Birthday Bash!

My sister always tells me I only blog about racing and tells me to blog about other stuff. (Apparently, not everyone is 100% into running and racing... who-woulda-thought?!) SOO- I'm going blog about something completely unrelated and blog about her BIRTHDAY!!

Photobombed by our own mother! haha!

Today was her birthday and she turned 27! (Fun Fact: her and my step-brother are only 16 days apart. He turned 27 on January 7th. Crazy!)

Since my sisters husband was out of town working for the week, we decided to just do a small family dinner tonight. We went to Kona Grill at the mall. (Another Fun Fact: Kona Grill was were 'Mr. Sprinkles and Glitter' and I went for our first date!)

Dinners with these people are extremely entertaining! Everyone got chopsticks and we tried to teach the kids (and my sister!) how to use them for the first time.

I swear I'm going to start bring my camera with me so I don't always have these amazing blurry phones pics.

My niece loved them so much she even ate her chicken strips and macaroni with them! ;)

Meanwhile, boys will be boys and tried to see who could eat the most wasabi.... I don't think there was a winner.... ;)

I got my sister my favorite (also her favorite) cupcake and the cutest card with confetti and glitter in in!!

Since I was actually wearing something other than running clothes and took about 5 minutes to put on some make-up I needed to document it and tried to get a picture with 'Mr. Sprinkles and Glitter'.... this is how taking pictures with him always is!!

From my Instagram: TeamSprinklesAndGlitter

My niece, Taytum was extremely unimpressed with his funny faces... haha! She kills me with her facial expressions sometimes.

After dinner we walked around the mall and all took turns carrying my niece and my nephew. Carsen must of been feeling left out because 'Mr. Sprinkles and Glitter' ended up giving him a piggy back ride to the car.

Happy Birthday Nik, (her name is Nikole but I've never called her that). You are by far the best sister anyone could ever have and I am truly grateful for our relationship- I really don't think there is anything else that compares to it. (Last Fun Fact: we shared a twin bed (with 2 dogs) until my senior year of high school. We both had our our rooms- with our own beds, but we turned one of the rooms into our personal closet and used the bed to layout our outfits.)

Do you have any siblings? How many? I have 2- 1(step) brother and 1 sister.

Are you the youngest or oldest? I'm the youngest. 

1/2 of a Marathon Race Recap!!

So... both me and 'Mr. Sprinkles and Glitter' were signed up to run the full marathon at the P.F. Chang's marathon this weekend, but we both ended up only doing the half marathon. We didn't realize we were also signed up for the Phoenix Marathon which is only 6 weeks away. So we figured we run the half this weekend and then run the full at the Phoenix Marathon- instead of trying to kill ourselves doing both. It ended up being an amazing weekend ending with 2 new PR's.

We went to the expo my mom and had so much fun like last year. My mom and I got our 'passports' from the Brook's RUN HAPPY section and scored these awesome visors.

We were admiring our new visors, waiting in like to ride the Buckin' Shoe, when I got a call from 'Mr. Sprinkles and Glitter' saying that Jackson Carter from The Biggest Loser was at a booth in the expo!! We quickly left the sneaker line and headed over to meet him.

Once we got over there, I was shocked that there wasn't a long line, there was only 1 person ahead of us. SO cool to meet him and he wished me good luck on the run.

We left the expo and headed home to relax for the rest of the day. We made our usual pre-race meals (steak and sweet potatoes for him, pasta with chicken and broccoli for me) and watched Monsters University. SUCH a cute movie!

We woke up pretty early on race day and got ready. My mom picked us up and drove us down to the start line- BEST mom ever! We got there right before it started so 'Mr. Sprinkles and Glitter' left to get in an early corral and I waited for a port-a-potty. Surprising, the lines were not long at all and then I headed to get into a corral.

I there were 22 corrals? SO many runners!!! I loved it!!

I ended up jumping into corral 5. (Since we were signed up for the full marathon, we didn't have corral numbers for the half). It worked out great since a majority of the people in the corral were runners!

It felt like right when I jumped in the coral it was time to go and I took off tried to find enough room to run. While trying to weave in-and-out of everyone I found the 2 hour pace time! I was really, really hoping to break 2 hours so I figured I would stay with them and then (hopefully) take off towards the end to finish a little before 2 hours.

