Life: Insta'd

Didn't go running this morning because I thought it was going to be raining (I know it's not an excuse, but wanting to sleep in with the love of my life is ;). Looks like it didn't but will tomorrow. Of course. I think I'm going to try and change my long run to Sundays for this training season. We'll see how that works out.

My life according to Instagram:
(which you've seen a version of already if you follow me on twitter)

 23rd St. Art

 NYC from a rooftop bar.

 Photobooking my life. 

My checkbook thanks FruitFly for reintroducing this to me.

 Even those I thought I forgot about.

I started this book 7 years ago and never finished it. When I went to go make the one for EEC, it was still there. So I finished it and got it. All I can say is WoW! 7 years does a lot! 

 Brave and Subway have partnered for some awesome reusable lunch bags. 

Saw the commercial this morning and then went on a hunt for them this afternoon.

Had to go to 3 subways before I found one with them (that's how I roll). 

Seriously, who does your marketing?! 

Amazing burgers with an amazing fountain drink station! 

What does your camera roll say about your life?

Raw Threads winnings!

Stephanie had a giveaway for Raw Threads and I won! YaY!!

I was super excited to buy one after I had seen them at many of the RnR expos I went to, but never got around to it. Then Fruit Fly bought one at RnR Vegas and I was super jealous. I wanted to get one in January at Disney but I couldn't decide on a design.

Even though I'm not a fan of the Ed Hardy look (sorry), I am a fan of another shirt that says I'm a rockstar, bc I am one :-)

While browsing on their site, I fell madly in love with the race you to the castle shirt. Unfortunately, it won't be stocked on the site until August/ September. . . perfect timing for the ToT10M ;-) (BTW, I've decided to tag it ToT10M, exactly like that. . so all 20,000 people running it need to refer to it that way.. . it's easiest and makes sense. . it drives me nuts on twitter when people reference the same event 107 different ways. . . is that just me? ok. . moving on).

It came in the mail the other day and as soon as I opened it, I put it on. 1. I was super excited b/c it fit! Most sporting/different material other than cotton, run small and I can't fit into them. Raw Threads said they ran big on their site, but I never believe companies. They were right though. I was super happy. 2. It's so soft and comfortable and quickly turning into my favorite. Can't wait until Sept to get my Castle one.

(PS- Just noticed the v-neck one I want isn't on the site anymore. Boo. I hope it shows back up).

 Thanks, Stephanie and Raw Threads!

What's your favorite tee and why?

Just in case: No one paid me to say all this. Yes, I won it randomly for free. I really like the product and wanted to share with you how awesome it is. 

Look!!

Im alive :) I promise. I guess when I'm not running, I don't have a lot to say except walking around in running clothes on the weekend is super comfie.

I just realized, for the 1st time in over a year, I am not half marathon ready. That's crazy. And I'm going a little crazy. June needs to get here already.

Anyway, here's a glimpse at what's been going on in my life via Instagram. I'm posting this via the app and it won't let me give you captions. Boo. Will add as soon as I can! UPDATED!

 Date Night #1: Went to see Dark Shadows

Theatre in East Village's carpet.

 Our favorite date night spot reopened as a different pizza place (previously Piola).

Looks completely different and they don't have my favorite pizza anymore :( Must stalk the Piola website to find out when the franchise will be opening another one in the city. I need my Lisbon!

 

 Date night #2. 

Nothing throws you into a nasty teenage flashback like attending the concert of one of your favorite bands from the 90s. Apparently the rules of concert attending have changed. We hung in the back as to not get trampled, but apparently that is the new place to act an ass. Our friends who wanted to mosh and get crazy pushed their way to the front only to find that's where the people who wanted to watch the show were. Strange, yes?

 Date #3

Our favorite place to chill out when NYC summers get too hot.

 Copper Union.

Yes, I apparently have been spending a lot of time in the East Village.

 My trustly Lil Rambo.

That's his name when I plug him into my computer. Do you name your ipod/ iphone? 

All the cool kids are doing it.

What are your plans for this holiday weekend?

Full marathon training starts in June.

