the big, big news!!

hey y'all!!! i swear i am still alive, just writing to from a very different part of the country now...statesboro, ga to be exact!! now let me do some explaining.

after finishing my masters in january i started job searching all over the us. and after quite a few rejection letters i finally got the email i was waiting for, an offer for an interview in georgia! so while in boise i was making plans to return home sunday of memorial day weekend, shop monday for a new suit, and then hop on another plane down south for what i was hoping would be the start of an amazing new adventure. after a whirlwind of interviewing i was back home waiting/crossing every limb i have for the good news phone call. on wednesday, june 5th while on lunch at whole foods i got that fantastic phone call witht the job offer!!! i accepted the job friday morning and started a whole nother whirlwind of my own. there is A LOT more to the craziness of the story but i dont want to bore you with all the details:)

literally the moment after my new boss
offered me the job:)

so i turned in my notice the following wednesday, the 12th, making june 21st my last day of work, and then planning to leave monday the 24th for georgia for a start on july 1st!! told ya it was a whirlwind:) i was lucky to have a great boss that opted to let me make that monday, the 17th my actual last day so i could get ready for the big cross-country move. it was amazing to have a few more days at home to get things figured out, uhaul trucks rented, goodbye parties planned, running in there, and time with the family.

my fantastic parents!

a quick change of plans happened and we actually ended up leaving sunday the 23rd to go stay the night in flagstaff on our way! my bff jessica lives in phoenix, she and my mom came up with a plan to stay that sunday night there so i could see her before leaving! theyre the best:) so my mom and i bid farewell to my dad sunday afternoon and piled into the uhaul for a very slow trek up to 7000 feet flagstaff. it was during the 1st day that we realized a 30 hour gps drive time was going to be a little unrealistic haha. we didnt really take into account a uhaul truck pulling a dolly with my car on it!

my dad giving last minute instructions:)

our route!

of course a stop for late for the train!

after a great night of visiting mom and i headed out to the 40 for the next few days of our adventure. we decided on the way to collect state signs to help pass the time! plus ive never driven cross-country and i needed something to remember it all by:) instead of capturing the arizona sign we opted for a famous one instead...

and so began a crazy 3 day long trek across the us, literally from one coast to the other. i still cant believe my mom put up with that long in a truck! it was incredibly bumpy but the landscape getting greener and greener on our drive across was kind of awesome. we were super lucky to not hit any substantially bad weather. it was however windy from the moment we left vegas consistently until we got to oklahoma city! that was kind of awful i wont lie.

we were only in tennessee for about 2.5 seconds
there wasnt even a good sign for us to stop at!

finally, finally, finally wednesday afternoon we crossed into georgia!! made our way through atlanta to statesboro pulling in around 1030p. 1st thing we did after checking into our hotel was get my poor car off that damn dolly! plus we were so happy to be in something that didnt feel ever rock/crack/pebble/bump when we went over it to go find dinner that night, which unfortunately meant another night of fast food:/ thursday though we actually got to sleep in and spent the day house hunting! i had a few leads on things it was just a matter of physically seeing them and then making a decision. after seeing a few great ones, and a few not so great things, i decided on a 3 bedroom house with a roommate! she amazingly let me move in the next day-well to the living room at least. she had just started roommate hunting and didnt know they would find someone so quick so they still needed to paint etc. which was ok because we had plans to spend the weekend in savannah with my great aunt and uncle anyway before my mom went home.

my new digs:)

my fantastic mama!

that sunday i had to put her on a plane back to vegas and it was very sad to be honest:( we are super close and she was so amazing to drive all that way with me and help me move in. it was nice that she was on summer vacation! last monday the 1st i began my job. let me tell you, working a full week after being off for 2 was rough lol. and i am no longer living in the living room! i spent just about all last week moving in and getting settled. my new comforter arrived monday, the last big piece to my new room.