Our 2 hour pace group was FLYING! And I'm totally not just saying that either- someone else in the group looked down at their watch a couple miles in and said we were going so fast we would be walking the last mile to finish at 2 hours! Every time I looked down at my watch our pace was under 9 minute miles. I felt fine but was worried I wouldn't be able to hold that fast of a pace for the whole race.

I stayed with them until about mile 8 and then lost them at 1 of the aid stations and when I finally saw them again they were about 100 yard in front of me. I tried to catch up but never did. I think they changed the course this year (I haven't run the half marathon in 2 years so maybe not?) but the hills were brutal!

It was nice before the biggest hill there was a really cool drum group playing that definitely pumped you up and got you ready to go into battle climb the hill. Then we turned around just on the other side of the hill (ya we got to run up some of it again!) we got to hear the drums on the way back down.

I tried to push myself towards the end- especially when I realized that I hit mile 10 and had 26 minutes to hit my goal. I knew it would be hard but I wanted to try. (One of my New Year Resolutions is to get comfortable with being uncomfortable and get outside of my comfort zone.)

I reached the 2 hour mark and was only at 12.67 miles. I was pretty bummed but finished in 2:03:21. So a new PR for me by a measly 35 seconds- but a new PR nonetheless. I am SO determined to push myself out of my comfort zone and break 2 hours this year!! It will happen!!

'Mr. Sprinkles and Glitter' is amazeballs and PR'd by 5 minutes with a time of 1:43!! He hasn't even been running that much and was able to do that! Crazy!

From Instagram: TEAMSPRINKLESANDGLITTER

Once I finished, I found 'Mr. Sprinkles and Glitter' and then we met up with my mom for a ride home. Everything was really well organized and we got in and out fairly quick (had a little traffic in the morning, but nothing more than what you would normally expect).

We had lunch and watch football and kept with the tradition of getting froyo! So good- it has definitely been WAYYY too long.

Did anyone else race this weekend? 

Do you have to work for Martin Luther King day?
This is the first year I've ever got it off! Woohoo!

2013 By the Numbers

I still cannot believe 2013 is over! This year literally went by SO fast! It was such an amazing/crazy/fun/fulfilling year for me. I accomplished things I never thought I could and had a ton of fun along the way! Here's a quick recap of this years numbers...

*21 races- the biggest one being my FIRST Ironman 140.6!!

*8 year anniversary with 'Mr. Sprinkles and Glitter'. Love him more than ever!

*196,000 meters swam- a lot of which were swimming back and fourth (back and fourth) in the pool. I can see the black line at the bottom of the pool just thinking about this.

*3,267.01 miles biked- yes we are counting that .01. ;)

*777.14 miles ran. Lucky 777, right? I did not plan this either. (My goal for 2014 is to hit at least 1,000 miles.)

Some of the miles were done on the new addition to our family- our tredmil!!

*4 hours spent waiting in line to meet Grumpy Cat!!

*Had a birthday and turned 25. Celebrated in Show Low and raced my first half Ironman the next day at Dueces Wild.

*'100 free kisses' punch card for Valentine's day! Best gift ever!!

*21 Obstacles we completed during Tough Mudder.

*72 hours spent in Colorado visiting family when my brother got engaged!

*0 Tattoos or piercing this year. This is by no fault of my own- when I tried to go get a piercing (behind my ear) and was sitting in the chair ready to go, and the guy said he couldn't do it because my skin wasn't loose enough? Weird right? (I'm also really surprised by the no tattoos- I thought I would for sure get an Ironman tattoo right after Ironman, but I still haven't gotten one.)

*1 brand new computer that 'Mr. Sprinkles and Glitter' surprised me with. For no reason! He really is the best.

I have a feeling that 2014 is going to be an even better year with amazing things to come! 'Mr. Sprinkles and Glitter' and I are going to New York City in March for 11 days to visit his sister- I am BE-YOND excited for this! I've never been to NYC, so I'm glad we will have his sister as a personal tour guide while we are there. ;) Plus, we are both doing Ironman Arizona again. We've both done an Ironman before but never together, so the training together should be pretty interesting.

Happy New Year's Everyone!! 

Do you have any New Year's Resolutions?
I have a few but 2 of the big ones are to set monthly obtainable goals every month and to blog more!! :)

Merry Christmas Ya Filthy Animal

Merry Christmas Everyone!!

 

Hope you all had a great (stress-free) holiday!! We kicked off our holiday with Christmas Eve dinner at our house.  

But before dinner I ran 3.1 miles with my mom!! It was her FIRST 5K!! She's been training a lot lately, and we finally got to run together! (She lives in Hawaii.) I am beyond proud of her!! She did amazing!!