If you haven't noticed, I'm pretty much taking the rest of the month to chill out on training. I feel like I've been in permanent training mode since December 2010. Now that I have some time to chill out, I'm totally taking it. I think this is a perfect time to give my body some time to heal and get ready for some serious marathon training.

Yes. Full marathon training.

New York City, to be exact.

I'm super scared. Why did I think this was going to be a good idea? I don't think I was this scared for my 1st half. I know 13.1 miles was scary then, but doubling that? That's just insane. We are talking a serious commitment. 5 hr training runs in the summer. Weekends completely consumed by either running or recovering. Cranky mood swings with a permanent hunger. Yikes!

I'm also training for this alone. Technically, Running Partner in Crime, Anna Banana, will be running the race with me but she has a super busy summer away from the city, so it will be just me and Central Park for those early morning summer runs. (She will also be fund-raising for TNT again. Any fund-raising ideas would be greatly appreciated. I plan on making tutus to sell and will be pimping them out via this blog soon. You know you want one ;) We will be setting up a check-in schedule to make sure we are both doing what we're supposed to be doing and for moral support. I don't know how those that train alone do it. Kudos to you! I do not have the motivation or will power. Getting out of a warm bed that houses the best snuggle partner extra early to beat the summer heat for 2hr + run does not sound appealing now, much less then.




What what does sound appealing is getting more bang for my training buck. Seeing as I will already be trained for a full, maintaining it for 2 months so I can run the 20th anniversary WDW Full Marathon seems like a no-brainer. I'm sure you all saw the big announcement with the course changes. I'm a fan of it, although running on the speedway looks like it's going to be hot. I only ran the 2nd part of it last year (which the miserable highway stretch after DAK is still there. I still have nightmares over those miles. I know they're going to be focused on mile 20, but more entertainment on those long stretches would be nice) but it looks like you get to run through Adventureland; Or is that not new? Anyway. Why it took them 20 years to make the course better, I don't know. But I'm excited they did it a year I might actually do it. I'm excited to see the medal (which I have a feeling will look a lot like the logo)- which will have a lot of weight in the decision.

I'm refusing to sign up for it until after I run my 1st one. I know I'm going against my own advice (which is always to sign up for your 2nd one before you run your first so you don't chicken out) but honestly, I'm waiting for the universe to decide this one for me. I might have a better idea after a 20 mile training run, but at the moment I want to wait to see how I feel after the big shabang. If that means it sells out before, then so be it. But it looks like only the Goofy is over 60% and that is definitely not in the cards for me.

I want to run Tinkerbell and Princess for my Coast 2 Coast. That means my January and February are going to be super busy; getting time off of work for that is going to be hard enough as it is. Adding another weekend so close might not be in the cards. If need be, I'm willing to switch out Tinkerbell for Disneyland Half, but Princess is non-negotiable (plus it's an anniversary year, you know how I feel about special medals). I'd rather not though, I want to secure my C2C early so what happened this year doesn't happen again.  

But there are a ton of factors involved to all of this so I should probably focus on training first :-)


What's your big fall race?

Stressed Desserts

I know it's not a funny disease, but that really cracks my shit up.

So the cashier at Duane Reade across from my office is starting to recognize me. I go there almost everyday for the most randomest of items, but nonetheless there is almost always some sort of sugar item involved (Milky Way: Simply Caramel is my new obsession).

I know, right?! I don't have a sweet tooth at all. What's up with this?

I heard somewhere sugar craving is actually linked to being stressed out. And I? am stressed out. Even more so when I realize what all those sugary goodnesses are doing to my waistline. Not to mention, I haven't really been working out (but I've decided I'm enjoying non-training mode bc in June, it's on.)

Today was the first day I didn't freak out so much I sweat through my clothes (until recently, I thought sweating when you're nervous was a made up thing. Oh, no. It's a very real thing.), so I thought I'd ask yall:

Does this happen to you? (The sweet tooth, not the sweating, although it would be comforting to know I'm not that big of a freak) How do you handle stressed desserts?

How's your week going?

It's been over a week

And this temporary tattoo is still going strong. What do they make these things with nowadays?

