Half-Marathon: Review

Last week Sunday I completed my first half-marathon!  I never in a million years thought that phrase would come out of my mouth.

I am seriously so proud of myself.  I ran the entire thing, and only wanted to stop running once around mile 9.  My finish time was 2:25:34, which averages out to 11:07 minute miles!

If you have ever thought about running give it a try.  I had attempted to become a "runner" a few times, but always failed.  This summer I thought I would give it another try, and this time I actually stuck with it.  It really help me to have a group of women that were running the half marathon with me because we were able to hold each other accountable and talk about how our running was going.  I seriously started the summer not even being able to run one mile without being winded, and now I can comfortable do about six miles.

I followed the following training guide:

Week	Mon	Tues	Wed	Thurs	Fri	Sat	Sun	Total
1	3	Rest	3	3	Rest	4	Rest	13
2	3	Rest	4	3	Rest	5	Rest	15
3	3	Rest	4	3	Rest	6	Rest	16
4	3	Rest	5	3	Rest	8	Rest	19
5	3	Rest	5	3	Rest	10	Rest	21
6	4	Rest	5	4	Rest	11	Rest	24
7	4	Rest	6	4	Rest	12	Rest	26
8	4	Rest	5	4	Rest	9	Rest	22
9	3	Rest	4	3	Rest	8	Rest	18
10	3	Rest	3	Walk 2	Rest	13.1 (Race!)	Rest	21.1

This plan comes from this website.  I didn't start using this plan right away, I was running about three times a week for a month before I started.  Once I was able to run three miles without dying, I started to use this plan.

I also cannot stress enough how important stretching is!  Make sure you stretch before and after every run.  When I run on a treadmill I usually walk for about 3 minutes prior to starting any run just to get warmed up, but when I run outside I just start off running.

You can do it!  Just have faith in yourself and keep pushing through, even when you have days where you feel like you just can't run, or you just can't do it anymore.

Here are some pictures on race day:

 Before the race!  We made sweet t-shirts, and our team name was Wicked Wild Women.

 Me and my running buddy around mile 5. Photo credit: Daniel Grossman.

Passing through the starting gate again around mile 10. 

Me after the race!  It was such a great feeling to finish!

Half Marathon

My first half marathon is coming up in THREE days!

It got here so fast it's insane.  Luckily for me I am running with a group of five amazing women who all live here at Cardigan, so hopefully we will be able to motivate each other throughout the race.

We are running in the CHaD Hero Half Marathon, and the money raised in this race benefits the Children's Hospital at Dartmouth.

We will be rocking out in some cool "Wonder Woman" t-shirts that we made just for race day, so stay tuned for pictures!

Be on the lookout for a photo post coming up soon!

Fall is Here!

I love fall!  I used to think I loved summer the best, but I can safely say that fall is my favorite.  When the leaves change colors it seriously makes me so happy.  Fall in New England is pretty cool.  I wish I had a better camera to take pictures of how beautiful things are around here.

Speaking of pictures, I have failed miserably at uploading the ones I took when we were in Michigan a few weeks ago.  Also, my camera is terrible.  I am saving up for a new one and hoping to purchase it around Christmas time!

In Cardigan news, I am no longer teaching French!  That was definitely an adventure though.  Mark was practicing pronunciation with me one day and said that my French pronunciation sounded more like Spanish than my Spanish pronunciation does.

Yesterday in celebration of Founder's Day and Columbus Day the entire school went to the Sandwich Fair.  It's just like the Hudsonville Fair in MI complete with stinky animals, way too much deep fried food, carnival rides, and crafts to look at and buy.  It was a nice break from school though.

I'm running my first half marathon in less than two weeks!  Ahh.  I have been totally slacking on the training though.  Hopefully I don't die.

Now that things have calmed down and I feel like I am starting to have more free time I hope to update more often with real content!

Life Lately

Wow.  I am a terrible blogger.  But most of you probably know that already, and that's why I only have three followers :)  Plus I like reading blogs better than writing my own.

As for a summer recap, we spent most of our time just hanging out in Michigan.  We did get to catch a Tigers game.  They played the Yankees, and even though they lost it was still a fun game.

I kept up with my running, and was up to 10 miles before we came back east.  We also read a lot!  It was nice having so much time to ourselves, and we were able to relax and just hang out together.


We have been back in NH for a week and a half, and are slowly getting back into the swing of things.  Mark and I had faculty meetings (that I officially get to go to this year!), and today our 9th grade leaders arrived on campus.  It's really weird seeing a group of kids again, as this is our first year that we "returned" somewhere.  The boys look so much older, and they are so much taller too.

Our apartment update is still a work in progress.  After a recent trip to IKEA, we finally got rid of the futon!  We are now the proud owners of a matching couch and chair, but they are currently without slipcovers (boo IKEA for being sold out!), so those are currently being shipped to us.  Pictures will be coming soon.  I promise!  We also have curtains on three of our seven windows, but IKEA was sold out of curtains too, so I have to make a trip back there to get some more.  Speaking of curtains, I did learn how to sew this summer, and I even hemmed the three curtains I have, and made one of my own for our front door!  So that was pretty exciting.