oh, i forgot to tell you what im doing! i am working in admissions, running the campus visit program, advising the volunteer tour group, and coordinating different recruiting events on and off campus! it is so seriously right up my alley and has already been a great adventure! i am almost done with week 2 already. i have met some amazing people and everyone here is sooo super nice, welcoming, and just darn excited im here:) i have been waiting for an opportunity like this for a really long time and am so excited its finally here!! its the start of a grand new adventure in life both professionally and professionally:) did i mention i was really, really excited about it all??!! i cant thank everyone enough for their love and support these last few months in helping me get here:) so follow me along this new adventure of working, running, and living in the south. i cant wait to experience and share it all!!

welcome to the south.
we have margaritas in mason jars here:)

the f-word, runner style.

in the process of all things new on this little blog of mine, i should probably tell you one of the new big things i finally committed too. its something that has terrified me to my very core for a long time as a runner and something i swore up/down/left/right/center i would never ever do. its a scary, scary word that starts with an f. ladies and gentlemen this last week i signed up for a full marathon. thats right, 26.2 miles of pure full craziness!

now i didnt go into this lightly. i had been thinking about it for many months, consulted a few experts that gave great personal encouragement, did research-a lot actually, and even a little bit of a test run with the back to back 1/2 marathons last year in october-sneaky i know. and while signing up was a big decision for me, where i would go was no question. i knew instantly when i wanted to sign up i would be traveling to washington dc to run the marine corps marathon!

first it is known as the peoples marathon and does not have a half attached to it. i knew for my own psychy i would not want to be tempted in going down the half course on race day! it would also allow me to check off another place i have raced in and the marines hold a very special place in my heart:) i never knew how true it was when someone said when one member joins the corp, the whole family does, until i was in that family. plus i figured that of anybody that could coordinate a race, the marines would do a kickass job. 

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so 2 weeks ago i sat down at the computer on my desk at work and watched the clock countdown to 9a pst, then waited a good 2 minutes before logging onto the active.com website to sign up. last year the race sold out in 2 hours and 46 minutes so i knew i needed to hop on fairly quickly when it opened. and then the site crashed from overload. then kicked me off halfway through registration. and finally after 2 hours and 27 minutes of refreshing the race was sold out. now what was i going to do?

there were many apologies by the marathon of all the people that had countless problems and frustrations, trust me there were tons of us. but that still left me without a bib. so back to my research i went in what to do next. i considered the bib transfer option in which over the summer someone that signed up no longer wants their bib can give it to someone waiting desperately for one. but that meant i would have to find an actual person and with all the people that got shut out, i wasnt sure that was the safest option. see i didnt have a back up plan if i didnt get in. the marine corp marathon is my only choice for my 1st full marathon. that meant i was heading down the road of a charity option.

i hesitated quite i bit, ill be honest. i didnt want to pick one just because it was my only option. i wanted to pick one that i was passionate about. but then i started to really look into the amazing organizations and was phenomenally impressed with what they do! i narrowed it down to two places after chatting with my brother. can you tell i dont make big, big decisions quickly haha.

after waiting a few days for response and confirmation i am incredibly proud to tell you that this year i will be fundraising and running the 38th marine corps marathon with.......

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you may have heard of them before, if not please check out their website! they are doing truly amazing things with the incredibly brave men and women that have served our country:) i am sooo proud to be able to help raise money for such a fantastic organization!

alright now its time to start the fundraising, today my friends! my firm goal is $500 by october 1st. but i would love, love, love to blow that goal out of the water before then and continue to raise money all the way through race day! you will see these links a lot and i will talk about it tons for the next few months:) it so super easy to donate. you simply enter the donation amount, click on the next button and enter the credit card information. no amount is too big or too small, everything adds up! thank you so, so, so much in advance:)

https://support.woundedwarriorproject.org/individual-fundraising/curlyrunnerbugtakesonmcm/

the graduate.

