New Zealand here we come!!

We definitely stayed up WAYYY too late packing - like 2:30am late. (Secretly, that was kinda my plan- so I would be super tired and sleep for a majority of our 13 hour flight.)

But I had to wake up and be at work at 7am- that sucked. I worked for a little bit and left at 11. 'Mr. Sprinkles and Glitter' and I then drove to meet our friends, load our super sweet mini-van rental, and drive out to LAX.

It was jammed packed!! (4 bike boxes, 4 suit cases, and 4 back packs!) We made it to California just in time for some perfect weather.... not.

Wonderful phone pic.... I need a new phone. :/

If you know me- you know I absolutely HATE flying. (Even the 1 and a half hour flight to my dads house in Colorado is still absolutely terrifying and I've done that a million times.) So just the thought of 13 long hours on a plane-- scared the crap out of me. (We planned pretty well and made it to where our flight left LAX at 9pm and then arrived in New Zealand at 7am- a day ahead. Hoping we would sleep a majority of the flight since it was overnight.)

Our last selfie in America for 2 weeks! We just finished stretching and are literally about to board the plane- I am terrified!!

What's the longest flight you've ever been on? 

Have you ever left the country? If so, where did you go? 

20 loooong miles

I did it! I ran 20 miles tonight!! It was anything but pretty- but I did it.

'Mr. Sprinkles and Glitter' joined me for the first 2 miles and we kept a 9 minute pace per mile. It went by so fast and felt great! Then I dropped him off at the house and kept his watch and kept going for another 18 miles.... 18 loooong miles. Alone.

I ran my 4.25 miles loop around my block and by that point, it was starting to get pretty dark. Since I don't like to run by myself in the dark, I decided to stay in my neighborhood.

I had music, but I still got bored, and I could see my dogs from the window get so excited every time I passed by, so I decided to grab one of them, run a mile, switch dogs, run a mile. I repeated that 4 times.

At this point, I was getting extremely bored in the neighborhood and ventured out down the road a bit. I still had my music on and a pretty intense song came on about a women walking to her car and someone following her... yeah, I definitely started running faster! haha!

I went back home to refill my water bottle at 17.75. At this point, I was planning on finishing my last 2 miles inside on our treadmill, but when I walked in, 'Mr. Sprinkles and Glitter' was cooking dinner and told me just to finish it.

So... I went back outside and ran out 1.15 miles and then headed back. (longest 2.25 miles ever!) I was SO ready to be done and SO glad when it beeped 20 miles.

This was literally me getting into bed tonight. Haha! My legs are dead!

From my Instagram: TeamSprinklesAndGlitter

This was my last long workout before Ironman New Zealand and I am officially tapering. It's crazy that we are already so close! we leave in 11 days!

What's the longest run you've ever done? 

Do you run outside or on a treadmill?

B.A.D. Bingo Birthday!

On Friday my big sister turned 28! Twenty-eight?! Seriously?! I still remember her seventh birthday when our parents let her have our first sleep over with 13 girls!! (After being up all night, my mom always said there was a reason invitation packs only came with 8. haha!!)

So on Friday, my mom flew into town and we all met up for dinner at The Cheesecake Factory. So good! One of my sister's friends joined us, who was kids about my niece and nephews ages- and it was hilarious to watch them interact with each other. Kids really do say the darnest things! ;)

Then on Saturday, I went shopping with my mom and my sister and we headed out to B.A.D. Bingo (Bingo After Dark) at 9:30pm.... wayyy past my normal bed time! It was at a local casino and I always forget people are allowed to smoke in casinos- so gross. Luckily, the Bingo room was non-smoking. 

We met up with several of my sisters friends and bought out bingo sheets and 'doppers'- the thing you use to make the numbers. We also got a bunch of free glow sticks. (Everyone was being super cute and wearing them like headbands- yeeeeeahhhh... my head is WAY too big for that. I did hold it on for a couple pictures to pretend I had a normal size head.... :))

They turned out the lights and had a D.J., who hosted a karaoke contest before we started. Once we started it was seriously intense!! No joke! They had loud music playing, lights streaming, and they were calling out the numbers SO fast! I think there was less than 5 seconds before numbers- which is not long when you are checking 6 different sheets on your paper in the dark! 

I was really anticipating one of us winning- but unfortunately none of us won. I did however, win a free shirt! :)

Happy, happy Birthday to my favorite sister in the entire world! I literally don't know life without you and can't imagine it any other way. 28 looks good on you! :)

Have you ever tried B.A.D. Bingo? I loved it and definitely think I'll be back! 

When's your Birthday? May 31st. 

P.F. Chang's 1/2 Marathon Race Recap!

