Fitness Friday–8/29

Happy Labor Day Weekend! Anyone have plans? Labor Day races, perhaps?

My parents and I are leaving today for Dallas, TX to hang out with family for the weekend. I’m also planning on running the Texas Rangers Labor Day 5K, so that should be a lot of fun! :) As soon as I finish here, I’m going to pack!

Currently training for:
Disney’s Wine & Dine Half Marathon
Louisiana Half Marathon
Rock ‘n’ Roll New Orleans Half Marathon
Disney's Glass Slipper Challenge

Saturday – 8 miles with running group
Sunday – 4 mile run 
Monday –  30 minute cardio/strength workout
Tuesday –  Birthday Celebration/Rest Day
Wednesday – Church night/Rest Day
Thursday – 3 mile run 
Friday – Travel Day

This past week, I enjoyed celebrating my birthday with family! (Thank you all so much for the birthday wishes, too!) I also really enjoyed birthday cake and my new iPad mini!

This weekend, I plan on getting in a long run with my cousin on Saturday followed by the Texas Rangers Labor Day 5K on Monday. I’m looking forward to spending time with my family, too!

Happy weekend to everyone participating in the Disneyland Half Marathon Weekend! I wish I could be there, too!

Are you running in a Labor Day race? Spending time with family? What’s your plans look like for the weekend?

Dumbo Double Dare Flashback

For those of you travelling to Disneyland this weekend for the Disneyland Half Marathon/Dumbo Double Dare, I hope you have a fabulous time! I cannot wait to read race recaps and hear all of the exciting stories from the races! I had so much fun last year, I’m a little sad to miss out on everything this time around (but I’m definitely looking forward to Wine & Dine)!

If you haven’t packed yet or if you want to double check that you didn’t miss anything, here’s a few packing lists I made before Princess last year:

• Destination Race Packing List – Involving a Flight
• Destination Race Packing List – Not Involving a Flight

Also, here’ s a few YouTube videos/vlogs I made of last year’s race weekend experience….

The Expo
(I’m curious to hear how this changes from last year – it was such a madhouse!)

Disneyland 10K

Disneyland Half Marathon

Running through Angel Stadium was definitely a highlight of the race for me! I loved being in the ballpark and on the field with other runners. The energy in the stadium from our “fans” was incredible, too!

P.S. – If you watched the Disneyland Half Video above, you saw that I BUSTED it on the streets of Anaheim. BE CAREFUL, I wasn’t paying attention and hit a patch of water…and down I went. Whoopsie!

Are you running Disneyland this year? Have a MAGICAL time!!

Birthday Festivities

How does time go by so fast? I mean really…I don’t feel like I’m 32. I honestly feel like I’m still in my 20’s.

Anyway, last night we celebrated my birthday! We weren’t able to celebrate tonight because I have church and am the director of the Wednesday night girls program. We are having awards/promotions to new classes/end of the year parties tonight so that’s something I don’t want to miss!

Yesterday, my husband came home with “day before my birthday flowers”. He’s so sweet (when he wants to be)! :D

We also had dinner with my parents at one of my favorite restaurants, O’Charleys!

After dinner, we returned to my house for cake and presents! This cake is AMAZING. It’s definitely a favorite of mine – I think I’ve had it the past 4 or 5 years in a row!

How am I 32…and why is fire that close to my face?

Chocolate cake with peanut butter icing and a scoop of Blue Bell homemade vanilla. So. Delicious.

We had a great time with my parents! :)

Present time!

Jason SURPRISED me with an iPad Mini! (He’s been telling me that the NSYNC CD he bought a few weeks ago was my bday gift…I knew better, but I sure didn’t know he purchased an iPad for me!)

To top it off, my parents bought a cute Otterbox to match! Now I’m all set!

I’m going to begin today with a Starbucks run (can we say TWO stars!?), then I’m headed off to work!

I hope everyone has a great day!

