Dumbo Double Dare, NYCM, Horse Shows and Kittens. Oh My!

Things have been pretty busy 'round these parts. Training for the NYC Marathon has officially begun, and I have to give a shout out of thanks to my friend and barn mate, Lara.

Me, Tara and Lara last weekend at the Scottsdale green belt.

Lara is pretty hard core. I don't know if she'd agree with that statement, but trust me, it's true. She's been dragging my butt out on all sorts of crazy hill runs on very rocky, mountainous terrain, and while they suck at the time, I have to say that I appreciate the fact that she doesn't let me make excuses to bail. Not to mention, we live in Phoenix and since running the mountain path isn't possible in the dark, we do it at about 6:30pm, which is still incredibly hot.

Yesterday, she also met me for a long run at another, much more flat, desert park to get in 9 miles.

I got up at 4:00am to meet her and a coworker (who is also running the Disneyland Half and possibly Dopey in 2015) at 5:00am.

My Long Beach Marathon visor is my absolute favorite.
Feel free to ignore the bags under my eyes.

I stayed out a little later than I probably should have (I believe going out for sushi is an acceptable reason) and I may have had a glass of wine...but only one. Those 9 miles felt a little tough. It was in the 90's even at 5:00, so that's my excuse. The good news is that I'm definitely keeping a faster pace when I'm running, but the bad news is that I seem to be taking more walk breaks than I would like. I'm going to blame that on the heat.

Anyway, thank you, Lara, for helping me train for NYCM- especially considering the longest race she has planned in the near future is a half marathon (although she has already done a couple of fulls).

This summer will be the fourth year I run the Disneyland Half Marathon. This is my favorite of the Disney races. I know a lot of people like the WDW races better, but for me, DL Half is the best. It was my very first half and is currently my PR. The course is so much more entertaining than WDW races.

 I'm super excited to be doing the Dumbo Double Dare. I know it's going to be a blast.

Me with my sister, who did the 5K, in 2012.

I don't have a specific plan for training for Dumbo, but it overlaps with NYCM training, so I'm just trying to fit in some back to back longish runs as training. Since I've already survived Goofy, I don't feel too worried about doing Dumbo.

Plus, I'm super excited to hang out with these awesome ladies again...

Abby, Fruitfly and Me after the WDW Marathon in January.

And, of course, by trusty running partner in crime, Tara...

Tara and I don't have similar schedules, so it's really hard for us to meet up for training runs. Not to mention, we live a bit of a ways from each other. Hopefully, we'll be able to plan some long runs during NYCM training.

In other news, I also leave for a horse show on Thursday up in the mountains and I can not wait to get out of this heat. We're also going back in August. Louie has been awesome, so I'm hoping that streak continues through the horse show. He's such a great little horse and I'm having a blast riding him.

I'm also most likely going to be adding to my animal family very soon. Both my dog and cat passed away in the last two years and I think it's time to adopt some new furry friends.

My horse trainer is fostering a mama kitty and her kittens for the Humane Society and I could play with these babies all day long.

Seriously. How cute are these kittens? I don't know how I'm
going to pick out just two. I love them all.

Oh Em Gee

Whew! What's new with everyone else?