so its been just over a month since i finished school and for some reason i havent been able to write about it all yet. i have tried a few times, mostly ending with me staring at a blank page. its almost a little unreal to be done. and to say that i have a masters degree. plus i will have no more homework ever again! it was kind of awesome getiing ready for surf city and not having to worry about what was due or finishing up things before i left. the other free days during the week are friggin sweet as well:)

the crazy thing is it was right about 2 years ago, almost exactly that i made the decision to go back to school. (read all about it here!) there were definitely some naysayers, actually quite a few that told me there would a lot of things i would have to give up. for example, i probably wouldnt run as much. i most likely wouldnt travel very often. i really wouldnt have much of a life at all with working full time. even with all those scary thoughts i embarked anyway!

the life of a runner and a grad student.

it was hard, i cant even lie. and there were many a days i thought it wasnt ever going to end or that i could just stop. but then as the classes started to tick off and the months started flying by i realized how fast this was really going to go. so i bucked up, figured out a schedule that finally worked, and became determined to finish! i pushed out the people that told me it was too much work or that it was a silly thing to even be doing. i focused and relied on the people that were crazy supportive instead, luckily there were a lot more of those than the other:)

as my last class finally came to a close it all started getting real, really real. and after staying up until 2am on a saturday night to finish my nightmareishly long 30 page paper because i just couldnt look at it anymore, i was done. all i had to do was read over it and turn it in. i had really finished! i told my mom that once the paper was done all i wanted was a cupcake from the cupcakery to celebrate. so as i came bouncing downstairs that sunday-at about 2 in the afternoon-i was finally able to tell her it was time for cupcakes! it was the first of many celebrations:)

that monday i turned in my monster paper-that wasnt actually due till wednesday, yay me-and waited for my final grade. i had about 30 points to play with and still keep my a in the class. and i waited. and waited. and waited some more. and waited. then, on friday morning that week when i was off and we were leaving that afternoon for my grandpas birthday i got my official grade on the paper...and 88%!! which added up meant i got a 95% in the class! which really meant i had completed my masters program with a 4.0!!

to continue the celebration i did when any normal runner does, i ran a 1/2 marathon with my favorite running buddy jen:) i know, totally normal! the original plan was to have a graduation party in vegas that weekend but when your grandpa turns 80 and has a party, he pretty much wins haha. so i decided on having the next weekend instead!

after some serious searching for the right place i found bjs cocktail lounge. it had a great atmosphere, friendly, and had a pool table so people had some things to do. the people there were great and let me bring in all kinds of decorations. jessica flew out from denver to join in the festivities, and i had family come from all over! there was cake of course-whats a party without cake-that was delicious. we had a blast and had soo many different people came to have a drink or 2!

jessica stayed for a few extra days and in true style we decided to make the most of our time. which in our case meant a trip to some place special...

it only took 1 quick question from jessica for us to end up here!

i LOVE her:)

i had been saying for months that when i graduated i wanted to go buy something from tiffanys for myself as a reward for finishing. well after some looking i realized that may not be the most feasible thing ever and there wasnt anything that super caught my attention. so instead i set out to buy myself a watch! i havent had one since i worked at old navy almost 3 years ago because i was everyones time keeper for everything. soon it just became associated with work and i took it off the moment i was off. but i began thinking how much i really wanted now. so after some hunting i picked out a perfect one from fossil that i love! it was the perfect gift:)

i couldnt get a good picture, so i had to borrow!source

now that ive been done for that month ive been doing some adjusting. its weird to not have worry about homework on wednesday nights. or wonder when was the last time i logged into post something for attendance. when i went out of town the last 2 times i didnt have to even think about homework. i did think i would have so much more time then i actually do. kind of makes me wonder how i even made it all fit for that long! i did start to think about the naysayers the other day and all the things they told me i couldnt do. when i actually thought about it, i realized how many things i really did do, and there were quite a few!

