I didn't pay to see it in the theater though! After writing that paragraph, it doesn't sound like the most relaxing weekend, but we had fun anyway!

Part 2: Race: The Race part of the title wasn't in reference to the 7 miler I did on Saturday, but refers to this coming Saturday and the first race of 2011 for me! I am heading to Houston to see my friend, Sara, and her beautiful new baby girl! I came across the Rockets Run 5K and decided that I should do it! Warmer climate + running outside in January = perfect! My Saturday run is actually supposed to be 8 miles, so I'll switch my 3 mile run day on Thursday with the Saturday run to make up for it. I'll give you an update after the race of course!

Part 3: Recover: Our lab, Maverick, is recovering well from his ACL surgery that I posted about HERE. He got his stitches out last Friday and his incision looks great! We now have 6 weeks left of keeping him inactive. He is feeling much better and is wanting to walk on his leg, so the hard part is for us keeping him from doing that as much as possible. He stays in his kennel when we're not home, but we do let him lay on his big fluffy pillow when we are home and are able to monitor him. I'm hoping these next 6 weeks go by fast. Once they are over, we will start 8 weeks of physical therapy with him to get him back to normal!

I am excited that I only have 3 more days of work this week and have a nice 3 day weekend coming up! I hope everyone enjoys their week! What do you have going on this week and weekend?

Sweaty Bands Giveaway!

Head on over to Running to Health's blog right now. You can enter to win a Sweaty Band. If you've never worn a Sweaty Band, you are missing out!

You can kind of see my Sweaty Band in the picture in this post HERE. I love it! I have never found any headband that didn't slip off my head, until I found these! You can also check out the Sweaty Band website right HERE.

1000 in 2011!

If you remember, I did make a New Year's Resolution post here. My 2nd resolution/goal was to run 1000 miles in 2011! After much thinking, my original number was 900. Then I came across Tall Mom on the Run's Blog. I saw the 1000+++ Challenge that she had in 2010 and got intrigued when she talked about doing it again in 2011. So before I even knew the details of her challenge, I changed my goal from 900 (that's an odd number anyway) to 1000 (a much better and more challenging number)!

Maybe I'll hit 1000, maybe I won't, but it's the challenge of it that intrigues me the most. I'm a very competitive person by nature and I know that I will push myself this year to get to 1000 miles. And wherever I land on the mileage, I'll be happy knowing I tried my best! And it'll give me a gauge for the mileage goal I will have in 2012.

Would you like to participate in this challenge also? Click on the picture at the top of this post, or I have a button on my sidebar that you can click on as well. We can keep each other motivated. And even if you don't want to join the challenge, help keep me motivated throughout the year to reach 1000!

Revelation

Over the past month and a half while tracking my training runs more than I've ever tracked them before, I've started to realize something:

My speed and pace need some work!

Since I'm not a natural runner, my focus has always been to finish the race and never give up! In running my first half marathon, I had serious knee issues and it never crossed my mind that I would be able to run every step of the race. Then, in running my first full marathon, it also never crossed my mind that I would even try to run the entire thing. I honestly don't know how people do it! To this day, the longest I have ever run without resting or walking is 8 miles. For me, that is amazing! I don't know if I could ever run a half marathon without stopping to rest or walk. I don't think that is going to be one of my goals...just yet anyway. But I can work on my speed and pace!

In my mind, a good 5K run for me is at a pace around a 10:30 min/mile. This has been my thinking ever since I started running a few years ago. In my first year running, I didn't have a Garmin and I didn't use any online tracking. In my 2nd year running, I had a Garmin for part of the year, but mainly I used it to track my mileage and time. I didn't really worry about pace or the progress I was making throughout training.

As I have gotten farther into my training the past couple months, I have been looking more at my progress and where I've been over time. I use my Garmin for not only mileage and time, but also pace and split times (still wanting to use it for HR monitoring, but haven't taken that step yet). I started using dailymile which has helped me stay connected to other runners, and it keeps me motivated to see each workout/run that I post. I've also looked back on the past couple years and the races I've participated in. I made a spreadsheet with all those races listed, and will add races as I complete them going forward. I had to search online for most of the race results, and I was amazed at how many of them I was actually able to find! Having this list I am able to see my race stats over time. And let me tell you, those race times weren't impressive by any means! What was impressive is that I ran those races and finished, which to me was a definite accomplishment.