In other news, we became cat owners.  Shocker.  It's still really weird for me to say that I actually own a cat.  Her name is Scout, and she is 11 years old.  One of the teachers here at school has had her since January, he got her from a friend who could no longer keep her, but he got a Boxer puppy and they didn't get along very well, so we took her.  She is super cute, really cuddly, and she loves attention.

Loving all the attention.

Sitting on her pillow.

Upside down sleeping.

Silly cat.

I signed up for my first half marathon today.  It's called the CHaD Half, and a group of women from school are all running it together.  I'm pretty nervous, and really need to start some hard core training.

I also am excited to get back into crochet.  I know a few people who are expecting babies, and I have some really great ideas of cute hats to make.  If you would like to place an order, just let me know.  I'm still considering starting an Etsy store, but it makes me nervous.

Mark is planning a trip with some of our students for 10 days of Spring Break.  We would bring them to Rome, and I'm super excited at the possibility of going back to Europe.  I will keep you updated on this!

We start school next week Tuesday, but all the kids are arriving this weekend.  It will definitely be nice to get into a routine again.  I will try to post more regularly, and I also want to redesign my blog header.  I've been experimenting a bit more with technology (and I get a nice MacBook Pro to use for school!), so it would be nice to figure out how to make my blog more interesting.

Have a great week!  Thanks for reading!

The Pinterest Challenge: Quotes on Canvas

Today I am joining my first linky party!

Quotes on canvas are all over Pinterest, and I thought I would whip one up for my friend who is getting married at the end of the month.

This was my inspiration:

(source)

My friend and her husband will be dancing to (Everything I Do) I Do It For You by Bryan Adams for their first dance together, so I decided to use the title of that song for my "quote."

And here is how I did it:

First, gather your materials.  I used a canvas, 6 pieces of scrapbook paper, mod podge, 3" stick on letters, and craft paint.

Mod podge the scrapbook paper onto the canvas.  Use lots of mod podge, I didn't use enough so the paper didn't lay totally flat on the canvas.  I also use mod podge both on the canvas/under the paper, and on top of the paper.  Once everything is dry, put your stickers on the canvas.

Paint over the entire canvas and wait for it to dry.  In this picture you can see where the paper didn't lay flat on the right hand side.

After the paint is dry, pull off the stickers.

Overall it was pretty easy.  The hardest part was getting the letters in a straight line.  I would definitely recommend measuring where you want things and drawing lines with pencils so you have somewhere to work off of.

I'm linking up with Kate, Sherry, Katie and Michelle!

I cannot believe Mark and I are already celebrating our one year anniversary.  This past year went by so fast, but at the same time it feels like we have already been married forever (in a good way)!

Looking back at this past year of our lives, we definitely had some ups and downs, and I feel like we grew closer because of everything that happened.

We had an amazing wedding day, went on a nice honeymoon to Washington D.C., and then had about a month until we moved to New Hampshire.  Once there we had to get used to living at a boarding school, making new friends, Mark starting a new job, me being unemployed, and adopting a dog.  As the year moved along Mark spent some time in the hospital, I started tutoring and working at school, we had to put our dog down because he bit some people and was acting really aggressive, we thought Mark was going to have surgery, we drove back and forth from NH to MI 4 times, and we drove to Mayo in preparation for Mark's surgery.  As most of you know, Mark didn't end up having surgery and we are currently waiting to see if an increase dose of his medication and some iron will get things back to normal for him.

With everything that happened this year, I cannot wait to see what the next year has in store for us.

I'll leave you with some of my favorite wedding pictures!  Thanks again to our family and friends for celebrating with us that day and continuing to be there for us over the past year!

Summer Beginnings

Can you believe it's already the last week in June?  Crazy.  This summer has definitely been relaxing so far, and definitely needed.  It's the first summer that Mark and I haven't had to work, and it has really been nice :)  

Taking a look back at my summer "to do" list, I'm slacking a little bit...

• Exercise!  
• I have been running at least 3 times per week!  I've gotten to the point that I can run 4 miles!
• Learn to sew more!
• Read!
• Sadly, I've only finished 3 books so far.  That's pretty terrible.  I need to get on that. 
• Go to a Tigers game.
• Road Trip!  
• Check into online programs to start my Masters degree.
• Open an Etsy shop! 

So yeah, I've only made progress in two areas.  Bummer.  Two more months to go to work on the rest.

Our one year anniversary is coming up in 13 days!  That's insane.  I can't believe we've been married for a year.  Anniversary gifts are hard.  We're thinking about going the traditional one year paper route.

I would love to get this game:

(source)

And its got some paper in it, right?  Any other ideas of cute gift ideas?