Running: An addiction, An Infatuation, An Inexplicable Desire

I am completely obsessed with running! It's an addiction, an infatuation, an inexplicable desire to lace up my running shoes and put one foot in front of the other every chance I get.  This past weekend I ran the Distance Dare at the Winter Park Road Race, which was a two miler followed by a 10K for a total of 8.2 miles. It was great fun racing with my running friends! Afterwards we not only had our beer tickets for free beer, we also happened upon others giving away their beer tickets. By 9:00AM I had ran two races for a total of 8.2 miles and had two beers. We ran into a bunch of people from my Ragnar team, so we chatted for a bit. When we left the beer area, we walked around the different vendor tents and stopped to enjoy free breakfast and coffee! The races were awesome and the after party was even better!

On Sunday, I met up with some of my running friends that didn't do the race on Saturday. We ran 8 miles and were lucky enough to see two bald eagles during our run! My running friend, Badass Doreen, made an excellent breakfast for us to enjoy after our run. Her husband crafted homemade cappuccinos to go with the heart shaped waffles that were absolutely perfect.

The people I run with are a fantastic group of individuals that support and challenge one another. Some people in our group are going through a shitty period of time in their lives, and it's encouraging to see us stand together in friendship and understanding. We are not alone. Sure we are running friends, but I think we might be regular friends, too. We went to see Beauty and Beast together. Next week, we are going to Paint with a Twist and the week after that a bunch of us are going to surprise the lady in our group that's in a play by showing up to see her show after we have a potluck dinner. 

Well, I said I was obsessed with running.  I ran a total of 16 miles this past weekend and I'm not training for anything specific. It was just for fun! At the moment, there is no place I'd rather be than out on the road pounding the pavement with each step I take. It's liberating for it to be as easy as it should be without any unnecessary struggle. I feel strong. I feel awake. I feel alive. I don't typically buy race photos, but when I saw the picture below I couldn't help myself.  I want to remember how great I felt in that moment, and even now. It captures the pure joy I find in running.

I jumped over the finish line of the two miler before the start of the 10K. Is it just me, or does it look like I still have hops from my basketball playing days? I think it looks like I'm flying!

Where Have I Been?

Where have I been and what have I been doing? Don't mind me, I've just been in my own little world working hard and enjoying life. I'm still working like crazy and I'm loving it!

In the Spring Fever "It's for the Kids" 10K on March 4th, I was the first female finisher!!! It's the first race I've ever won!!! I won a $50 Track Shack gift certificate!  Dang, I should get faster and win more races! ;)

I met my Team Challenge friends for breakfast one Saturday. It was nice to catch up with everyone! Since I met them back in 2013, they have truly inspired and supported me.  Their understanding is different from my other friends' and family's because they know first hand some of the shit I've been through and vice versa. When they hug me for a half second longer to squeeze a little tighter before letting go, I feel their empathy on another level!

I was fortunate enough to be one of the four people selected to be on a four person bowling team my company sponsored to benefit Leadership Seminole.  It was a one day event and I bowled a 135 in my highest scoring game! It was fun to network with co-workers I don't get to work with often.

I took my Dad to the second session of the first round of the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament in Orlando. We saw Xavier vs. Maryland and FSU vs. FGCU.  It was great spending time with him! I should make more of an effort to do more things with him.

I missed placing 3rd in my age group in the Chase the Leprechaun 5K on Friday by 6 seconds.  I can't be mad with 4th in my age group though. I had a side stich in the middle of the race, so I walked for a bit only to realize it was really gas cramps. Once I let out some gas, I felt better and started running again. I hate that gas cramps slowed me down, but I still finished in 29:14, which is a sub 30 minute 5k averaging 9:26 per mile and that is no easy feat!

My First Time Volunteering at a Disney Race

When my alarm went off at 1:30 AM, I thought why did this sound like a good idea? I never want to volunteer at a Disney Race again. Two of my sisters, Kim and Kelly, were up and just as ready to go as I was. We mumbled how early it was, but headed out to Disney anyway. We met my ugly step sister at the Volunteer check-in tent, and then found the right bus taking us to our volunteer assignment, the powerade station at mile 11.2 of the Disney Princess Half Marathon. We waited on the bus for about 45 minutes in the parking lot of Typhoon Lagoon before we started heading to our assignment. It turns out the bus driver went the wrong way and we got stuck in race morning traffic, which made us really late to our assignment.

Once we got to mile 11.2, the volunteers had to rush to set up the powerade station because the race was starting soon.  When we got to work, I loved every aspect of it! We set up tables, mixed powerade in countless 10 gallon coolers, set up cups, and then filled the cups with powerade. It took teamwork to find a groove in the process, but we did it! 

