Updates!!!

Wow, where did February and March go?

So much to update and so little time!

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RACE INFO:

Just finished the mercer island half marathon last weekend! It was so much fun! I ran with my friends Bridget and Chris. Because Chris is a little crazy (and that's what I love about her) she used this half marathon as a training run for her next half marathon in May. She ran 7 miles with Bridget and me.

The Mercer Island course was pretty tough! The first 10 miles are rolling hills on uneven streets, then the last three miles were even tougher! And it ended in an uphill incline!

I managed to PR, my chip time was 2:20:57. I realized that morning that this was my fifth half marathon in less than a year. And I finished this one 18 minutes faster than my first one :)

The only thing I can attribute it to was having this song in my head all through the race:




hahahaha, Bridget and I actually starting singing it around mile 10 :)

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In February I did the Love 'Em or Leave 'Em 5k with Holly and Matt. I was still in marathon training mode, so a 5k was not going to be enough distance for me. I decided to leave at 6:30 in the morning and run from my apartment to Greenlake (where the race was) first. It was 6 miles to get to the starbucks. Then a mile from Starbucks to the start of the race, where I met up with Holly and Matt.

Somehow I managed to only finish about 10 seconds slower than my 5k best! I guess I really do need to get those junk miles out of the way early :)

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In marathon news, I need to pick a new race. Matt's sister is getting married the weekend of the Vancouver Marathon. So I decided to not really train for anything just yet, and now I'm running out of time! I'd like to get at least two marathons in this year.

I'll pick something this week :)

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I took a volunteer position as an assistant coach for Girls on the Run. So every thursday I go to an elementary school in Tukwilla and help out with running and teaching the Girls on the Run curriculum. I've only gone one week so far and it's already proving to be an amazing experience! I'll definitely post more updates :)

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Thanks to Bridget I've finally run Queen Anne hill, right up the front of it. It's one of the steepest hills in Seattle. I usualy take a mile and a half to go around the slowly up the hill. This was is the most direct route. Frankly, if I can run Queen Anne hill, I'm pretty sure I can take on almost any hill ;)

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I've also recently become moderately addicted to Bikram yoga. I tried it while I was in Scottsdale with my boss last month. We went twice, the first time was awful the second time was less awful. Then I decided to find a studio in town, and found Bikram Seattle. They have this sneaky trick where you sign up and pay the drop in fee, and get 10 FREE classes that you have to use in 14 days. So I ended up going 3 or 4 times a week... and by then it's totally easy!

(FYI, Bikram is hot yoga. You do 26 poses twice. The first time you hold them for 60 seconds and the second time is 30 seconds. Oh, and the room is at least 100 degrees)

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Phew! That's the long and the short of it! More soon!