This weekend was the P.F. Chang's Rock n' Roll 1/2 Marathon. This was my 5th year running and I swear it get's bigger and bigger every year!

'Mr. Sprinkles and Glitter' did a really hard 80 mile ride (with lots of climbing) the day before, he decided he would 'take it easy' and run the race with me and a friend-- and push us to a PR, then run another 7 miles after to get in his 'long run'.

I was SO excited and nervous for this race! The fact that 'Mr. Sprinkles and Glitter' was running with me made me pretty confident I would hit my goal of sub 2 hours but also made me a little nervous of the pace I'd have to keep (9:03 pace per mile).

We went to the expo the day before, and then headed up to Scottsdale for a friends birthday Happy Hour. We stayed for awhile and 'Mr. Sprinkles and Glitter' got some crazy appetizers- he is a very adventurous eater. :) 

We left pretty early and hit up Oregano's on the way home so I could get my traditional pre-race meal of pasta with chicken and broccoli- no sauce. We watched a movie and went to bed pretty early.

We woke up the next morning and had several problems when we were getting ready- couldn't find things we needed, 'Mr. Sprinkles and Glitter's' pants were still wet, I left my banana on the counter, etc..
When we finally made it out the door and headed down to the start- it was a madhouse and there was literally NO parking. We drove around for a good 20 minutes and couldn't find a single spot. At this point, the first corral had started and 'Mr. Sprinkles and Glitter' was about to drive home.

We finally found a spot and quickly jumped up and made our way to the start. We were stopped several times by camera people asking to take our picture- I think I had more pictures taken of us before the race than actually during it! I loved it!!

We found the birthday girl, Vero, hit up the port-o-potties, and jumped into one of the corrals. It was a little scary to see some FBI police officers walking along the gate/corral and having the dogs sniff the throw away clothes...

A couple minutes of waiting in the corral and we were off. 'Mr. Sprinkles and Glitter' set the pace and we followed along. The first couple of miles went by in the blink of an eye and we were pretty settled into a nice pace.

We passed a couple friends along the way and it was so good to see them and hear them cheering us on. We ticked off a few more miles and everything was still going smoothly and we were still right on track.

Around mile 6 all hell broke lose. Remember that banana I left on the counter? I think it was catching up to me that I hadn't eaten anything, so I tried to take some SportsBeans and almost immediately my stomach starting hurting. I have never had anything like that happen to me running or not. It was so weird- my stomach kept contracting and getting super tight and then I felt like I was going to throw up. Once it would stop contracting- I would be fine... for a couple minutes until it happened again...

It absolutely sucked!! I told Vero and 'Mr. Sprinkles and Glitter' to keep going I would catch up- thinking it would quickly go away... (SPOILER ALERT: it didn't...)

We did however, pass the dragon! :)

'Mr. Sprinkles and Glitter' was an absolute CHAMP and he kept sprinting back and fourth between me and Vero- keeping Vero on track to PR (and telling her not to worry about me :)) and then trying his best to push me- if not to break 2 hours, at least to a PR. (SPOILER ALERT: it didn't happen...) Seriously- I don't know how I got so lucky with him!!

It was hilarious to watch people around us when he would be running with me. He knows exactly what to say to motivate me. Things like "come on! you can do it!" and "you're doing great! keep it up!" do NOT work for me and so he would say things like "PR or ER" and "why are we going this slow?!?! you are not going to PR if we go this pace!" I knew I wasn't going fast enough and I knew I needed to go faster if I wanted to PR- which I so badly did. But I physically could not push my body to go any faster with the stomach issues I was having.
Two ladies even catch up to me when 'Mr. Sprinkles and Glitter' took off to find Vero again and asked if I wanted to run with them instead. They were super sweet and I explained the situation as I ran with them until he came back.

The last few miles were the slowest and longest of my life (dramatic much?!) but we eventually made our way over the Mill bridge towards the finish. Finish time: 2:11. Not a PR and definitely not sub 2. I'm disappointed that it didn't happen, but looking at the results- we hit the 5k in 28:24 and the 10k in 57:05. So I like we were on track and I had not had any problems, we would have done it. Next time...

We finished and found Vero- who ended up with a PR of 2:03!! WOOHOOO!! Then we sat down for a couple minutes and 'Mr. Sprinkles and Glitter' gave me his medal to hold onto and took off for his remaining 7 miles. Vero and I went to find her friend who was running the full and cheered him on. I felt pretty bad for everyone running the full because it was pretty hot out already and they all looked hot and miserable.

Not the race I wanted, but there will always be another run. I think Vero and I are looking at signing up for the full marathon for next year... that sounds crazy to me.

Congrats to everyone who raced this weekend!! 

How long after a race do you wait until you sign up for another? 