My favorite part was handing the cups of powerade to the runners and cheering them on. The first cup I handed off was to Track Shack star Heather Shultz. She ended up placing second!  It was great fun to see everyone's costumes and screaming for them by the name of the character they were dressed as! Over 30,000 people ran the race. Each person has their own story, a different reason they run. We even saw a few of our friends that were running the race!

By the time the last racer past us, our powerade station was cleaned up within 15 minutes. Disney has a great process with dump trucks and cleaning crews that follow behind the last racer to make cleanup a piece of cake. The group leader we volunteered with is with MarathonFest (that's how we got the opportunity), and he valued our hard work so much that he offered us spots to volunteer with his group at the 8.2 powerade station for the Star Wars Half Marathon in April. Surprisingly, since I woke up that morning, I had a change of heart. It was a rewarding experience, so I decided to sign up to volunteer at the Star Wars Half.

Taylor's Bridal Shower

This past weekend was a whirlwind. Friday was a half-day Friday at Work, but work is insanely crazy, so I left later than I had planned. If I could have, I would have worked the whole day on Friday and even on Saturday. It sucks heading to South Florida from Sanford because it adds about 45 minutes to my drive time than if I were to leave from Orlando instead. It took me right at four hours to make it down there. During my drive down, I couldn't get a few contracts out of my head because I left things in a bit of chaos.

I pretty much missed Taylor's dress fitting. I got there just time before they left the location of the fitting. Between thinking it started later than it did and leaving late from work, it was pretty much doomed from the start. Before dinner we had to go to the hotel so that I could bring the ice chest with the bridal shower cake in it to the room, which I presumably managed to keep Taylor from seeing it (I'm not completely convinced she didn't sneak a peek because she lost interest in seeing it relatively quickly). The girls unpacked all of the bridal shower stuff Taylor left with me in Orlando to bring. My car is definitely not made for moving a bunch of shit from one place to another.

We had a nice dinner at Olive Garden and Taylor made my day better by buying me two beers! After dinner, I felt much more relaxed and not as stressed. Once we got the flowers for the bridal shower and were back at the hotel, we got in our comfy clothes and started getting to work on decorations, favors, and such. Cybelle brought super fun face masks for our skin that we used right before we went to bed.

My alarm went off on Saturday for me to wake up early and go for a run, but I decided to snooze and skip running since I had a long weekend ahead of me. We got to the venue about two hours early to begin setting up. Somehow everything fell into place just in time. I don't think the cake could have been more perfect! The shower was elegant, lovely, and fun; however, personally, the work that went into it was not very rewarding to me. I know in the end it doesn't matter what I think because it wasn't about me, ultimately it was to celebrate and honor the bride-to-be. Hey, she seemed pleased with the bridal shower, so I'd count that as a success! I'm glad that's behind us. These wedding things are just not my cup of tea.

I left South Florida to head home around 3PM on Saturday. Thankfully, I was home by 6:30PM. I procrastinated on going to bed and when I finally did, I couldn't get to sleep for the life of me.  It was around 10PM when I finally fell asleep. Only to have my alarm go off at 1:30AM on Sunday so that I could go to my volunteer shift at the Disney Princess Half Marathon.

To be continued...

Highlights of February 2017

I'm not sure what I've been preoccupied with that has prevented me from sitting down and blogging this month. In an effort to save time, I'll give you the highlights of February 2017.

I had the best birthday to date! I spent my birthday weekend with Taylor and she made me feel incredibly special. From the thoughtful gifts to the planned surprise celebration, it makes me wonder what I did to deserve such an amazing friend. She got a bunch of my friends together to surprise me at an escape room, which, by the way, we escaped with like fifteen minutes to spare! No thanks to me, of course.

I've had a couple of really fun races (the Warrior Dash and the Quack Attack 5K) with my running friends. Seriously, they are such an inspiring group of people that they build everyone up. I'm not sure if running is fun by itself, or if running is only fun because of them. Anyways, I'm still as addicted as ever. I woke up at 4AM this morning to meet my group for a morning run. I thought the motivation I had to train while training for the NYC Marathon had long since dwindled, yet I'm still setting my alarm for that ungodly hour.

Work is busier than ever! Don't get me wrong, I love it! It just seems like I have more responsibilities than I have time in a day, in a week, in a month...well, you get the picture. It's challenging and I wouldn't trade it for anything at the moment.  The overtime is awesome!