Have you ever been surprised on your birthday? If so, what was your favorite birthday surprise? I would have to link mine back to my 27th birthday when my best friend literally threw me a surprise birthday party and I had NO IDEA.

The Process of Planning a Race Part 3: Race Day!

Over the past few weeks, I’ve shared a mini series of sorts about the process of planning a race.

It’s important to note that I am not a professional “race planner” – I’m a registered nurse who is very involved with our local American Cancer Society. In the process of it all, we decided to host a “Gleaux Run 5K” and I volunteered to head it all up. This was my first race to host and it was a huge one for our area so I was rather nervous. Thankfully, everything went off without any major issues and the race ran smooth (literally speaking)!

We had over 640 registered runners/walkers at our event and we raised almost $15,000 in the fight against cancer!!

Here’s links to Part 1 and 2 and also a link to a recap of the race itself:

• The Process of Planning a Race Part 1
• The Process of Planning a Race Part 2
• 2014 Gleaux Run for Relay for Life

In Part 3, I share a vlog of the process leading up to the race. This includes week-of planning, race day setup, and the event itself.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this mini-series and I  hope that through this, I was able to help a fellow beginner with their race-planning process.

Can’t wait for next year! We are looking forward to another great event!

My Top 5 Favorite “Life” Moments

As a runner, I typically use time on the road for thinking. My thoughts have a tendency to drift all over the place, but running really gives me a chance to sort through my thoughts and emotions.

Yesterday, I ran a few unplanned miles (this week is going to be busy so I wanted to knock them out while I could) and my thoughts took me to a different place. I spent most of the mileage looking back over my life, sorting through my  favorite life moments and I thought it would be fun to share a “top 5” with you today!

Here’s what I came up with!

My Top 5 Favorite Life Moments

1. Wedding Day

I planned this day for an entire year (minus two days) to the tee. I knew every in and out of my wedding and how I wanted it all to come together. This day was incredibly magical and our wedding day was one of the best days of my life!

2. 1st Marathon – WDW

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again – the 2011 Walt Disney World Marathon (my first Full) was hands down the second best day of my life (second to my wedding day, of course).  I had SO MUCH FUN running this race and I definitely cherish all of the memories made out on that course. There will never be another first Marathon for me and I’m so glad I got to spend it with these guys!!

 

3. 2013 VMA’s and Joey at Disneyland

Since we’re on the runDisney topic, it’s fitting to discuss this next one here – 2013’s Disneyland Half Marathon weekend. The week began with us leaving for vacation (that’s always a great start to a week, yes?) and the 2013 VMA’s. Justin Timberlake was being honored with the Vanguard Award and rumor had it that NSYNC might make an appearance. Boy did they ever…and after spending my birthday in San Diego (it also fell on that week), we traveled to Anaheim for the Disneyland Half Marathon weekend. I ran into Joey Fatone in Downtown Disney (OMG), then ran into him again several times on the course! I still talk about this week with excitement in my voice. It was seriously one of the most exciting weeks of my life! (Hard to believe it was exactly a year ago this week! Time flies!)

 

4. Graduating College

This one’s a doozy. After working my tail off through college, I graduated from Nursing school! Receiving my diploma (and later passing the very tough NCLEX test to become an RN) was an incredible feeling – especially after putting so much work and effort towards my goal. I am so happy I chose my career path and can’t wait to see where the future leads!

 

5. Hitting my first Home Run in High School softball

Growing up, baseball/softball was my life. I played softball from about 7th grade through age 20, then city league after that. I hit my very first home run my senior year in high school. It was an amazing feeling to hit home plate, knowing I gave it my all! Those were very special days in my life and I will cherish the memories forever!

I had fun travelling down memory lane, thanks for coming along with me! If you had to name one of the best days of your life, what would you say?

Fitness Friday–8/22

TGIF! I’m SO glad it’s Friday!

