I can now say I ran a half marathon.

On Sunday with a time of 2 hours and 35 minutes, I completed my first half marathon. All in all it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be, and I was even sick! But here's a breakdown of the thoughts that were running through my head as I was running:
Miles 1-4: Why in the world did no one try to talk me out of this!?
Miles 5-6: I'm even sick and still no one tried to talk me out of this!?
Miles 7-9: Ok. I can do this. I'm over the halfway point. I can do this.
Miles 10-11: In two miles Kayla (my best friend) will be with me and it'll be so much better. (Her mom - who was in charge of the marathon snuck her in.
Miles 12-13: I can see the finish line but I feel like I'm never going to get there!

The support that I had at the end of my run was incredible. Waiting for me to cross the finish line was my dad, aunt and uncle. At the finish line was Kayla's mom. After the finish line handing out Gatorade was a close family friend. After the Gatorade handing out bananas was Kayla's grandma. It was almost overwhelming the amount of things that were thrust into your hands as soon as you just finished running 13 freaking miles. I wanted to yell, "Just give me a second! I can't even think or process anything yet!"

So now, at the age of 23, I get to cross something off of my bucket list, but I'd have to say that the best thing about the day overall was the face that I got to hear the words "I'm so proud of you!" over and over again.

Something good that happened today was...

Since I started my "Something Good That Happened Today" journal, I've felt a lot better overall. Some of the good things that have happened are:

- I wore a dress that my friend Kayla gave me. I love wearing clothing that has memories attached to them because it makes me feel so good when I wear them. Wearing the items makes me remember the story behind them.
- I finally did a draft of my project that my professor approved of! I had done two versions, and my professor didn't like them...at all. I was about ready to give up when I came up with the third idea and it worked!
- I got to go home over the weekend and had a movie night with my little brother. We popped popcorn and watched Wall-E. It felt so good to be home with my family and to hang out with my little brother.
- I got to walk Race for the Cure with my mom. It was really special to me to be able to walk it with her. The day of the race was four months to the exact day that my best friend's mom had died of breast cancer, so we walked it in honor of her. We all miss you, Paula!
- I got to make dinner with one of my good friends Julie. Its almost so much fun to hang out with her because we just talk and talk for hours. I always feel so much more grounded once I've spent time with her.
-I ran a whole 10 miles! I'm running a half marathon a week from Sunday, so it was a good thing I got a long run in! It felt so good to run that far and still be able to function afterwards.
- I got a free piece of matte board. It saved me $11. Enough said.
- I had an interview for a new job (I despise the job I have now) and it went really well! I have high hopes for it, but it still could be two weeks before I hear back from it!
- I got to babysit Kate while Sam and Joe were in class. She was fussy when I first got there but then she fell asleep when I was holding her. It felt so good just to sit there on the couch and snuggle with her. I can't believe she's already a year old!

Hopefully, the good times keep rolling! I'm glad things are starting to turn around!

Finding the Good Things.

Lately I've been having a really rough time. Life seems like its been a lot more rough than usual. I mean, we all have our usual hang ups but recently life feels like its been kicking my butt. With all these hang ups happening its been really easy to dwell on the bad things that have been happening and pushing the good things to the side. My friend bought me a cute, little journal for my birthday and, at first, I was lost as to what to do with it. I've tried keeping a journal before but its just never really been my thing - its hard enough for me to keep up with this blog! After a lot of thought, I have decided to use the journal as a record of all the good things in my life. Each night I'm going to make myself sit down and record something good that happened that day. Hopefully by doing this, I'll be able to pull myself out of my funk and be able to focus on the positive things again. And don't worry, I'll be sharing those good things with you guys too!

I didn't think I was going to make it.

First of all I would just like to state that I should never have gotten paid ever. I went shopping AGAIN today and spent mooooore money! I'm ridiculous. They should only pay me in $30 intervals, so I don't go blowing all of my money.

Ok onto bigger and better things. I got up yesterday BEFORE my class to run. I'll pause here while you guys pick yourselves up off the floor from falling over in shock. Overall, it was a pretty good run. According to my runkeeper account, it was my furthest run yet! I was quite proud of myself.

Now after the run is when things got crazy. When I got back to my room I only had 20 minutes to shower and get my butt up the hill to class. Alright, for all you guys that have never visited Western Kentucky University when they chose "The Hilltoppers" as our mascot they weren't messing around. By Hilltoppers they literally meant that our school was built on a hill. I literally did not think that my legs were going to make it all the way up the hill to my class. I thought I was going to have to take a seat next to the sidewalk and rest for a couple minutes. It was ridiculous.

Once I got to class things did not get any better. Long story short, I ended up having to redo both of my projects because my professor didn't like them. Needless to say, today was a lot better day.

So I didn't do too badly...

My goal this weekend was to not spend all of my money on useless things and just waste it all. And in my own opinion I did...ok.

Friday I splurged a little - I hadn't had money in so long! I went to the mall and bought a few things. I went to Wal-Mart and stocked up on groceries. I can only live on EasyMac for so long. Then a friend and I went out for Japanese food and saw a movie. We ended up seeing "Going the Distance" and wow that movie was depressing. I basically didn't talk for the rest of the night because I was so utterly sad. The movie starring Drew Barrymore and Justin Long made finding your soulmate look so ridiculously easy. All I could think about was if it was so easy for people like them, then why haven't I found my soulmate yet? Its just not fair!

Saturday my roommate and I went out for breakfast since nothing was open on campus and we had woken up way too early and because I actually had money to pay for it. But that was the only money that I spent all day! I was so proud of myself.

