Happy Memorial Day!

After a huge emotional growth spurt last week this week, thankfully, was a pretty normal week. Normal things happened, with normal challenges, and normal feelings, and normal successes.

There are a couple of things that I'm really proud of. The first is that I got my eating habits on track last week and lost 5 pounds! You may remember from this post that I was doing silly things like eating ice cream for breakfast, so as you can imagine I had put on a little padding. It wasn't difficult to clean up my eating, but I still had to make the decision to do it! For anyone who is curious, my weight loss method is simply counting calories, eating fresh foods, lots of fruits and veggies, and working out. Ground breaking, right? Not at all, but it really works!

Secondly, I am really proud of my "long run" this week. It was on a day when I'd had very little sleep the night before, and just finished nine hours of retail. My feet were killing me, I was hungry and tired and the Blackhawks were playing. All I wanted to do was sink into my big green chair and not get up again. But I went! I went past one of my favorite places in Chicago.

It's beautiful!

Wrigley is surrounded by bars, most of them sporty in nature and as I ran I discovered that I could keep up with the Hawks game through their windows. So a tip for any sports-fan-runners out there: run past your town's main sports bar strip and you can watch the game as you go! I must remember this for football season.

My long run was 55 minutes this week, and in the end I clocked 5.2 miles. That's not including my walking warm ups and cool downs. I was stunned at how far I went! For Chicago locals I nearly made it down to Diversey. That is FAR! There was a moment of elation as I turned around at the halfway point, knowing what a great distance I'd travelled, immediately followed by a moment of terror. I was so far from home, how would I get back? The answer, of course, was to run, but it seemed really tough at that moment. But I did it, and in the last 15 minutes I kicked on the turbo boost and ran hard. In my head I wanted to give it all I had before rest day, and after a long crummy work day. And my rest day was that much more peaceful, knowing that I had given everything I had. As a street graffiti artist reminded me this week:

I also really appreciate whoever fixed the your/you're situation going on here.

 Folks, you're all worth it. Whatever it is you're wanting to change about your life, you deserve it. If it's the job, or wanting to get out and go for walks or be more active, you can do it. Change is hard, but also so worthwhile, and you really can achieve whatever you desire. Just work for it, and go get it!

In closing I would like to say a big thank you to our current serving men/women and those who have served in the past. You are awesome, important, and heroic. Thank you for everything you do.

Another big thank you to Greg, who is my donation rock star this week! I learned that my donation goal is $50 for every mile I run, which is outstanding. As I run the marathon I will remember who believed in me for each mile of the race! Greg, that means you're a mile 4 sponsor! Thank you! This amazing piece of information also means that if I hit my goal we will have helped 26.2 people get clean water for the rest of their lives! Folks, let's make that happen. In fact, let's get reckless and round up to 27. Because what's .2 of a person anyway? That doesn't exist. So thank you to my sponsors up to this point, and know that you will be with me on race day! 
Gracias! Danke! Merci! Grazie! Thanks!

Can't Win for Losing

I missed two runs this week. Whew, glad I got that out of the way quick. I'm ashamed and a little embarrassed and more than a little guilty. There are days when being awake physically hurts. Adding running to the mix becomes insult to injury.

Here's the story. I was broken up with on Tuesday. Now don't get me wrong, I am probably glad it happened. He was not the right guy for me, and that was rapidly becoming apparent. But being dumped makes you feel like you were tied in a bag, kicked a bunch, and then dragged down a dirt road and left in a ditch. Emotionally speaking, of course. Just writing it is making me feel a little like that right now, so I will put in a picture of a flowering tree. Just to cheer everyone up.

There. Now don't you feel better? I do.

Think I curled up into a ball in my bed and hid the next day? Nope. That part doesn't come until Friday. The following day I felt like poo but bounced out of bed, went for my run, and "enjoyed" my full day off as best I could. You can't stay indoors when Chicago looks like this:

Chicago is a pretty lady in the spring.

I followed this by industriously cleaning up my deck, setting up the table and rustlin' up an exceptionally healthy lunch. Looks like perfection, doesn't it?

And a book too!? It must be perfection!

 But it wasn't. And although I made it through the first day unscathed, as the week went on I somehow felt worse and worse. "But that's backwards!" you say. "You're supposed to feel better as the days go on, not worse!" Trust me, my friends, I was confused as well. All I know is by Friday I was eating a 1/3 pint of Ben & Jerry's for breakfast and the idea of getting out of bed at 7 before an extremely long day to run was ludicrous. 

Unfortunately, I have no moral to this story. I only know that I chose to miss two days this week, and I wanted to be honest with you guys. This blog is about accountability after all, and you have to be honest with your accountabilibuddies. 