Here’s a glimpse over my week:

Currently training for:
Disney’s Wine & Dine Half Marathon
Louisiana Half Marathon
Rock ‘n’ Roll New Orleans Half Marathon
Disney's Glass Slipper Challenge

Saturday – No long run, but I think Friday’s endeavors made up for that. I attempted to wake up around 5:30 on Saturday morning to meet my running group…I even got dressed and everything, but a pounding headache prevent me from getting out of the house (perhaps it was from not getting to sleep until 1:30 a.m.?).  I actually ended up falling back asleep and didn’t move until around 10 a.m. (SO out of character for me)! 
Sunday – Rest Day
Monday –  3 miles with Jason
Tuesday –  15 minute cross training session – super quick but it was all I had time for that day
Wednesday – Rest Day
Thursday – 4.1 mile run/walk with Jason
Friday – 3 mile run after work

On Saturday, several of us (that’s Jason’s sister next to my head and his brother in law behind him) drove out of town to celebrate a birthday (for the girl wearing the glasses). We had so much fun!

I was honored as Associate of the Month on Wednesday at work!

On Thursday, a couple of co-workers and I went to McAlisters for lunch. In all, I had a Birthday Coupon ($5 off), a free tea card (that was completely punched out), and a survey coupon for a free cookie. Know how much my meal cost? $2.17  Cha-ching!

Here’s Jason and I after our super sweaty 4 mile walk/run on Thursday night. Yuck. Bring on Fall!

How was your week? What race are you currently training for?

Associate of the Month

Yesterday, something crazy happened. I am still kind of in shock…

In fact, I had a blog post already written for today, but it’s been moved to next week.

So yesterday at work, this happened….

I’ve been involved with Associate of the Month Celebration planning through the committee I’ve served on for several years, but never in my wildest dreams did I think I would receive such an honor.

Earlier in the week, my boss jumped all over a “watermelon eating contest” that we were hosting during the AoM celebration. I wondered why he volunteered but didn’t actually put much thought into it. Most of my department wanted to “watch” him during the contest…and that’s how they tricked me!

The last time co-workers of mine received this award (it happened twice), they used me as a decoy!

When our administrator began speaking about the Associate of the Month, he talked about how their department recently went through a huge change (cause we did) and everything was flipped upside-down and back again. He also mentioned that the department received a perfect score on patient satisfaction…since we were the only department who received that score, I was confused. I kept trying to catch the eye of my coworker across the room, but she wouldn’t look at me.

He finally said a name, but I didn’t hear him well…and then it registered…he said MY name! OMG.

I was sitting in a corner with my team, so I didn’t see my parents or my husband who were cleverly hiding out, away from me…

I was so excited to have them there!

…then the watermelon eating contest began! Yes, he REALLY did participate!

He didn’t win, but he came super close!

:D

My co-workers

Husband

Part of me is still in shock. I’m honored to be included with such an elite group of individuals at my organization!

Does your workplace host an Associate of the Month Celebration? If so, what are they like? (I’m always looking for fresh ideas!)

Retro Disney–Worldess Wednesday

Guess what? Today is Wednesday! Know what that means? It’s time for another (almost) Wordless Wednesday! Today, I’m participating in Focused on the Magic's Wordless Wednesday Blog Hop.

Today’s theme is: Retro

Time to go waaaaaaay back…back to my very first trip to Walt Disney World (I was one year old)! I was also told that I took my first set of steps during my first trip to WDW (kinda like that commercial…awww).  The second set of pictures you’ll see is from my second trip to Walt Disney World circa 1989, where I was six years old.

Take a walk down memory lane with me! (I promise I’ll stop talking now!) :)

Sorry, Brian… I had to! <3

…just for kicks and giggles, check out that Disney wallpaper! What what!

I’m not very good at this wordless part, but I’m working on it! :D

Want to participate? Click on the button below for more details! Happy August!

What’s your favorite Disney childhood memory? (park and/or non-park)