After all of that success yesterday, I had a fallback today. Sadly. We went back to the mall, so I could return a shirt that I had bought on Friday which would've been all well and good if I hadn't used that money to go down a couple stores and buy another pair of jeans. Then I went back to Wal-Mart and bought a bunch of stuff that I either forgot to buy Friday or realized I needed since I had gone to Wal-Mart.

Needless to say, I'm not leaving campus for a long while now, so that I can avoid spending any more money!

Money!

After about a week of living with only $13 to my name, I finally got paid today! I helped a family friend build her website and got paid for it. I almost wish that she didn't give all the money to me at one time though. It would really help me budget it if I only got a little bit at a time. As soon as I had the money in my needy little hands I began imagining all the wonderful things that I could buy with it. Should I go out to dinner? Should I go to the mall? Should I go stock up on groceries? Me + money = trouble.

It was a lot easier this week to avoid the junk food talking to me from the grocery store and the cute little sweaters at Old Navy. A lot of that had to do with the fact that I couldn't even afford the GAS to get to these places, but oh well. I was feeling pretty good about myself. I already have way too many money spending plans for this weekend. Friday night I'm going out to dinner and then to a movie. They are so expensive now! Maybe I should find myself a boyfriend to pay for these things for me. Then on Saturday I only work four hours during the day. So you know what my first thought was when I realized I had a whole day open and money burning a whole in my pocket? Shoooooppppping!

I'm going to try to the best of my ability to avoid the temptations that having money brings. I'll keep you posted on how I do!

Have a great weekend!

Using the Stress

Today was day two of my final semester here at Western Kentucky. Day two. That's it. All we did in my classes today was look over our syllabus. So please tell me why I'm already on the verge of a breakdown.

Oh, I'll save you the trouble and just tell you. I had a phone interview scheduled today for an internship that I would absolutely kill to get! Its at a place in Bloomington, IN that I often visit and have fallen in love with it. So naturally when they had an internship spot open I applied for it as fast as I could. The guy wanted to interview me in person but being three hours away it just wasn't a possibility for me to drive up there for an interview in the middle of the first week of the semester. This is the time when he suggested a phone interview. But today was the day that my cell phone service provider completely crashed and I cannot get any calls nor call anyone. Hopefully missing the interview does not ruin any chance I had in getting the internship (I emailed the guy and told him what was going on. I'm hoping he understands).

Anyway, now I'm off to work where all I'll be able to do is sit around and stress about things that were out of my control. Its times like these where I actually wish I had time to run so I could use my stress for good. I never thought I'd ever say that I wish I could go run. There's always a first time for everything!

Catching My Breath

Sorry its been forever since I've posted on here! Things have been crazy for the past month or so. Since I last talked to you I attended the wedding (it wasn't exactly what I had expected), I went to Florida (where I only ran once...eek!) and I moved back in at school.

I've already been down at school for a week, and I've managed to already run three times! Its going to get a lot harder to make myself run though pretty soon. Right now not many of my friends are back at school yet, so I don't have as many things to distract me from my running schedule.

I have found fun new motivation tool though. Its called RunKeeper and I love it. You make your own profile on it with information about yourself and what kind of exercising you like to do. On there you can keep track of your weight, calories burned and number of activities you have done that month. For me it keeps track of all of my running. It keeps track of all of my miles, and I can even save routes on there for future use. Try it out and let me know what you guys think!

Its Gone.

Luckily, I escaped the 4th of July without doing too much damage to my diet. The worst thing I did was keep nibbling at these chocolate chip cookies that they kept out the entire time. Ok so maybe I did do some good damage to my diet. Its over now though so there's nothing I can do about it!

Now that the holiday is over though I have nooooo motivation to go running today. I went to bed last night with the pretense that I was going to get up and run, but that obviously did not happen. I haven't run since Friday. Let's hope I gain some motivation throughout the day and run later in the afternoon.

Can You Believe the Weather!?

Its the day before July 4th and the weather is absolutely beautiful. Its below 90 degrees outside, and there's an actual breeze outside. Normally its about 100 degrees by now with absolutely no breeze and ridiculously humid out.

The weather has motivated me to go on a few extra runs this week because I don't want to waste how pretty it is outside. I was going to take Wednesday off but it was just so cool outside I couldn't help myself. All I could think of was how hot it was going to be next week and how I would be wishing the weather was more like it is now. And that's all it took!

Hopefully I can find some good motivation to stay away from all the food at the July 4th cookouts I'll be attending shortly...

Finding Motivation

So I've decided that weddings are great motivators for working out. Even though I'll only know two people there, I still want to knock all their socks off with how good I look. Its such a confidence booster to walk into a room loving how you feel. All week I've been babysitting and fighting the munchies but with this wedding coming up I can just say to myself, "The wedding. The wedding. The wedding." and its so much easier to walk away from those chips and cookies.

I need to start finding these little motivators through out my life because once this wedding is over with I'll need something else I can work with.

Starting Off on the Right Foot

In August, I will start my last semester of college. It could possibly be the most exciting thing as well as the most frightening time of my life. Its when I'll have the most life changes, and I just want everything to get started off on the right foot. I'm so ready to really start my life though! Through this blog, I really want to document my triumphs and my struggles as I go through all of these changes.

Until August, I'll be here at home, and since my only employment right now is babysitting a couple days a week, I have some major exercise goals. As of right now, I'm training for a half marathon in October and earlier this week started Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred DVD (http://www.30dayshreddvd.com/uof/30dayshreddvd/).

Hopefully I'll keep up the motivation to complete these workouts and get ready for next semester. Motivation seems to be the big thing I'm lacking in these days...other than money of course!