Let's pretend this is not a blurry phone picture K? ;)

I showed my mom my favorite decoration on the block!! The Cookie Monster! It's so cute! I asked 'Mr. Sprinkles and Glitter if it was considered stealing if we just moved it down a couple houses to our yard. ;)

We finished our run and then showered and got everything ready for dinner. We had so much good food!!
Then after dinner we of course, decorated cookies for Santa. I think everyone always has a blast with this. And my cookies turned out WAY better than last year- you could actually tell what shapes they were- which is always a plus! ;)

 'Mr. Sprinkles and Glitter' got really creative and made a minion!!! I loved it!!

 

Just like last year my niece got a little carried away with the frosting and sprinkles, on the HUGE gingerbread man that 'Mr. Sprinkles and Glitter' bought her! She loved it!!

After everyone left, we went to sleep and I woke up in the middle of the night super sick- I think from all the raw cookie dough I ate....
But when we woke up, we headed over to my sisters house for breakfast and to open presents with my family. It was a lot of fun! My family knows me SO well and they went all out this year with my wrapping paper. Absolutely LOVE them!

Cupcakes!! (I also got a gift card for cupcakes! Yum!)

Cutest glitter paper!

My absolute favorite part was the homemade Christmas card 'Mr. Sprinkles and Glitter' made!! He makes me one every year- but this year's card was the best!!

I think the most difficult part was trying to get a decent picture of me and 'Mr. Sprinkles and Glitter' in the matching pajamas I made! (He secretly loved them! ;))

Did you ever wear matching pajamas for Christmas? 

What's your favorite holiday tradition? 

Running and cupcakes!!

This weekend has been a crazy busy weekend!

Today I did a 5K with Girls On The Run. Maria (RunningFrida) is a coach for Girls On The Run, through her school and at the end of every season the girls run a 5k. For most of them it's their first 5k!! All the girls get paired up with an adult 'buddy' to run the race with. I absolutely love the idea of teaching young girls how strong they are and empowering them- so I jumped at the chance to be a buddy!!

The 5K was actually supposed to be a couple weeks ago (the same day as The Ugly Run but got rescheduled due to the rain. So, it paired up with the Fiesta Bowl 5K and Half Marathon for today. Then she planned a little pot-luck-after-party for all the girls, their families, and the buddies. I, of course, brought cupcakes...with sprinkles and glitter. (Did you really expect anything else?? ;))

I got there pretty early, and found our group. I got my bib and shirt (how cool are the bibs for this race?!) and then got paired up with my buddy.

We slowly made our way to start line. The Fiesta Bowl 5K started 5 minutes before The Girls On The Run. (I think it worked out great, because our girls didn't have to worry about getting trampled!) We got together for one last cheer and a countdown and we were off!

Lawd.have.mer-say! My girl could move- and move FAST! She took off like a lightening bolt and I was just trying to keep up with her. We were seriously running so fast and passing everyone- I think we even passed some of the regular 5K runners.

I thought that there was no way she was going to be able to keep that pace, so I held on and tried to keep up. I tried to keep up conversation, but the most I could get our was (breathe) "good" (breathe) "job" (breathe)!! I. Was. Dying!!

We reached the first aid station and she stopped and said she wanted a Gatorade. Hallelujah! She grabbed her Gatorade and a water while I'm off to the side with my hands on my head trying to breathe, hands on my knees trying to breathe, wondering what I was going to do for the remaining 2 miles.  Once she threw her cups away she said she wants to run again. Just like that we were off, back on the horse, out of the gate, aka- trying not to die!

Her race number says it all!! Speed Demon!! ;)

She kept the pace up for a majority of the mile- while I just tried to keep up with her. We walked for a couple seconds here and there but hardly long enough to take a deep breathe. When we reached the second aid station at mile 2, she again stopped to get a Gatorade. I ran into one of my friends who was running and introduced her to my running buddy.

I think she thought my running buddy was just walking/trying to finish- because she told us to jog with her, just at a slow, easy pace. Well, that did it! My buddy doesn't jog. So we took off like the lightning bolt that she is and totally blew by my friend. I thanked her for cutting my break short and awakening the beast. She was shocked at how fast my little buddy was and cheered us on.

This was it- we had less that a mile to go!! I tried to tell her funny stories or encourage her and told her she was about to finish her FIRST 5K!! Towards the end, she was encouraging me- saying things like "we can do this!", "we're going to make it!", and "we're almost there!" It was adorable!!