Wore a short sleeved shirt to a meeting last week. Oops.

Do you have any visible tattoos?

Im contemplating getting a running tattoo. I was going to after my 1st half but I think I'm going to wait until i complete the NYCM. I can't decide what I'd want. I know I want it on my foot though.

If you were to get a running related tattoo what would you want to get?

Happy Monday!

Expedition Everest: The Scavenger Hunt.

In case you missed the race part go here.

So back into the park we went. Grabbed our 1st clue, our orange Sharpie with a orange flashlight (who's idea of a joke was that?! Hello! You can't see what you're writing, genius!)

Luckily, I knew my way around and didn't need a park map. I can only imagine how much more it would've sucked if you didn't know where you were going.

Clue 1:

If you click on it, you can read it better.

By this time, the scavenger hunt traffic had gotten thick. Too narrow paths to get in and out of the different lands and people were walking slow. I refused to stop and stay at a station. Once we got our new clue, we would read it on the walk and figure it out that way, or figure it out at the next station. I think looking up last year's race beforehand really helped in figuring out the clues. Once you figure out Disney's clue formula, the answer usually comes. Although, I was stumped on a few. . . which is where my genius teammate came in! Whichever clues I didn't know, I gave to her to figure out.

On top of your clue it had the land/area that the next clue was in and what station to turn your clue in to get another one. They had different clues with different answers, which was kind of cool. It would've sucked if you ease-dropped on a different clue's answer though (just kidding!) These stations elevated some congestion but you still had to fight to get to the volunteer.

Clue 2:

Clue 3:

Clue 4:

Clue 5:

I thought we were done after Clue 4, but no. Luckily, B figured that one out b/c I was too tired to care at this point. To be honest, I don't know how half the clues are related and I haven't been bored enough to read them over again. The people at runDisney who come up with these things are on a completely different playing level.

Finally, the finish line! We crossed it, then stopped. There was an even bigger cluster of people to get medals. It was insane and the ultimate challenge of the night; trying to fight the crowd to get out the finisher's chute as newly finished people are trying to get to the medals. I heard they ran out for slower folks. We got ours, got a powerade and a cliffbar and peaced out.

Yes, it really was a 30 minute wait. What?!

Since the finish line was right by the Everest entrance (again, with the shitty planning. This caused another cluster of people trying to exit the runner's chute and enter the Everest que), we decided to get in line b/c I felt like once we got to Dinoland, I wouldn't want to come back. The line was long and I was tired hot and cranky.

Best picture of the weekend.

I forgot how much Everest freaks me out. Definitely the scariest coaster on property. I definitely learned on this vacay that I am not as young as I used to be and riding rollercoasters takes a huge toll on my body. Not to mention, I just walked 4.5 miles (according to my garmin. Everyone was different. Some guy told me his said 7 miles) in the sweltering heat and I needed food.

The tree of life

After the ride, we made our way to Dinoland, where the baggage claim line circled the ENTIRE land. Seriously?! I didn't pay attention as I dropped the bag off, but there didn't seem to be a good system. They just threw them in a van that transported them to the finish area. Luckily, B had cash on her (she's so smart!) so we went to Restaurantasarus to eat first. By the time we were finished, the line had gone down.

Next up, Dinosaur! As soon as we got back to the loading station of the ride, the lights came on and there was a ride stop. I think I was the only one happy (I used to love ride stops when I was a cast member) but it would've been cooler if it happen while I was in the ride. Oh well.

Kali River Rapids and the Dinoland carnival rides/ games were also open, but we did not participate. It was about 1am at this time, so we decided to head back to the hotel to have that shower I had been dreaming about since stepping out of my last one (how I used to live in this humidity, I still don't know).

All in all, it was a fun little adventure. As soon as I was finished the race, if asked if I'd do it again, I would've said no, but I think enough time has gone by for me to forget the really bad times. Although, I might need a little bit more incentive to go. That was a lot of money for a glorified 5k.

 We did it!

B completed her 1st race ever and got a kickass compass medal for it! She is ruined for all other 5ks, seeing as most don't even give medals. Guess that means this might have to become a yearly tradition :-)