2014 By the Numbers!

2014 was a year full of peaks and valley's. I got a few things checked off my bucket list and had some really incredible experiences. I also had my entire world stop when my dad got diagnosed with cancer and then completely shattered when he passed away 4 months later. Here's the year by the numbers:
8- Days spent in New York visiting 'Mr. Sprinkles and Glitter's' sister. We definitely fell in love with the city and are planning to go back next year.

While there I checked 2 things off bucket list:
3rd row seats to see Lion King on Broadway and running 6.5 miles through Central Park!

We also waited 20 minutes for Frozen Hot Chocolate from Serendipity- where I was shocked to find out it wasn't actually hot.....

I consumed 1.3 pounds of frozen yogurt when I accidentally celebrated 'National Fro-Yo Day' twice.

30 days of Bikram Yoga completed.

Celebrated my nephew's 3rd birthday by watching Frozen for the 83rd time.

65 day hiatus from swimming after Ironman Arizona.

We added 4 hairy feet to our family on my birthday when 'Mr. Sprinkles and Glitter' adopted Kona.

1 missed flight to Boise

739 miles traveled to Colorado to see my dad 4 times. You may remember this flight from hell from one of our first trips out there.

4 days spent in Fort Collins, Colorado for my brother's wedding- where I literally did the hardest 8 mile hike of my entire life!

Celebrated 3,287 days together 

5 of us signed up for Ironman New Zealand in March 2015 and started planning a once-in-a-lifetime 2 week vacation out there. I am beyond excited for trip!!

8 days spent in my hometown Las Animas, Colorado  Nik's wedding

3 times 'Mr. Sprinkles and Glitter' came and not only found me on the run course after he finished his ironman- but he also ran with me!! 

Signed up for another 140.6 miles at Ironman Arizona for the 3rd time. 

13 races this year including 75 miles rode in Tour de Tucson for my first cycling race.

208 miles traveled (round trip) for our date night to see Beauty and Beast in Tucson.

6 cupcakes bought at the new Cupcake ATM

850.08 miles ran, 2,605.06 miles rode on the bike,and 113,025 meters swam.

The greatest man I ever knew passed away on his 17th wedding anniversary to my bonus-mom.

I definitely learned a lot and grew from 2014 and have some incredible memories from it. There are obviously somethings I wish I could change but I'm looking forward to 2015.
We have a several adventures planned throughout the year- including a few more checks on my bucket list! I'm excited.
Happy New Year Everyone!! 

What are your 2015 resolutions? Mine are to get outside of my comfort zone more (especially when training) retake my LSAT to apply for law school again.

My moms 50th birthday!!

Today my mom turned 50 and luckily she was still in town so we got to celebrate with her!

We went to one of my favorite restaurants House Of Tricks for dinner and the food was incredible, as usual.

After dinner, we were supposed to go play laser tag- but because of the holidays and the 'holiday schedule' they weren't open. :(
So we headed back to my moms house and had ice cream cake.

After cake, we all took turns doing the splits- surprisingly 'Mr. Sprinkles and Glitter' can get lower than I can- but my niece was the only one who was actually able to do them. (In her dance class, when everyone gets their splits- they get to have an ice cream party!)

I am so lucky to have the best mom in the entire world- she really is one of my best friends and I don't know what I would do without her. We have definitely had our share of wild adventures that still make me laugh, and she's always there to help me with all my last minute projects. LOVE YOU MOM!!

When is your birthday? 

What are your plans for NYE? 

Christmas 2014

Just like last year, we had everyone over for dinner at our house on Christmas Eve. 'Mr. Sprinkles and Glitter' did an AMAZING prime rib roast with a ton of sides- it was all incredible! He also did his traditional Filipino food like short ribs, fried rice, and meatballs. Everyone was so, so good!! (Of course I don't have any pictures. :(

And I finally finished our pajamas ON Christmas Eve- talk about extreme procrastination!!

They said "Son of a Nut Cracker" 

To continue with the procrastination, we finished wrapping some gifts! (I know!! I really am going to work on getting better at this next year!!)

We slept in until 10am on Christmas- it was amazing! We opened gifts at our house and headed to my sisters around 11:30 for brunch and to do gifts with my family. It was so much fun!

This apparently was the 'kid' table, as all the adults/parents are missing. ;)

 I had really been wanting to get a video camera for all of our upcoming trips (especially New Zealand!) and 'Mr. Sprinkles and Glitter totally surprised me and got me one! I absolutely LOVE it!! And on top of that his dad gave us a GoPro!! 'Mr. Sprinkles and Glitter' has been having a blast playing with it. I'm so excited to be able to video (and GoPro) all of our upcoming adventures!!

Merry Christmas Everyone!! 

What is your favorite holiday tradition?