Even though I'm Taylor's Maid of Honor, she has really held my hand and walked me through my responsibilities. Heck, she's helped me with almost everything. However, with just the few things that I've had to do this month to help prepare for her bridal shower, it reinforces my lack of desire to ever have a wedding or shenanigans for myself.  I know I'm lazy and that's probably why it feels like way too much work. I tried really hard to do my best, but I'm actually nervous the cake and cake stand I ordered won't be perfect. What if nobody likes it?  The fact that I think I'm going to like it is not enough.

The Need for Speed!

It has been three days since I ran the 5K on Saturday and I am still experiencing a runner's high. A bunch of women from my MarathonFest pace group ran the Lady Track Shack 5K. Prior to the start of the race, when we were discussing everyone's race strategy, I boldly confessed that I turned off the intervals on my watch. Yes, I planned to run the whole 5K without walking. No one else wanted to join me in my endeavor to run my ass off, so I left them in the dust as soon as I crossed the start line.
A few days before the race, I told my ugly stepsister that my unrealistic goal was a sub 28 minute 5K.

For the first mile, I wasted a lot of energy weaving in and out of the slower people. Thankfully, after the first mile, I was around runners maintaining a steady 8:45 per mile pace. Since I haven't been speed training my pace was all over the place, so I used the lady in front of me as a pacer.There was a water stop around the halfway point, but I decided to keep hauling ass instead of stopping for water.  Right before I reached mile three, I was sucking wind trying to catch my breath from running faster than I've ran in years. I know I slowed down a little towards the end. Although as soon as I rounded the corner and saw the finish line I sprinted to cross the line!   I finished in 27.42!!!! I ran the 5K about two to three minutes faster than most of the ladies in my pace group.  I'm a little shocked that I actually ran a sub 28 minute 5K! I'm not sure what my 5K PR was, but I'm going to say this may have been the fastest 5K I've ran under my name. My average pace was 8:54 minutes per mile. I placed 171 out of 2,263 participants, which means I finished in the top ten percent! Imagine how much faster I could have ran the 5K if I trained for speed.

Even though I love my pace group, I think it's time to start pushing the pace outside of my comfort zone. I plan to dabble in a faster pace group this MarathonFest session.  I ran one mile tonight in 8 minutes and 20 seconds. I think I could have ran faster if the cold weather didn't burn my lungs. The pace group I currently run with averages 10:30 - 11:30 minutes per mile. I know I can be fast, I just don't know how to train to maintain a consistent fast pace during longer runs. I would love to train for a sub 25 minute 5k, a sub 2 hour half marathon, a sub 4 hour marathon...or a BQ (Boston Qualifying time)!

Life with Taylor!

A few weeks ago it was a very real possibility that my best friend could have been moving to North Carolina.  Selfishly, I would have been devastated if that were the case.   I was pretty vocal about my concerns for our friendship if more distance separated us. After all these years, commitment still scares the shit out of me. I'd rather run away than be responsible for keeping commitments. (This might just be my biggest character flaw.) Taylor will be getting married and starting a family soon...and the idea of lengthening the distance between us while she starts this next chapter of her life crushed me to the core.  In my twisted brain though, I thought if she moved to N.C., it made sense to push her away. I couldn't promise to visit her in N.C. more than once a year. She'll soon have a husband and children, and I just assumed that she wouldn't have time for me anyway. Although she never said that.

I know my inability to properly commit to a longer distance friendship hurt Taylor. Taylor's mom nailed it when she said, "[Lauren] never wanted to work for it." Meaning, I haven't changed. I never wanted to work for our friendship. I never planned to commit to this. To my defense, I believe actions speak louder than words. I might not make verbal promises. If I do, I'll likely hesitate and try to withdraw from the situation (Again, it's a character flaw.). However, I don't think we can deny the fact that my actions throughout the years of our friendship say something else entirely. Through good times and bad, through happy days, and sad ones, through struggle and success, the fact that I've been there for Taylor should tell us all we need to know.  Whether I intended to or not, and whether I admit it out loud or not,  I've been committed to being Taylor's best friend for years. I never wanted to work for our friendship, but that doesn't mean I haven't worked my ass off to be the best friend I can be. I never planned to commit to this, but that doesn't mean I didn't dive in head first before I took swim lessons. The moment I jumped, I was all in!

I want us to be best friends until the end of time! How's that for communicating my commitment? Even though Taylor is moving to Central Florida tomorrow, it's not guaranteed she'll be here for long. It might be difficult for me to make promises, but I know no matter what I say, or don't say, our best friendship status isn't going to change. Whether she likes it or not, she's stuck with me and I can't wait to see what this next chapter has in store for her! My name is Lauren and Taylor is my best friend.