Scott Coffee 8K & Black Bear Tri Reports

So many races to catch you all up on!!   That will  give me more time to get caught up on my reader as well.  (Does anyone else feel like they will never be caught up on their readers?!?!)  I raced yesterday too but that post will have to wait…as will my hospital post (the fun never ends with me) and my general life update! 

Two weekends ago, I raced twice; first on Saturday at a local 8K and then Sunday in the Poconos for a relay tri.  I was the swimmer.  Obvi, right?

Friday night I had to work, and I had a bad week the days before so I was really not in the mood to race.  But I woke up Saturday and got ready to toe the line!  I ran into a few friends and my friend Kristen and I decided to start out together.  First mile…9 minutes…WHOA fast runner.  Had to slow that down or I was going to lose it.  We slowed it down a notch but by mile three we were still just under a 10 minute mile pace.  At about that time, I took off from Kristen (she would have done the same thing and I would have let her too)  because I was feeling like I could really push it.  I held on strong, only stopping at the final water stop and came through the finish at 49:57!  I have raced this course four years now, and all I wanted was to get in under 50 minutes.  I was ecstatic!!!!!

Pre-race with Kristen

Mom and pre-race

YES!!!! 🙂

After the race we grabbed a quick lunch and then R2 and I were headed to the poconos for race number two of the weekend!  We headed up to the Jim Thorpe campsite the night before for a night of cooking out and chatting around the fire.  (In addition to the good times, it is about a 2 hour drive, so going up the night before was a major morning of time saver!)  The ride up was going well until R2 missed his exit.  Have you ever missed an exit on the PA turnpike?  Not fun!  After that notsomuchfun time, we were finally there.  There were a total of 10 of us camping, however only four of us were doing the tent thing.  Our friends had a camper.  It worked out really well because we used the camper for making dinner 🙂  R2 is a former Eagle Scout, so I was camping with the best of them!  In fact, it was obvious that R2 had some experience when we compared our tent to our friends tent:

Even though we were camping and having fun, it was still the night before a race.  Bed early is still the rule!  Wake up call was 5am and after packing up the site we were off to the race.   I had a little bit of anxiety because I was remembering the prior year when the swim portion of this race chewed me up and spit me out.  Talk about humbling!  Well, this year I was back for redemption.  And I got it.  My swim was 30minutes and I felt great the entire time!!!  I quickly tagged off to Shauna for the bike and she was back in no time!  We were kicking ass one relay person at a time and next up was Lisa on the run.  As she passed us on the first lap, she yelled out “8 minute miles” and we could tell she was rocking it.  Turns out we were all right too- end result was 1st place female relay and 3rd relay overall!!  Wooohooo!!!!

R2 at his tri, spectating 🙂

Happy girl coming out of that swim!

Awards ceremony!!

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!

Woooo-hoooo; I have been a winning machine lately!

First, I won this awesome Chocolate prize pack from Paige:

The very next day I found out I was the winner of Suzy’s give-a-way and won me some of this:

And then I won Jill’s give-a-way and scored these:

Additionally, I recieved the following tags whilst on vacation 🙂

Indi and Kim both tagged me for the Happy 101 award:

The rules are to name 10 things that I like, and then pass along to 10 bloggers.

• Wildwood Crest, NJ- my home away from home
• Flipping my pillow over to the “cold” side- anyone else do this?
• Vanilla flavored milk- makes my coffee perfect!
• The Phillies- ♥ them!
• Homecooked Meals- really, there is nothing like it!
• Scrapbooking- I am working on a running/tri one right now.
• Getting a magazine in the mail- always nice to get something other than a bill!
• Wine- ’nuff said!
• When my clothes are still warm from the dryer- best feeling, especially in winter
• Unexpected blessings- they happen all the time, you just have to look!
  

And Jamoosh tagged me in the Cherry On Top Award:

Answer this question: If you had the chance to go back and change one thing in your life, would you and what would it be?

Is it cheating if I say nothing?  Cause honestly, I have always felt like if I changed one thing, no matter how big or how small the experience, it would change everything.  And I don’t think it would be worth it.  However, if I could change things out of my control…if I could change that Jimmy died, I would- I still have yet to find a reason why that had to happen.

Thanks for the tags everyone!  I hope September is being good to you- I have moved in, school has started and after this weekend down the shore things will be getting back to normal!  I hate when summer ends, but I do like being on a routine.  I am slowly catching up on my reader too!

PS: If you haven’t yet checked out my BOMF donation page, please do.  The link is in my sidebar.  This is a charity near and dear to me.  Any amount helps!

In Just Five Words…

Keri over at the Blue Eyed Runner awarded me the Blog Of Substance Award. 

Some of the awards out there can be a bit cheesy, but I really like this one and the idea behind it.  And I am honored that Keri thought of me when she thought about blogs with substance. 🙂

The Rules:
•Thank the blogger who awarded it to you. (THANKS AGAIN KERI!!!!)
•Sum up your blogging philosophy, motivation, and experience using five (5) words.
•Pass it on to other blogs which you feel have real substance.

My blogging philosophy, motivation, and experience:

Inspire, Empower And Live Fearlessly!

I know I am supposed to pass this on, but the truth is, I just cannot narrow down my choices…I honestly feel like all the blogs I read have substance or else I wouldn’t be reading them 🙂  Instead, I am going to pass on five blogs that, if you aren’t already reading, I think you should be reading!  The following bloggers all have amazing stories and are great inspirations!

