Obstacles

I HATE obstacle courses. I don't know why, but I always have. Once I start moving, I don't want things to stand in my way ( one reason I don't think I could ever do an obstacle run, it would throw off my momentum and frustrate me to no end. I want to GO, full steam ahead, until I cross whatever finish line goal is in front of me. 

This week we got hit with about 7 inches of snow and really low temps again- obstacles for training. Monday was supposed to be a 7.5 mile training run and thanks to some very dead and tired legs, only ended up being 4 miles. Seriously? Doesn't my body know that I have a race in 4 weeks and that I need it to cooperate? Tuesday and Wednesday were forced rest days thanks to the snow and the icky roads preventing me from being able to get to the gym and my trusty treadmill. I finally got there on Friday after work for a quick 4 and back this morning for a not-as-quick 8, and even though I'm sore and tired, it honestly felt so good to get out and run, even if it was on the treadmill and all I had to occupy me for an hour and a half were reruns of "Bath Crashers" on HGTV (hey, they did the job). 

Oh yeah, this week we also picked our wedding rings, went to our cake tasting and booked that- with no arguments!-, started designing the invitations, and had to reschedule our meeting with our priest due to snow. And I spent 2 mornings in court with one of my students, did all of my report cards, and finished new schedules for all the students for 2nd semester. Oh, and sat through a 3 hour statistics class from hell.

Add training onto all of that over the last couple days and I am EXHAUSTED. I left the gym and wanted to come home, shower, throw on that compression gear and take a nap.

Instead, I walked in the house to news of a nasty mall shooting at our local mall where 3 people died, multiple others were injured, and thousands of people have been traumatized. I spent the next hour reassuring my family that Kevin and I were ok and that we hasn't gone to the mall that morning. And I quickly realized that the snow obstacle that had seemingly kept me from my outdoor long run, may have saved my life. If it had been nicer, I had planned on going to the mall this morning to pick up undergarments and accessories for my dress so I would have them for my upcoming fitting, and would have done my long run this afternoon in the warmer temps. What derailed my training turned out to be a blessing in disguise. 

I'm no longer complaining about obstacles, not with the horror that some people in my neighborhood have dealt with today. Instead I will say an extra prayer for those involved and for the snow that kept me safe this morning. Next time I see an obstacle, I hope that I can view it from a more positive place. 

The Year of the Happy Endings

Welcome to my year of happy endings!

Why should anyone bother to read this? I'm just another almost 28 year old living out my dreams on the East Coast, right? Maybe. But anyone that bothers to get to know me will quickly realize that I'm not just another 20 something living in the big city, trying to make a name for myself.

I'm a school social worker with a passion for working with kids with disabilities.

I'm working on my PhD in Social Work part time, on top of working full time.

I'm planning my wedding, set to take place in just 129 days!

And on top of trying to balance all of the above, I'm chasing my Glass Slipper dream of racing in Disney for the 3rd time next month. Yeah, add training for that on to my normal schedule and you can just guess how prepared I might be for that one.

I thought I would try blogging for a number of reasons. Mostly, I need an outlet for all of the crazy thoughts in my head that my fiancee, family and friends are tired of hearing about on a regular basis, and what better audience than the internet! If my stories and antics are helpful to anyone else, even just by putting a smile on their face, than it makes every moment worth writing down. And I promise you, my life will provide plenty of laughable moments, and my kiddos at work will fill in the blanks when I'm having a relatively normal week.

Secondly though, I am literally spending the next year running toward my goals, including the one of getting married and starting this new phase of my life, which will hopefully one day include a family (that I can take to Disney as much as I want!). My first goal of 2014 though is to complete the GSC. And to be honest, I wasn't too positive about it until a couple of weeks ago. It took just a couple of days of work spent stalking Facebook and the Princess Half FB groups to get me completely motivated to get moving again. I joined a gym. I bought my first SparkleSkirt (that should have been enough right there, those things are AWESOME). I started planning my costumes. And I went back and found the blogs of the women who had run before me and motivated me to get through my training for my first Princess and first half LAST year at this time. And I started to realize something: those women, who I thought of as wonder women and my half marathon heros, are just normal women like me, talking about their experiences and sharing them with others.

Well, blow me over. I can do that too!

So here I am. I hope to encourage other first timers and other princesses to get out there and move, just like others have encouraged me. I've realized that it's never too late to start- I can say I didn't officially start training for GSC until January 3rd (my first run in 2 1/2 months) and 2 weeks later I'm ready and can't wait to get to Disney to hurdle my next challenge.

GSC will just be the first- followed quickly by trying to balance wedding planning and multivariate statistics for the next 4 months and keeping my sanity through Memorial Day weekend wedding craziness. Heaven knows how I'll be handling married life come May 25th when things REALLY get real. But I do know that I'm going to attack each hurdle like this first one- running with a purpose and a goal in mind. And hopefully at least someone reading this will be along for the ride!