Auld Lang Syne

Yep, It's that time again. The end of one year and the beginning of another.

This was after a lot of champagne. Circa 2009

I love New Year's Eve. Aside from our annual party, New Year's always represents a time of change. I used to arm myself with pens and markers and make lists and charts detailing all of the changes I planned on making. Unfortunately, I usually didn't end up making any changes at all.

For some reason, 2012 was different. I didn't make my usual lists and plans and somehow things were just really good. Minus a few blips, this year was pretty good and most importantly, I can honestly say that I'm happier than I have been in years. I can't even pin point what changed, but life has been really good.

The only bad really bad part of 2012 was the retirement of my show horse, Bam Bam Rubble. Retiring Bam was one of the most difficult decisions I've had to make in a long time. I can't even type this without tearing up a little. In the end, I had to make the decision that was best for him. He seems really happy, so I know I did the right thing, but it wasn't easy. And there were tears. Many, many tears.

Bam in 2008

But mostly, 2012 has been great. This year was the year that I was supposed to run the New York City Marathon. Even though the race was canceled, I can honestly say that the experience was life changing. I learned a lot, trained a lot, and in the process, earned a shiny new PR.

PR at Disneyland Half Marathon



As close as I got to the NYC Marathon this year.

I also have a new riding partner. I bought Louie in October and I am in love. He's great to ride and adorable, which is always a plus. I look forward to seeing where this partnership takes us.

I <3 this horse.

I got to go to Mexico for the first time, too. I realize that's sort of weird considering I've been to Europe three times, but I live on the Mexico border and I've never been there.

We had an amazing time. Everything was beautiful.

So 2012 is coming to a close and I'm looking forward to an even better 2013. I plan to run the NYCM this year and the Goofy Challenge is in *gulp* less than two weeks. I hope I don't seriously hurt myself!

I still have changes to make and things to improve, but I think the difference is that this year, I actually made a lot of those changes. I didn't make lists, I actually made improvements.

And that makes me a happy girl.

I'm ready to train for NYCM 2013!

That's not to say that I don't have goals for 2013. I have a bunch of those, but I will save them for a future post.

Everyone be safe tonight, the crazies are out! Bring on 2013!

Instagram Me

As usual, I've been busy, busy, busy! Here's what's been going on: Instagram style.

A hot air balloon landed right next to the
road as I was driving to work.

I actually went running in the daylight.

Running 6 miles through the neighborhood.

Running at my my old high school

When I was in high school, this was a dirt track

Sunday breakfast with the girls.
(That's gluten free bread.)

Getting ready for New Year's Eve

Going to go on a run before work tomorrow so that I can play on New Year's Eve guilt free. ;)

Baby, It's Cold Outside

Did 5 miles tonight and it was really cold. Now, I know that 46 isn't really that cold, but to us desert dwellers, it's frigid. I trained all summer to run NYC when it was in the 90s at 4 freaking AM.

It took a lot to get me out there, especially considering the fact that my outside rep at work sent me a surprise to celebrate a very successful month.

She knows the way to bribe me my heart.

Who needs to run?

I've been squatting at my mom's house for a few days because of the holidays and more importantly, there's something wrong with my satellite and how in God's name am I supposed to survive without TV?!?

I made my mom take a picture of me before I left.

One of the things I'm finally accepting is that you have to swallow your pride when you train for really long distances. Since I'm already a slow runner on a good day, it's hard to slow my pace down even more but I'm coming to the conlusion that the only way I'm going to survive Goofy is to be as slow as possible and still stay within the allowed time limits.

I keep proving to myself that if I start out too fast, I will pay. My body rebels every single time and I feel wiped out after 3 miles. Tonight I slowed myself down by almost an entire minute per mile and I felt great, so I guess that's my plan for Goofy survival.

I'm also trying to drink more water and eat better the next two weeks before we leave. Today for lunch, I splurged on a pricey salad from Pita Jungle. It was ah-may-zing.