Running Circles Around Turtles

Joe Is Running For Dom

Running Out Of Time

Fat Girl To Fit Girl

Saturday Morning Zen

 

Maximus Wins & The Going Places Award…

Ok, this post is about three weeks ricidulously overdue.  Way back like a million years ago, Jamoosh held a little contest…a turtle naming contest for his Last Mile Brewing logo.  There was some fierce competition. And I won!  As if just winning (and being the one to name his logo turtle) wasn’t enough, I came home to find this gem in my mailbox 🙂  A Last Mile Brewing water bottle.  And look who is on it- Maximus! Score!

Don’t be jealous!  Actually, on second thought…no, go ahead and be jealous 🙂

Around this same time I was also given the Going Places Award from Suzy.  I’m supposed to tell you where I hope to be in ten years, then pass it along to ten bloggers.  This is not the “official award banner” but I liked it and thought it fit! 

In ten years I hope to be…

• a homeowner
• a half-ironman finisher
• a marathon finisher
• a wife
• a mommy of one or two
• the holder of a Masters Degree
• working in a career I love
• more financially sound
• a free-lance writer
• happy in whatever I am doing

The truth is, I have no idea where I will be in ten years!  I can tell you this much…ten years ago I would have never thought I would be where I am now!  In the end, the only thing I really want, is to be happy.  And to have fun.  At the end of the day, I want to have truly lived!

And ten bloggers:

Jill @ Jill Will Run

Jill @ Run With Jill

Kim @ IlaxStudio

Julie @ Julie’s Running Blog

Meg @ Meg Runs

Jamoosh @ Last Mile Lounge

Andrea @ Age Groups Rock

Fran @ Dutch Girl Gets Healthy

Katie @ One Run At A Time

Rick @ Marathon Man Runs Again

 __________________________________________________________________________

Hope everyone has a great weekend- unfortunately, due to a series of events that were all out of my control, I will not be participating in BOMF relay.  Our relay team pretty much fell apart (literally!) and it just couldn’t come together in time.  I feel sad and I am bummed but I am trying to think of it as a sign that perhaps I needed the rest.  The following weekend is NJState, my biggest race of the summer…maybe I need this weekend to not race.  To those who are racing GOOD LUCK!!!!  Instead of racing this weekend I will be attending a concert on Friday night and my friend Bill’s wedding on Saturday night.  I am still staying busy busy and of course I will post photos!  Thanks again for all the happy birthday wishes, for all the props on my duathlon this past weekend and for being a continuous amazing support system! 

An Award For Me :)

I was given the Versatile Blogger Award by Kim @ Somewhere in the Sun 🙂

 

 Now I am supposed to tell you seven random things about myself:

1. I am really not the girly type; I prefer boxers and a t-shirt and don’t wear a whole lot of make up.  But I care a lot about my nails.  A Lot.  Like, paint them every week get mad when they break kind of care a lot.
2. I can use any conversation and/or situation as an opportunity to quote National Lampoons Christmas Vacation.
3. Bandwagon riding a team annoys the crapola out of me.  You either are a fan or you aren’t a fan.  For the record, I am a fan of the UNC Tarheels and Philadelphia Phillies.  There are other teams I like, but those are the teams I am a true fan of!
4. I prefer tulips over roses.  In fact, I prefer almost any flower over roses.  And I prefer a simple card over flowers.  And I prefer it all, not on a holiday.  I think it is so much cooler when someone thinks of you on a random day of the week, rather than a holiday when they are told to by corporate America.
5. I watched the movie Beaches over and over and over for days at a time when I was little.  And I would listen to my Bob Seger record (yes, record) on repeat pretty much whenever I wasn’t watching Beaches.
6. The students in my school did an Awards Assembly for the staff, and I got the Funniest 🙂 It made my day that the students see me that way!  Especially cause I am also known to be pretty strict.
7. I used to be close to obsessed with Gwen Stefani.  I loved No Doubt and was listening to them long before Tragic Kingdom came out.  I feel like she sold out when she went “pop” but still love the old stuff.  And I  love seeing live bands that have a girl as the lead singer.  In my next life, I want to be that girl.

I am supposed to Tag 15 people, but I waited so long to do this, I think most people have gotten it already.  To avoid re-tags how about this:  if you were tagged before but haven’t gotten to it, consider yourself tagged again and do it 🙂  I love reading these and learning randomness about people; they remind me of the endless surveys my friends and I would do when MYSPACE first came out.

Tomorrow is Friday everyone!!!  And the weather in the NorthEast is slated to be FABULOUS!!!!!  I love Memorial Day…3-day weekend, picnics, parades, sun and more sun! 

Do you have any fun Memorial Day plans?

Me?? A Beautiful Blogger!

Lara over at SaturdayMmorningZen nominated me for the beautiful blogger award 🙂  Thanks!

As part of winning, I am supposed to tell you seven random things about myself:

1. I had my appendix out when I was six.
2. I am afraid of heights but I don’t let it stop me: I have both sky-dived and bungee jumped.
3. I love “dude movies” way more than “chick flicks” and I hate watching movies in a theater.
4. I like to drink, but I hate to be drunk.
5. My dream car is an Audi A4 convertible.  I don’t imagine I will ever be able to justify the purchase (unless I hit a HUGE lottery) but a girl can have dreams, right?!?!
6. If I could change anything about myself, I would make myself taller.
7. I drove straight through from Florida to NJ when I was 19- I had stayed there for three months and was so excited to get home I just couldn’t stop to stay overnight.  It took 22.5 hours and I slept for almost a day when I got home!

I also have to tag seven more people:

1. Lindsay @ Chasing the Kenyans
2. Jill @ Jill Will Run
3. Shelly @ Its Just One Foot in Front of the Other
4. Jenn @ Running Sane
5. Carolyn @ 26.2 Princess
6. Ulyana @ Shaped By Running
7. Fran @ Dutch Girl Gets Healthy
   

If you have already done this, my apologies!!