Holy crazy month! I found out on May 4th that I got a promotion to replace the girl in the cube next to me who was quitting for a better job in a different field. On May 5th my parents got into town from Phoenix. On May 6th I ran the half marathon, and I spent the rest of the week on vacation from work to spend time with my parents. My foot still hurts from the run. It was a good visit but I missed valuable training time with my coworker before her last day. No one within the company applied for the position I'm vacating unfortunately. Now I'm doing my old job and trying to learn a new job. It's been pretty stressful. My boss and I were supposed to meet with a temp agency rep today to go over what we're looking for in my replacement but the guy got the meeting time confused so he never showed up. This sucks because it's going to put us farther behind on getting a replacement and getting them trained. On the upside I was able to move into the now empty cube so there is nothing to my back but a wall of windows. We joked at work today that now I have a corner office with a view. It's not much of a view, just a road mostly, but damn it it's better than where I was.

I've been selected to do a very hush hush photo shoot for a local photographer and shooting starts on June 2nd. If he gets paid the cast gets paid. I'm really hoping he gets paid! He wrote a novel and is doing the cover shots and if I'm understanding right wants to use the photos as a sort of graphic novel and make a calendar. It should be fun. I've met one of the other models already and she's awesome.

Last weekend I shot a set at the studio owned by the photographer mentioned above. We got some pretty sweet pics!













We also reshot my Green Summer set. I'm taking votes on if we should use the re-shot set to resubmit. Here's a teaser:

I did it! I survived running a half marathon! My original goal was to finish in two and a half hours or less. During training I managed to run between a 9-10 minute mile so I changed my goal to 2 hours and 15 minutes or less. The official times aren't posted yet but according to my GPS I finished in 2:13:58! I beat my goal by a minute! I'm even more proud because I wasted 5 whole minutes waiting in line at a bathroom halfway through the race. I didn't throw up from nerves and I'm not even as sore as I expected to be today though my feet hurt. I think I'm going to do it again next year. I really doubt I'll ever do a full marathon but 13 miles is pretty damn good.

Here are some pics my dad took about a quarter mile before the finish line. I thought I was going to die. It looks like I'm walking but I was actually going fairly fast at that point because I knew I was close.

The half marathon is now 2 days away. I'm looking for words of wisdom/advice/inspiration to take with me on this run. At this point it may be more of a mental struggle than anything.

My training didn't exactly go as planned. I wanted to get up to 11 or 12 miles but life got in the way and the highest I did was 10 and that was a few weeks ago so I feel under prepared for this. I do however have my energy drinks and ShotBloks ready to go into my super sexy fanny pack belt thingy. I got new moisture wicking knee length pants made for running that are really comfy and don't ride to chafe. Lucky me I haven't had those issues at all. I bought some new sports bras and shirts so I have proper workout gear for this now and I've just gotten my good shoes broken in.

I'm still scared shitless of doing this run, especially alone, but god damn it I will cross that finish line if I have to crawl. I really hope I don't have to though.

Funny training story. If you run you know sometimes you just have to go to the bathroom while you're running long distances. I do a circuit near my house in case this happens or in case I hurt myself so it's never too far back home. I was running back past my house and felt like maybe I needed to stop. I thought I could make it a bit farther though so I kept going. By the time I got about 3 miles from my house I really had to go. I use my phone to track my pace and route and all that so I puled it out and texted my ex husband since I was almost to his street. He thought it was funny but said he was home and I could use his bathroom. He really is a good guy but he says he'll probably never try running with me. Can't blame him.

When I was a kid I was hit by a car and my knee was all that really got damaged. The doctors told me it would never be as strong as it would be had the accident never happened and the best thing I could do for it is keep the surrounding muscles strong through exercise. I've had to wear a brace for anything over about 4 miles but my knee and the rest of me have held up surprisingly well to the strain.

My pace when I started was about a 10 minute mile and the farthest I had ever gone was 5 miles. Now I'm averaging just over 9 so I've done pretty well with what I've got. After this I'll probably take a few days off to rest and hang out with my parents and then start training for a 5k I'm doing in August. I want to run that one for speed. I just can't sit still.

Wish me luck!

The half marathon is in just over a week. I just remembered to be scared again. I've only trained up to 10 miles because I just haven't had the time to do more. Apparently that's all most people train to so hopefully I'll be fine. Eeek!

I'm so proud of myself! I just ran 10.34 miles in 1:41:49. My average pace was 9:51 per mile. I was aiming for 10 miles and my GPS said I hit it just after I ran past my house so I decided to keep going just a little longer since I was going downhill. The half marathon I'm training for is on May 6th and I think I'll actually be able to do it, and do it as well as I was hoping. I can get at least one more practice run in next weekend and I need to shoot for over 11 miles.

I planned my route pretty poorly and ended up going up two sizable hills but at least there were long downhill sections for me to gain some momentum and rest a bit. Luckily there are no hills like them on the half marathon course.

This has been a really interesting way to get to know the city I'm living in. Since I bring my phone I can branch out to streets I've never been on because if I get lost I can just use my GPS to find my way home.

Happy Easter everyone. I don't get the connection between crucifixion, colored eggs, and bunnies, but whatever. I love all the chocolate around this time of year.



Kinda cracked me up that at the beginning of this video YouTube put up an add for a mormon site.