I do feel badly about it, but I am confident that I will get to the marathon in spite of this small setback. Today I popped out for the long run that I was supposed to do yesterday, and I plan on hitting all my runs this week as well as cleaning up my diet. I'm an adult, I can eat Ben & Jerry's for breakfast if I want, but that doesn't mean I should. Fresh fruits and veggies make me feel energized and well fueled. Cream based dairy products do not. So here's to a new start, four weeks of running, my health, and single spring in Chicago! 

And last, but most importantly, a humongous thank you to all the friends and family who reached out and made their love for me known. You guys made me feel awesome despite feeling crummy. Especially Gabby, who used her birthday as an excuse to donate to my marathon fund! I burst into happy, grateful tears, which were much better than the sad ones I had been crying just moments before. Thank you for the love, you fantastic people!!!!

Week Four: An Epic Journey of Failure and Success

Before I get into anything else I want to say a huge and resounding "Thank you!!" to my Dad's cousin Jan and her husband Larry for being my very first donation! I am so grateful for their support, both of the children we are helping and my own journey. Their generosity made my day! Thanks!

Now, to business.

Guys, this week was rough. Not because I had a bad week, or felt depressed, or anything particularly eventful happened. It was rough due to scheduling.

I work two jobs, six days a week, like many people out there. It's usually fine because I have a fairly regular schedule and I get my sleep in. This week, however my retail job scheduled me for two nine hour shifts that started at 6:00 am. In Chicago that means getting up at 4:30 to get to work on time. It was yucky. I actually adjusted my sleep schedule fairly well, but getting up that early does unpleasant things to your body, and standing that long does unpleasant things to your feet. All this was compounded by the fact that Wednesday I stayed an hour longer to finish up with a customer I had in the store, bringing the tally to 10 hours. She was great, I'm glad I'm helped, but man, these dogs were tired! Ti-red!

I bet you think I went home and collapsed in a sleepy heap right? I wish! I wanted to sooo very badly! But I couldn't. I couldn't miss my run! I strapped on those running shoes and I marched out the door and instantly felt like I was going to die. This was my worst run yet. It was one of those runs where other runners are passing you left and right. One of those runs where you feel like you're not moving any faster than walking and your legs are still going to fall off. 

But I did it. 

I am proud to say that I managed to succeed while failing (an interesting skill that I am grateful to have). Every run this week was affected by my crazy shifts. Every run felt awful, slow, and hopeless, like I was accomplishing nothing. But I got my butt out the door and did every. single. one. And that, my friends, is winning.

That being said, at least one of them was on a gorgeous day where the lake was clear and still, the sky blue, and the sun golden. It was a terrible experience for my little drumsticks, trucking along like that, but it did my soul a great deal of good. 

Moral of the story? You can only do something as well as you are able in that moment. A painful, slow run was my best on that day, so I did my best. The important thing is that you get out there and do it.

And now, I will leave you with tulips!

Tulip Time! Chicago is a tulip town, and I love seeing them everywhere while I run!

Team World Vision: A Very Important Post

Guys. This is super important. Like, the most important post to date. Why you ask? Because it is about the charity I am running for, and the other HUGE reason why I am running this marathon.

I will just tell the story the way it happened: I have been thinking about running a marathon for roughly 2 years for all the reasons mentioned in this post. But I was out of the country, not fully convinced that I was capable, and a little gun shy. All normal responses. In the mean time, I watched from afar as my amazing friend Leslie ran two marathons, and recruited friends for the second. I was awestruck, inspired, and curious about her motivation. The biggest one? 

Team World Vision. 

This amazing charity supports us runners through the marathon (I feel like I will need a lot of support. Like... 26.2 miles of being propped up and prodded.) But that's not the coolest part. They help build wells and pipelines for kids and families to get clean water in Haiti. They build latrines and teach about sanitation in Africa. They help make the world more awesome for people who need it to be the awesomest. Guys. I can't afford to donate to this wonderful charity (no really... unpaid internships don't pay well...). Honestly, I couldn't even afford to run the marathon. But my generous and fantastic friend Leslie said, "Can you run?" and I said, "Yes." She responded with, "Then I will help you give" and sponsored me for the marathon. Seriously, I am flabbergasted by how kind this woman is, and unbelievably grateful.

(Side note: it actually took a lot more convincing of me that I could do it, wouldn't collapse and my feet wouldn't fall off. But this version makes me sound cooler.)

So I give to this charity by running in the rain, in the snow, and pretty soon in the heat. On days that I'm tired and days that I am sore (a.k.a. 5 out of my 6 workout days this week). I run with the hope that I will inspire you to give what you can, too. $50 gives one person clean water for a generation, which means that even $1 or $2 goes way further than you think it will. 

My personal donation page is linked on the sidebar of this blog. Please give what you can, and if you can't then please pass this on to friends and family who might be able to. If we all do what we are able, we can build something amazing. Check out the video on this page to learn more. And trust me, any donation you give makes me feel like you believe in me, so you get two "I-Did-Good" feelings for one small deed!