As I've gotten a little higher in my mileage, I have noticed that my pace is getting better without me actively trying. That was shown in my New Year's Day run by going 5.3 miles at what I would have previously considered a good 3 mile pace for me! My revelation is that I need to change my thinking on what a "good pace for me" should be. Since I ran 5.3 miles faster than a "good" 3 mile pace, then what could I actually run 3 miles in? I don't know yet. I do know that one thing I'd like to focus on a little more in 2011 is my speed and pace. I need to do some research on how best to do that, but I'm committed to trying. For me, finishing a race is still the most important thing, it's just not the only thing!

Allied Steel Giveaway!

So, i keep finding great giveaways and want to share them with you as well!

"Run" back on over to Stephanie Anne's Running to Health blog to check out this other GIVEAWAY!

If you want a way to display your medals, Allied Medal Displays has some great options!

Zensah Leg Sleeves Giveaway!

"Run" on over to Stephanie Anne's Running to Health blog to check out this GIVEAWAY!

I have gotten very curious about compression tights, compression sleeves, compression socks, compression shorts, etc over the last couple weeks and have heard GREAT things about Zensah! I would love to win these leg sleeves and I would love if you would have a chance to as well!

HBBC Virtual New Year's Day Race 2011

Amanda, over at Run to the Finish, put together the Holiday Bootie Buster Challenge that I talked about in this post. Jan 1st was the beginning of the last week in the challenge. I am a numbers person, and I love spreadsheets and love to "track" things! Plus, I love to run, so I signed up for the challenge right away. I have enjoyed participating and pushing myself to earn those points!

As a way for the participants to earn extra points, she put together a Resolution Fun Run for New Year's Day. The run was taking place in Miami, but for those of us not actually there, we could do the run virtually. What better way to start the new year than with a run, right? I did wait until about 4 pm when it was warmer (if you know me, you know I hate the cold). She didn't have a set distance that the run was going to be, but had people do whatever distance they felt like doing. I originally thought I would do 4 miles, but after about a half mile, I decided I would go 5. With the route I had, it actually ended up being 5.3 miles. My time was 52:50 with a pace of 9:59. I loved having a "race" to do on New Year's Day since there weren't any official ones in my area!

Below is my Daily Mile race report from the Virtual Race:
Race Report

My Race Bib

Me after my race

New Year...New Resolutions

I've said it before...I usually don't make new year's resolutions. But I'm feeling all resolution-y today! I know that resolution-y isn't a word, but it sounded fun. :) And I know I said back in this post, that I would maybe write a New Year's Resolution post. Well, here is what I am going to work toward in 2011! In 2010, my free time was pretty much spent planning our wedding, and I loved every second of it! After the wedding and honeymoon, I wanted to get back into running and I wanted to have something to spend my free time on. So, that's where these resolutions come into play.

#1: Register for and run in at least 10 races in 2010. All different distances, with at least one being a half marathon. I am currently registered for a 5K, 10K, half marathon and a marathon relay where I will run a 7 mile leg.

#2: Run at least 1000 miles this year (5 done today, so only 995 to go)! This is a goal I have seen others make, but I have never thought about the mileage I do in a whole year. I originally put 900 as my goal, but I kept thinking...why 900? Probably because I'm too scared to put 1000. Well, I might have been scared at first, but I'm challenging myself and putting 1000! If I make that goal...great! If I don't, I'll just try for it in 2012! You know that quote that goes something like this: "Reach for the moon and even if you miss, you will be among the stars"? Well, even if I miss my goal of 1000, wherever I land will be an accomplishment in itself!

#3: Work on speed more in 2012. I don't yet know how I'm going to do it. I'll have to do some research, and if you have any suggestions or websites to help me, share them please!

#4: Grow as a blogger in 2011. I've only been blogging for a couple months and I really enjoy it! Way more than I thought I would when I first started.

#5: Book a trip for our first anniversary! With both my husband and myself being so busy, I want to make sure we follow through with our plans of going on a trip for our first anniversary! Any trip ideas? Send them my way as we still haven't decided where we'll go.

#6: Do everything in my power to make sure Maverick's ACL surgery recovery goes well. Since his full recovery will take 4 months (and that is 1/3 of the year), I am putting this as a resolution as well. The vet does his part by doing the surgery, but it is up to my husband and I to take the time to get him healed and then take the time to get him through his rehab. He is such a great hunting dog that I want him and his Dad to be able to do that again next year without him being in any pain!

So there are 6 resolutions/goals for me to work toward this year (6 more than I usually do). I'll update my progress along the way. That way you'll know how I'm doing, and you can help keep me accountable! Do you have any New Year's resolutions? Do you make it a tradition to make them every year? Whatever you do, resolutions or not, make 2011 a great year and do what makes you happy!