Chicken Curry Salad.

And now I'm off to bed so I can get up early and see my cute pony in the morning. I love Instagramming him.

Off to bed.

Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas

It's been a wonderful Christmas holiday. Not as much running as I planned, of course, but are you really surprised? I didn't think so.

I did spend a lot of time with my Little Lou over the holiday.

He's not a fan of the antlers.

I spent Christmas Eve at my aunt's house and since she's technically Jewish, she has this giant light up Eiffel Tower instead of a tree. I dig it.

It even blinks.

Everyone needs a giant tube of Sweet Tarts,
my favorite candy...

I really, really, really wanted this back pack for the NYC Marathon. I was afraid to buy it because it seemed like bad luck to buy it before leaving for NYC. Then the race got canceled and I saw them all over NYC, but I still didn't get one because the fate of the 2012 entrants was undecided. Well, my wonderful sister got it for me for Christmas. It's really nice. And since I will get to run NYCM in the next 3 years, I'm so glad she got it for me!

This morning, we took our annual barn Christmas picture. It's tradition.

Linda, Me, Katie, Cindy and Kristy

I also had my first Christmas Day movie going experience. Holy *&^%, do people love to go to the movies on Christmas. It was a total zoo. There were four of us and we had to sit in two's because we couldn't find seats together even though we were 45 minutes early.

If you are a Les Mis fan, see this movie.

I really liked the movie version of one of my favorite musicals. I know the soundtrack from start to finish and I really enjoyed the movie adaptation. I even sang Castle on a Cloud as a solo once in choir. Shocking, right? Yeah, it shocks me, too.

It's incredibly well done, but be prepared for how long it is. There's no intermission, so it's a bit too long for me. Some of it could probably be shaved down. But I still give it a thumbs up.

Anyhoo, I hope everyone had a very merry Christmas.

It's The End Of The World As We Know It...

...And I feel fine! Anyone else have R.E.M. stuck in their head all week? No? Just me? Hmmm, let me help you with that. You're welcome.

I thought about doing a meaningful post about the upcoming Mayan Apocalypse as a metaphor for the current state of America. Then I got all depressed. So instead, I will blog about my usual randomness because there's some really cool stuff happening right now.

Also, since the world didn't end, looks like I'm still going to be running the oh-so-scary Goofy Challenge. I had a little Goofy doll that I kept on my desk for motivation and my desk is so disorganized right now (okay, so that's a lie. It's disorganized every single day.) that I lost track of him. I found him upside down on top of a stack of needles. Is that weird? I swear it's not weird in this office considering we sell veterinary drugs and equipment.


Oh, hello there. Just hanging out on some needles.

 My dear friend, Ari, threatened to "slice a bitch" if I didn't get myself back on the running wagon, so I actually ran last night. It was only 4 miles, but it was freezing and I was exhausted. I didn't leave until after 8:00. That might be because I tried to take a decent pre-run picture, for like, 20 minutes. I have my priorities. And none of them looked good, anyway.

Since my Stranger Danger scare, I've tried to run with Tara or run in my mom's neighborhood, so this lovely gem was taken in her bathroom, not mine.




Super cool gloves AND super cool iPhone case.
The paintings are not mine.



Christmas lights!

The NYC Marathon announced the fate of the 2012 runners the other day, as well. I, for one, am very happy with the outcome. It seems as if I may be in the minority if you look at their Facebook page. The constant complaining has to stop, seriously. Anyone that was supposed to run in 2012, will be given the option of a refund or guaranteed entry in 2013, 2014, or 2015. You have to pay the entry again, though. That part sucks, but I get it. The waiver you sign clearly states no refunds for any reason so the fact that they are allowing a refund at all means something. I plan on running. I want to run in 2013 and Tara wants to do 2014, so I guess we'll see how that shakes out.

