Wednesday, November 30, 2011

deck the halls!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!
Well, sort of. I think it was 80 degrees outside the day Drew and I did our holiday decorating.

Monday, November 28, 2011

turkey trot!

Drew and I headed down to Oceanside for Thanksgiving where we indulged in running and eating way too much stuffing. Or maybe it was me, not Drew, who ate too much stuffing.

This is my 6th Thanksgiving, and I recently realized that I probably don't have many more to celebrate in Oceanside. I will eventually graduate and move out of Southern California. Hopefully. But I will no doubt miss spending Thanksgiving with the Oceanside family. It's always a riot. It's loud and everyone is talking, sometimes above one another. The only time people aren't talking is about the first 10 seconds after we've served our food and start eating. It's a lot of fun. Meals are always served family style, and sometimes there are so many people that the dinner table extends into the entryway (like it did for my first Thanksgiving there). Instead of passing around dishes of food, you pass around your plate.

Our Thanksgiving began with the Turkey Trot. When I began running a little over 2 months ago, I was run/walking miles at a 15 minute pace. My only goal was to run the entire Turkey Trot, no matter how slow. Drew and I ran the entire 3.1 miles together, separating only to dodge walkers. The race was very flat and went pretty well. The last stretch was along the ocean, and people came out of their beach houses to cheer us on. There was a girl playing her violin and a group of guys blasting music. My cousin Mike was there to greet us at the finish line.

Near the finish line, Drew graciously slowed down to take my picture crossing the finish line.
My official time was 31:15, or about a 10 minute mile. Drew finished one second later. Here is the 'after' picture:
The rest of the day was dedicated to relaxing, football, wii, and pecan pie.

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

october

It's not October anymore, but it was a busy month that deserves a recap. For starters, I finally left prospectus purgatory. Yes, it's true, I finally got to defend my prospectus and begin dissertation research. The defense wasn't as bad as I'd anticipated and certainly not as dreadful as I thought it would be.

I also signed up for a half marathon. I forked over $60, so there is no turning back now. Sam and I did a 5 mile run a week ago and a 6 mile run last Sunday, which is the longest that I've ever run in my life. Next Sunday, we are running 7 miles, which is a bit difficult to wrap my head around, but I'm sure we will survive.

Last weekend, we went to a fancy running store, which proved to be a dangerous place to be if you've just started running and still think it's fun. Not only did I become a VIP member of said running store, but I bought a hydration pack, some energy gels, and socks. I confess that these socks were $18 for a 3 pack. On sale. But they're supposed to prevent blisters, so how could I resist?