Oh How Pinteresting

I just LOVE pintrest. Its a great time killer and sometimes a mood pick-me-upper. I saw this the other day on pintrest and I thought I'd share! I mean, who doesn't love Disney Princesses?

No Pain, No Gain

As I mentally prepare to run a 10 miler race a mere two weekends after my last half marathon, I got to thinking about random stuff. I've recently added a few runner's blogs to my blog reader and man are they an inspiration (some of them do a "warm up run" of 10 miles before a 15K (8 miles)...are they nutso?!?!) and I was looking at their finishing pictures. I really wish I was one of those runners who finished a race and looked fantastic, not a hair out of place. Well, that just ISN'T ME.

I decided to look up my pictures from my race to get a good chuckle.

Me and my dad. You can tell he is really hurting in this picture. About a month ago a horse stepped on his foot and I think he's had a broken toe that he hasn't gotten checked out.

I'm happy to report that I didn't immediately finish the race and have to fight the urge to vomit. I guess that's just because I see the finish line up ahead and then push myself really really hard at the end to finish. But this time, I don't know what it was, I just felt GOOD. Its not like I trained really hard for this race or anything. I was talking to my friend Crystal after the race about the overwhelming feeling you get when you finish a big race. This was her first half marathon (yay Crystal!) and I confessed to her that I always get the feeling that I'm about to cry when I cross the finish line. I don't actually cry because I don't want to be "THAT" blubbering idiot. But I bet other runners reading this totally get it. Either because you've pushed yourself to PR or just pushed yourself to finish, burning muscles, tight chest, and everything hurts but you know you finished something at one point you didn't think you could do, whether it was when you signed up or sometime during the race. For me, its always this wave of emotions, like my cup has 'fillith over and there's no more room for emotions because of the pure exhaustion.

Does anyone else feel like that when they run or workout?

Charging Stations

Ahhh DC you're so progressive, I love it. You can actually spot these in several areas around the city. If only I was yuppy enough to have an electric car.....

Fourth One Down

Well, I did it! The 4th half marathon is FINISHED. AND AND AND I PR'D!!!!!!!!!! For those non-runners (ha, I guess I am a "runner" now) a "PR" is a personal record. We finished in exactly 2 hours, 1 minute and 43 seconds. HOLY SHCHMOLE!!!! I skimmed off 12 minutes from my fastest time EVER. And I finished and I felt fine. No wanting to vomit at the end hahahaha. I was even able to drink the beer afterwards!!!! Mission accomplished!!!

The running Gods aligned and everything went perfect. It was an amazing temperature, flat course, slight wind, I drank loads of water and ate carefully the days prior, everything came together to allow me to have a great time. It helps that I run with my Dad on race day because naturally he is faster than I am and I had to keep trying to keep up with him! I kept thinking, "ugh I wish he would slow the ^&*^*%&* down!!!!"

I, in no way thought I would be anywhere near the 2 hour mark. I think around mile 5 I passed the 2:00 pacer and thought that would be amazing to get close to that but I just don't think I have it in me to keep up this pace. Well, I am happy to report that I only stopped at the water stations and only long enough to drink or gargle the water and gatorade. My dad forgot to set his watch when we crossed the start line (thank god, because I HATE getting the time report from him every time we cross a mile marker). So when we crossed and the clock said 2:09.36, I was super excited because I thought we finished somewhere around 2:05. I kept trying to load the webpage while we were in the tent later because I thought it would be instant posting, but alas it was not. It wasn't until a few hours later that it posted and I saw my official score. I was STOKED!!!!!! Its been my lifetime goal to get under 2 hours (hell, I'd settle for 1:59.59) and never thought I could get close to that. Now its within my reach and my dad has already suggested/stated that "a 9 minute mile is easy to knock out". Um, WHO ARE YOU?!?! Do you know who I am?

I can report that doing Crossfit has done wonders for my time. Not only did it help me slim down to a weight I haven't been in a while, but the whole freaking race I was like "If I can do a WOD, then I sure as hell can do this race". HA!

This is the 3rd time I've run this course (Shamrock '09 & Rock and Roll '09) and I also ran another half in Richmond 10. I hadn't started this blog yet when I ran the first two, but I really wish I had! Phew, I must be a glutton for pain!

In our corral before the race. I made a stranger take our picture.
Please note, this is the closest thing to a smile I've ever seen on my Dad's face.

Pretty sand do-hickey they always do

The expo tent after the race (this is the view from our hotel!!)

Finish line the day before

This is from the expo where I picked up our bibs and shirts

SO SO SO glad we stayed at the boardwalk, this was the line of cars at 5am waiting to park

Eerily quiet the day before the race

This picture is frustrating me because I can't get it to turn around!
These are our bib numbers and bags!

Rugby....Just Another Male Fraternity

This is so true.
(click to enlarge)

Drinking games, chanting, and costumes....sounds like a sorority to me but nope, I'm talking about rugby. My boyfriend plays for the Newport News Rugby team. When I met him (the second time) he had a black eye from rugby, last year he broke his collar bone, and countless cleat marks, bruises, and a myriad other lasting memories from the sport. Something about the rough and tumble and toughness keeps me from freaking out...well, mostly because its hot. Ha. I think the rugby boys accept me because I can hold my alcohol...I'd like to thank the years of sorority life and just general life that allowed me to learn how to drink like a champ.