Or 2013, 2014, 2015

To make life even more awesome, runDisney added an event to their Disneyland Half Marathon. In addition to the half marathon, there will be 10K on Saturday. Doing both is the Dumbo Double Dare. It's a lot like their Goofy Challenge with 2 races and 3 medals, but a helluva lot easier. I'm totally in. How could I not be!




Seriously, how cute is a Dumbo medal going to be?!

 The Competitor Group announced the medals for the P.F. Chang's Rock 'n' Roll Arizona. A lot of our team that was supposed to run in NYC decided to make this race their first full marathon. I wasn't going to do it because it's not my favorite race and it's a week after Goofy, but I want to cheer on my team mates, so maybe I will do the half and then wait to watch them cross the finish line for the full.



Bling, bling, bling.

 I came into work today and a present from one of my clients was waiting for me. Packed with tons of candy. Running fuel!!!




She labeled each one as, "before work, "during work,
and "after work". I love my clients.


So lots of fun and exciting things are happening. And Goofy is in 20 days. GULP!

Totally Tuesday

Lots of bloggers do some sort of clever theme on different days like Wordless Wednesday or Three Things Thursday or Fucked Up Friday. Okay, so I made the last one up.

Today is Tuesday and I don't have a clever theme, so Totally Tuesday it is. I'm too lazy to turn on my computer, so enjoy this collection of randomness from my phone from the last couple of days.

You're welcome.

(Dear Santa, I would like a better iPhone blogger app for Christmas. Thank you.)

Blah Blah Blah Goofy

So yeah, about Goofy. Why the hell is it so hard to get myself motivated? I've become a running Goldilocks. First it was too hot all freaking summer. Now it's too cold.

And Goofy is creeping up. Less than 4 weeks away now. And I'm starting to have running nightmares, which I don't think I've had since I trained for my first half marathon 2 and a half years ago and I was afraid I wouldn't finish.

On the flip side, I'm totally stoked to meet Fruit Fly and Abby during WDW Marathon weekend. I hope I don't end up wanting to die. Seems like a legit concern at this point. Unless, of course, the world ends. In which case, whew! Dodged that bullet.

Anybody watch this show? I love this guy.

 I also have not even begun Christmas shopping. I. Am. Screwed.

12-12-12 Virtual Run 12K

Howdy. I hope everyone has more energy than I do. The last few weeks have been killer. I keep thinking work is going to slow down, but we've been crazy. Not to mention riding the Louie pony and trying to train for Goofy.

Yeah Goofy. So I convinced Tara that we should sign up for the 12-12-12 Virtual Race to shake things up. So in the spirit of celebrating 12-12-12, you could sign up for 1.2 miles, 12K or 12 miles for $12.12. And you get a medal in the mail. Sold.

Originally, I planned for 12 miles, but I got held up at work and left later than I had planned, so we shaved it down to a 12K. It's something, right?

I printed off our "race bibs" and personalized them. Looks professional, huh?

Then I raced over to Tara's. She lives a bits of a ways from me in Tempe, but she's close to a lot of great running areas.

Stylin'

Ready to run

Annnnnd then after whining and griping for a decent amount of time, we headed out toward Tempe Town Lake near ASU.

Challenge accepted, Mr. Bridge.

I don't know what's happening here.

This is why our runs take so long. Screwing around and climbing on structures with clearly posted warnings not to do so. And we're really slow. C'est la vie.

We jogged along a little more and then crossed over another bridge that leads to the Tempe Center for the Arts.

Tempe Center for the Arts

There was a symphony rehearsal going on...

We stopped at In & Out for a bathroom break, and it's a good thing neither of us had money at the time, because we probably would have ordered food.

So that sums up our Virtual Race. I'm feeling a little disillusioned as far as Goofy goes. I was exhausted last night and running 7.5 miles was somewhat of a struggle. I'm hoping it's just because the last few weeks have been extremely draining and I haven't gotten a lot of sleep.

Although, I was excited to see my Goofy race number today...and a little scared. Race waivers are ready to download! Eeek. I hope everyone else is doing better in their training than me.