*trained for and completed 6 1/2 marathons-cut back on running my ass

*traveled to england for one of my best friends weddings

*held my full time job successfully

*trained for and completed an olympic triathlon

*became single and even more independent

*finally got to participate in ragnar

*lost 25 pounds

oh and yes, i will participate in a graduation ceremony in the early summer. where and when is still being worked out with my advisor. who knows where this will take me next. i have some big picture ideas im working on now. i was finally able to sit down and write this when it all became very real upon coming home one night to a package on my front doorstep. my diploma was inside:) its really real now! 

master of arts in education
higher & postsecondary education

the october 2012 running recap.

total run mileage: 81.85 miles
highest weekly run mileage: 25.12 miles
# runs: 13
# rest days: 18

# xtraining workouts: 1 <-oops.

favorite run: the nike womens ½ marathon of course! although i do have to say that saints & sinners was a close 2^nd because of that sub-2 hour.

most hardcore run: the run i did in between nike and saints & sinners. i was determined to do 10 miles and it was tough mostly on my mental game. must remember to take a buddy next time.

current reads: where we belong by emily giffin. i actually started and finished one! emily giffin, one of my absolute faves, came out with a book at the end of the summer. i got it for my birthday but things had been pretty crazy so i was finally able to finish it this month. omg, soooo good. didnt end quite like i thought or totally would have liked, but it was good.

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current shame-inducing guilty pleasure: thinking about all those gorgeous fireman at the nike race. jessica and i have really wondered how many phone numbers they got that day…



seriously.

current obsession: the new taylor swift cd. i really love her.

current drink: water, a lot of it. with the 2 races this month its pretty much all i drank.

current song: tragic by taylor swift. have you bought the new cd? seriously, do it now if you havent.



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current wish-list: a new iphone. no really this time. my phone has been dropped enough and is old enough that i think it really is time for a new one. but i believe im gonna go with the 4s, im not super wild about the 5 to be totally honest.

current need: to keep looking forward. with the holidays coming i have some really cool things coming up with family, friends, and traveling. i need to focus on these things coming up when the other stuff gets dark and gray.

current triumph: breaking the sub 2-hour mark! this is seriously huge. it took 10 ½ marathons and 3 years, but i did it:)

1:57:12

current bane of my existence: being an adult and having to make grown up decisions.

current goal: to get through these days one at a time. october was a huge month. it had some really great highs like san francisco and nike and some not so fun lows. i know im going to need awhile to recover from the lows. that means starting to get through the days one step at a time.  

current indulgence: fun coffee. ie starbucks, coffee bean, holleys (a local place by my parents house). ever since the end of nike i have totally been finding excuses to have it:)

delish. and great company:)

current excitement: thanksgiving is coming! its one of my favorite holidays because my whole family actually gets together. we are big and loud and crazy. theyre the best and it makes you really feel loved.

the breakup.

i have been dreading writing this post for awhile, probably why i havent done it yet. i have also been a little mia lately because of this posts title. mostly ive been trying to hide in my bubble and let myself at least try to start the healing process. but eventually i have to come out of that and face the realizations of all of this. last saturday richard and i broke up. 

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it was my choice, i am the one that said the words and made my decision to walk away from it all. that doesnt make any of this hurt less or easier because i said those words. in the end we were just going in two different directions. three years of love, memories, and emotion dont just go away overnight. we are both still trying to figure out our next moves. luckily our lease was up so we are able to walk away from the apartment without having to break a contract. i have decided to move home with my parents, who graciously opened their arms and said of course.

i am still wading through a lot of my own emotions and most days are still a roller coaster filled with all of them. i have been truly blessed with an amazing amount of support from everyone around me. they say time will heal, and im sure theyre right. but right now im letting myself wallow when i want to and be sad when it hits me, which it does, often. ps breaking up with someone the week of a race is not a good idea for your psyche. you think taper madness is bad? add a breakup in there, not a good combo (more on that later). 

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i know i made the right decision and one day when all of this is past, ill see it. for now im going to ride the breakup train and whatever emotion will hit me next. stick with me my friends, this blog will still be filled with love, just a different kind going forward.

