Grey and Dreary Day

I am right on schedule for my once a month post.  Another month has almost passed, and I am crossing my fingers that the upcoming month will bring with it some nicer weather!  We had a few days in the middle of the month that got up into the 60's and 70's just to tease us, but the reality of winter came crawling back quickly.  This weekend has been nothing but grey skies.  Right now it is raining and hailing some.  I think I will just look at these to bring some sunnier thoughts into my day.

Today at Costco I also discovered that they sell Starbucks' tazo chai tea mix, which means that I no longer have to go to Starbucks to get my soy chai tea latte, I can just steam them at home!  Stinson was very excited when I shared the news with him.  I promptly googled how to fix my espresso machine upon returning home, and after it was fixed I steamed my first homemade soy chai tea latte!  I will probably make another after I am done posting to warm me back up!  On a random side note, I am super proud of myself for only buying what I NEEDED at Costco today.  Normally I walk out of the store with 2-3 things that I didn't need, but were such a great deal I just couldn't pass them up.

Training for my first half marathon is going fairly well.  I started out really strong and was doing great with keeping my eating habits in balance.  But about 4 weeks in I got shin splints pretty bad and had to take a week off.  My strong commitment to eating healthy has been hit and miss since.  I am working at getting back to being committed because the results I saw in the first 3 weeks were awesome!  I have kept off what I lost, I just haven't lost any more. :(  I am really enjoying running regularly, and have enjoyed the new friendship that has developed between my training partner and I.  I cannot wait for the race to get here and to move on to our next fitness event of the year!

The highlight of the month was a visit from two of my very best friends Kristen and Courtney.  Since living in the Kansas City area for nearly 3 years now, they are they very first friends to come visit.  It was so fun to be able to take them around to some of our favorite places in the area and to just spend time together catching up in person.  I feel so very blessed to have both of them in my life and to have had such an awesome friendship with both of them for over ten years.  I am so glad that my sister's wedding and Kristen's this summer will allow us more opportunities to get together this year.  I didn't take any pictures from our weekend because we let Courtney be our photographer.  So if you want to see a few check out her post about the trip.


God has been doing a lot of rearranging in my hear lately, but I will write more about that later, hopefully before March is over!

Thoughts on Running

I know that you are probably shocked to see another post from before at least a month has passed, but due to school being canceled again today because of "in-climate weather" here I am posting again.

I have been thinking a lot about running lately, probably because of my lofty goals that I have set to achieve this year.  It has been really hard the first two weeks to get myself motivated to run.  I have been following my training schedule, but grudgingly, and if I didn't have my sister or Cammie doing it with me, I probably would have been a lot less committed.  In my mind I know that it is not so bad, but once you get out of the habit, it seems like a very daunting task.  Often over the last two weeks my legs were sore and tired, and I just didn't know if I would make it through that day's workout.

Then on Sunday at church something the associate pastor said struck a chord with me.  He was talking about how he gave our lead pastor some advice about running in the snow, and how after his run our lead pastor shared with him what a great time with God his run had been.  During the message I felt like God was saying to me that committing my time to running can be a part of my daily time with Him.  It is a time for me to reflect, pray, or just be.  God has created our body to be a temple from himself to reside in, so this week as I thought about each run, I have looked forward to it because I have shifted my mindset to making it an act of worship and taking God out with for the miles I have to go.  I want to take good care of my body because it is something God created to be healthy and discipline, not something to indulge in its every desire or craving.

Yesterday after my run I felt so refreshed.  My heart felt lighter, and I looked forward to what the rest of the day had in store.  I can honestly say that I am excited to continue training and building up my miles to achieve the goals that I have set, and I am looking forward to seeing how God uses this time in my day to refocus and teach me.

I think I've lost my mind!

This morning I decided to do something a little crazy.  Well, actually it was really crazy.  I ran a half marathon without really training for it.  My body is currently reaping all of the painful rewards.  Originally I signed up for this half marathon thinking that it would motivate me to train and whip my butt into shape.  I just knew I would follow my fancy training schedule because after all I did pay for this.  I thought wrong!  My life is too crazy for me to find the motivation to get running.

Despite knowing that I paid for the race, yesterday I debated whether or not I should run.  "Maybe I'll just pick up my shirt and turn in my timing chip," was the thought running through my mind driving into Kansas City.  I got there, and decided I couldn't quit before the race started.  Then this morning of course I set the wrong alarm, but luckily woke up in time to still make it to the race.   BUT I would be cutting it close to making it on time for the start.....SO I thought, "Maybe I will just stay in my nice warm bed and snuggle with my husband," BUT I knew I couldn't do that.  I was already awake, and I knew I would feel like a quitter if I did not at least try to run. 


The next excuse that came to mind was my ankle.  My ankle has been bothering me off and on for the last few weeks, so I maybe it would be better for my ankle (and my untrained body) to not race. I was trying to avoid running in every way imaginable.  Of course the thought that popped up next was running a little bit, but not necessarily finishing because of my bum ankle. Being the competitor that I am, I knew that I had to just run it ALL or else I wouldn't be able to live with myself.

After making a mad dash to the start line in  the nick of time, I was off and running.  While my body wasn't entirely thrilled with me, I ran.  I ran all 13.1 miles!  My goal was to finish in under 3 hours.  I did just that and even better than I expected.  The benefit of running was being able to taken in the Kansas City scenery.  As I ran along I found myself admiring old buildings, homes, parks, fountains, new buildings as well as Kansas City life in general.  This run has given me a new appreciation for the breath-taking beauty this city holds that I wouldn't usually make the time to see.


So, you might be wondering what is the moral of this post and why do I feel I have lost my mind. 
Moral #1- My body can do more than I think it can, so as a result I should push it harder more often. 
Moral #2- Running 13.1 miles without training for it was not the smartest thing and next time I need to train. 
Moral #3- I love running in races, even if they are painful
Moral #4- Today's race (despite the pain) has awaken my desire to run another marathon.  Now I need to make time to train and find a fun one to run!
Moral #5- Running long distance races makes you think you like running really far until you have to train for it, but you decide you should still do it despite the crazy affects on your body.....


Yes I know that I am crazy for running a half marathon when I only got my millage up to 3 miles!