The team

A "ruck" I believe. Hey-o boys, watch where your hands are!

This is mostly what the team is about...DRINKING!

Here's Your Sign...

That you aren't smart enough to drive a Porsche. The driver HAD to see that sign when he was being a douche and backing in. In case you can't tell what the sign says in the tiny picture, it very largely says "NO PARKING IN THIS SPACE EMERGENCY ACCESS DOOR. Violators will be ticketed & towed". Guess s/he should just be happy they weren't towed and only got a nice little ticket instead.

52nd National Convention

I'm super excited to be announcing that I'm attending the 52nd National Convention in San Antonio, Texas, July 4th-7th!!!! I'm going to Texas ya'll. This will be my second convention! I'm super excited about this time because I'll be a Carnation Club member. "Wait...what?" you might ask yourself.

I was so inspired by the women whose names were on the donation list that I decided before the next convention I came to, my name was going to be on that list! There are 3 giving levels: Carnation Club ($500 annually), Legacy League ($1,000 annually) and the 1852 Society ($1,852 annually). Each group has its members listed on the wall and there (from what I remember) was another list of lifetime giving awards...some women had given over a million dollars to Foundation! What an inspiration! So I signed up to have $42 dollars taken out of my account monthly...so easy peasey!

I'M GOING TO CONVENTION!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can't wait to see some women I haven't seen in a really long time!

*Snicker Snicker Snort Snort

I found this too funny and had to share! I used to watch Star Trek: The Next Generation with my mom when I was younger and I can remember us making lunch or dinner and sitting down with our tv-trays and eat and watch the episodes about Captain Piccard, Riker, Data, Forge, Deanna, Beverly, Warf and others. Don't laugh or judge, but we also went to the movies when they came out too....hey, it was the 90s...what can I say?

We will boldly go where no man has gone before....

Celebrating 160 Years on Founder's Day

The DC Chapter celebrated 160 years of sisterhood on March 4th at the Carlyle Hotel in DC. Every year we have a sisterhood brunch where we pay tribute to the fabulous Mary, Mary, and Martha.

Look how pretty we all are!

Wow....Just Wow

I tried Bikram yoga last weekend and boy was it intense! I've never sweated SO much in my life...out of every pore possible and some of those that I didn't even know existed. 90 minutes of sweaty exercise and stretching later I felt like I was a freaking ROCKSTAR. Mostly just because:

A. I didn't pass out
B. I didn't chicken out and stayed the whole time
C. Didn't look like a total fool...only a little one

Thankfully I had done yoga before so most of the moves I was familiar with. I'm just not used to 103 degree heat!!! I did all the moves except for one because it made me dizzy. The instructor said if you felt a bit dizzy then you were doing it right...so weird.

Though I did learn that I need to buy a bigger towel. My little bitty little hand towel didn't work out so well. My mat was DISGUSTING after the whole thing, I'm sure I would have slipped right off it if I had to do some of the poses again. I was right, I did wear teeny tiny little skimpy things in the class...I think I would have passed out if I had to wear more clothes than I had on. I started off with a tank top but that had to go real quick. There were a large mix of men and women of varying ages and body shapes. I felt so super skinny before :)

HA and then I spent about 15 minutes searching for my car in the Ballston Mall parking garage. I've never had such a panic attack or had to look that long for my stupid car before. I will NEVER be parking there again!

I went once again this week so I have 8 more classes to use up in the next 2 months. I'll have to talk myself up into keep going! My skin feels better because obviously I've sweated out so much and its so soft now! Oh and funniest shit ever, I'm waiting in the classroom for the class to begin and I see this heavier gentleman walk into the room with a t-shirt on and what looks like whitey-tighties and my mouth just dropped. I mean, I assume these are just some kind of yoga "short"...BUT STILL!! GROSS! I'm so glad he was on the other side of the room and I didn't have to look at him because I probably would have died from laughing so hard. Geesh.

Bestie Comes to Visit

Any time the two of us get together its bound to be a good time. Like this time, this time, and this time...you get the picture. This girl has been my best friend since high school...that's a really long time!

The last time Nikki came to visit DC was two summers ago and we were woken up by a marching band, stuffed our faces at Georgetown Cupcake, got a viscous sunburn and drank ourselves so drunk that we were too hungover to celebrate the 4th of July. Ah memories. I can't wait to see what happens this weekend!

International Badge Day

Today is International Badge Day! I hope you all are wearing your badge with pride today! Yesterday we celebrated Phi Mu's Founder's Day. Shameless plug, March is Phi Mu's M3 (March Madness Marathon) Challenge! You should consider donating $18.52 or any money to Phi Mu Foundation. Click here to donate!

Bikram Yoga

I must be bat shit crazy because I bought a LivingSocial deal to Bikram Yoga. For those of you non-yogis that's HOT YOGA. I hate being hot...wtf was I thinking?

I'll tell you what I was thinking. I've heard good things about it and I hear it really stretches you out. Let's just hope I don't sweat to death doing it. I see wearing very skimpy clothing/barely there cloth out in public real soon. My LivingSocial deal was 10 classes for $40 at Bikram Yoga Arlington out near Ballston, which normally is priced at $120. I didn't realize at the time that the classes are for 1 1/2 freaking hours!!!!! I'm going to die!

I'm going to try to go tonight....so pray for me that I make it out alive.