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its my turn to take back the power.

for most of my life ive kept 2 things inside pretty well. the first not totally being comfortable in my own skin and second my knee pain. now let me clear somethings up. this is not a pity party or in no way am i fishing for nice compliments. this is simply my story and how i finally took charge of my own body issues!

i am comfortable with who i am, amazingly grateful for the people in my life and for the things i am able to do on a daily basis. but somehow i have managed to surround myself with beautifully skinny girls (who i wouldnt trade for the world) and just dont feel 100% comfortable all the time. i in no way feel overweight, i just dont want to be the heavy girl at the 5k anymore for example. i want to be able to go to any store and not worry about them having my jeans size. or have people look at me and go youre a runner? i want to look as great as i feel. i have the training part down, i can rattle off my plan, mileage for the week, and all the times of my races at the drop of a hat. i got it dialed and it works wonders for me. so why havent i lost any weight in the last 3 years other than the few in the beginning? it doesnt take a rocket scientist to figure out why a runner doing 20+/- miles a week with 2 days of cross-training isnt losing weight...its the nutrition.

 

so it all came to pass about a month and a half ago at a work happy hour as i sat there with my iced tea drooling over the alcohol and and cheeseburgers with fries everyone was eating and not having to worry about working those off. i was never blessed with that type of metabolism, i mean a lot of it is in the genes people. now some of these beautiful ladies work rockin hard to not have to worry about that friday night happy hour, i just wondered why working just as much as they did didnt seem to be making a difference. it was also a day where my hair sucked, i wasnt loving anything in my closet, and couldnt eat a french fry without feeling bad. it wasnt a good day to say the least. the next morning i got up to complete my 12 miles (which felt great) knowing they were all loving their beds as my alarm went off at 4am to beat at least a little bit of the heat. i knew something had to change and i was the only one who could really and truly make that happen.

monday morning i went into my boss, the pain still a little raw (it was written all over my face) and asked for her nutritionists phone number. she had raved about joanie forever. telling all of us how great she was and that she worked with anyone. she changed your food yes, but not to a crazy calorie counting diet plan or something we send to your house or you can only eat these 3 foods. she was real. finally realizing it was the nutrition meant i needed help, someone that could work with me and my likes/dislikes and being a runner. you see its often frowned upon for runners to go on diets because we cant totally cut out any one food. but there had to be an answer somewhere.

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so i called the next morning and by wednesday afternoon i was sitting in her office going over bloodwork and talking all about me and my body. she listened to everything and gave me quite a few faces when i told her about the things i was eating. we worked out a plan and she made a "highly recommended" suggestion that i go to the grocery store to stock up on my new things that night! its made up of lots and lots of fruits and veggies, whole grain foods, lean meats/proteins, and things with the lowest sugar/fat possible plus how many of each i should be eating per day. she had lots of great suggestions about particular brands and broke everything down for me. i literally took home a book of information comparing darn near every brand of cereal for example with all its nutritional value. i got on the scale and didnt love what i saw at 170.5 pounds. we did measurements of literally every part of my body and she gave me an "approved joanie" list of things to buy. i headed back to work that day actually feeling great about the step i had taken and was ready to make the change. now i wasnt looking to be a size 2 (or 4 or 6 for that matter), that was never in the cards for me. but i wanted to feel good about myself, and that the work i was doing on the pavement showed!

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friday afternoon i went to see her again and we talked all about how my couple days had been and what i had been eating. she was seriously impressed with my willingness to try new food (except spinach, kale, beans, or oatmeal to name a few) and could tell i was committed. she made me get back on that scale and i was terrified to say the least. turns out i had lost 3 pounds just changing my diet in 3 days!!! i was ecstatic to already have some changes. now yes i know most of it was water weight and flushing out the bad stuff from my body, but i took it!

things fell into place with joanie quickly, not that it wasnt and still is a struggle some days. the pizza on fridays, donuts/pastries on saturday mornings, lunch dates with friends, and the offers of lets go get fast food after the et race were abundant. i have never been to so many birthday parties with delicious looking cake in such a short time. i have had days (quite a few actually) when all i really wanted to do was eat like i used too. the problem was i didnt used to eat awful, especially during half marathon training. but now comparing i didnt eat great either.