We turned the final corner and saw the finish line. We picked up the pace and finished with a sprint across the finish line. We were so fast that Maria wasn't even there to see us finish!! We found her and watched the other girls finish.

Then we all gathered for the potluck and she gave out awards (and some cute stuff she made) to all of the girls. It was a lot of fun!

After the run I had to hurry home and get ready for my friends baby shower. (And by get ready- I really mean finish making her gift!)

I made her a diaper cake and 2 cute baby blankets (that I forgot to take pictures of!). My favorite part of the cake.....

How cute are those shoes?! I already checked and they don't come in my size. I know, bummer. ;) The worst part was when I got home and realized I left FOUR toys off of the cake! Opps!

What did you do this weekend??

Ugly Sweater Run...without an ugly sweater

Today I was my first 'real' workout since Ironman. I was originally signed up for 2 different 5K's today but one of them got cancelled and rescheduled due to the rainy weather.

So that meant I got to sleep in a little bit longer before heading down to Tempe Town Lake (I swear, that place is becoming a second home to me!) for The Ugly Sweater Run. It was still sprinkling when I left my house but nothing too bad.

 

I got down there and couldn't figure out where to go to get my race number and everything- it was REALLY confusing. I finally found a line and waited for over 20 minutes to get my race number. I got it and when I went to get into the next line for my hat, they said the run was about to start so come back after to get it. (This actually worked out perfectly- because then I didn't have to carry it for the whole run.)

The best part of the run was that they had a toy drive for 'Toys for Tots' and were able to collect a TON of new toys!! :) (All those bins were full too!)

I was surprised at how packed this run- definitely a great turn out! I got to the start line and there were ugly sweaters everywhere! Even the dogs had on ugly sweaters!!

The only person who didn't have an ugly sweat on- was me! Seriously- word to the wise- don't show up to a themed run, not participating in said theme. You will stick out like a sore thumb- I was like The Grinch!! Everybody- and I mean every-body was in an ugly sweater!!

I think there a countdown and then we were off. (This was a very walker/stroller/pet friendly race- so if you're looking to PR or something crazy- this is not the race for you.) It took awhile to weave through enough people to have some room to run- but once I got past a lot of the walkers/strollers/pets it was great! I didn't have my watch, but I knew what time I started and I was surprised that I was  keeping a pretty good pace for the first mile.

I came up to the first aid station and was definitely in need of some water.... all they had was hot chocolate! Like steaming hot- hot chocolate! (I could already see the fiasco of me trying to drink it while running and burning my face off. So I passed on the hot chocolate.)

Then I see this: Curry-freaking-hill!!!

My archenemy: Curry Hill. No matter how many times I do this hill I still hate it. It doesn't even look like that big of a hill- which I think is the problem. You don't think it's a hill- so you try to keep your normal pace and next thing you know, you're huffing and puffing wondering what the heck happened!! (This is why I walked it at Ironman!! :))

I somehow got myself over Curry Hill and knew I was almost done. I tried to pick up the pace and finish strong. Throughout the race they had a bunch of blow-up Christmas decorations (raindeer, presents, Santa, etc). Right after we passed 2.5 miles, there was the 'Enchanted Forest' with a bunch of blow-up trees and fake snow!

Coming up on it, I got nervous. I saw a woman running and slip on it as she ran through. (Knowing me- I knew I'd probably fall!!) I decided to walk through the 'snow' which meant I got a good dose of it on me. No problem right?! WRONG! It wasn't snow- and whatever it was was burning my eyes- BAD!! (It smelled like dish soap...) I tried to wipe my eyes with my jacket- but it was covered in 'snow' too! I must of looked crazy, trying to run with my eyes closed, with my hands stretched out in front of me like a zombie! haha!

I eventually came up on the finish line and was surprised to see no clock? I am guessing my time was around 29 minutes. I quickly went back over and grabbed my hat. Didn't want to pass up getting one of these bad boys!! ;)

Once I had my sweet beanie, I walked back to my car and met Maria and Vero to do our long run together. The plan was to do 15 miles but I only made it another 7. I felt fine when we started, but the further we got the slower I got. I didn't want to hold them back and figured 10 was enough since it was my first run after Ironman. (They both totally killed it and finished over 15 miles!! They're amazing!)



Do you like doing themed races? (Do you participate when you do them? ;))