i can make my own healthier version of things
like mac & cheese! you dont have to
give up everything to be healthy!

i can now say from july 18th to september 5th i am down 14.5 pounds and 27 inches!!! i have a few weeks left with joanie and am hoping to have a big update friday when i get down to 155 pounds because then we can measure again. keep your fingers crossed:) i feel wayyy better about myself and things are fitting so much better than they used to. my body feels happier when i run having these healthy things and a better balance inside it. i know for a fact i made the right choice going to her!

now that i had the nutrition part under control something else had now reflared up, knee pain. i havent had the best luck over the years. it started when i was 12 and developed osgood schlatters disease in both knees, its common in young athletes actually. basically your body is growing and the impact of sports is putting too much pressure on the tendons in your legs which is causing pain in the knees. most grow out of it, which i did. until freshmen year of high school when i got patellar tendonist in my left knee along with knee cap falling on top of it and to the outside of my leg. the arches in both my feet also fell at the same time. i had to quit everything cold turkey and went to 6 weeks of physical therapy. it helped a lot but i was told i would always probably have some knee pain when exercising, i just had to decide what i could really deal with.

so i took that for a long while and usually icing a few times helped until about 3 weeks ago when i got a bad tightness in the backs of both my knees and the front hurt a lot and quite often. with my past track record of knee pain i decided i should go to a sports doc asap. my mom luckily had a great one that worked on her foot last summer that was also a runner so i knew he would get it. luckily again i got a same week appointment and was into see dr hanson quickly. we took xrays and did ligament tests which i passed all of them. we talked about my changing to minimalist shoes and everything was fine till he had me hop on one knee at a time and it hurt real bad in my right knee. he told me i needed to get into see his friend ron, a physical therapist quickly. there was 8 weeks till my race and he knew ron could fix me in plenty of time.

those just dont look right!

about 5 minutes later i called ron and made an appointment for that next tuesday. i was still cleared to run by both guys as long as it didnt hurt. the 8 miler that weekend wasnt my best run ever, but i couldnt back down now. tuesday came quickly and it seemed like ron had all the answers. he listened to all my stories, did some general tests, had me run on the treadmill and knew immediately what was wrong. he didnt even need xrays to tell him what he already knew. basically it was everything but my knees haha! it all came down to my hips which oddly didnt surprise me. i had hip/knee issues as a kid too. when i was 6 months old i wore a brace to pull my knees apart because they were a bit bowed in and couldnt even go around my moms hip when she would hold me. luckily the brace worked and i never had to have surgery. but now its allll coming full circle lol.

we worked mostly on my form that day and i found out that my glutes had terrible strength. i needed to build them up quickly so i could stop using my hips so much to propel me forward but the rest of my body. we worked on shortening my stride and upping the tempo. i was totally out of breath and my entire lower body was sore, except my knee. ron told me this was his favorite thing to treat and i might even get faster. i didnt really believe that until my next 2 runs!

boom!!

ive been back once after the initial and dang do my muscles need work. i am at a 1 pound weight on each leg when the average is 7-8 pounds. ron says he can fix me in 9 sessions like i said and i might even be really mad at him when this is all done. he told me ive had knee pain for so long and people have always told me it wasnt fixable, he tells me it is and were gonna do it together.

gotta do my own work!

for the first time in a long time i feel really in control of my own body. i feel skinnier in my clothes and people around me are starting to seriously notice. the support i have received from friends, family, and richard has been amazing! my knees are feeling better and i improved my 9 mile route time by 10 minutes from year ago! i know these things are working together and i couldnt be happier with both results:)


ps if you live in the las vegas area and would like information for either one of them, please let me know! i would be more than happy to pass it along and let them hep you on your journey:) also if you have any questions, i would love to help in anyway i can!!