Getting my dirty on...

This weekend was the Dirty Girl Mud Run in Atlanta.  I signed up for this a few months ago and had it on my calendar, knowing that it would be my first event as a Southerner!  How much fun!  And it meant that Kristin would be coming down to stay so that was totally the icing on the cake!  After we registered we totally started planning our outfits, because everyone knows that it's important to look cute while playing in the mud.   Since it was just the two of us, we totally went matchy matchy.  Then I found out that Karen was doing it so she joined our wave.  And then I met Alec and she joined our wave.  Our small team of 2 grew to 4.  The perfect size team.  I wish we had planned it a little more though because we totally could have rocked an amazing team name and costumes, but we laughed hard enough that I got my money's worth! :)

So we were in the first wave, at 8:15.  They had 6000+ people registered so we were told that we needed to be there 90 minutes in advance.  We decided to meet an hour in advance.  Plenty of time for the first wavers (every wave after us probably needed every minute of that 90 minute window).  We all parked right in the front, registered (they gave us these cute shirts and necklaces),

found each other (because we had never met so it was like that whole blind date scenario... looking around for the other person looking around for you), had Kristin navigate the maps for us,

hit the potties and then commenced the people watching.

WHICH WAS FABULOUS!

I'm telling you... these southern girls get into their races!

We lined up at 8:10, but somehow were at the back of the pack.  That lasted until the first obstacle.  Which was a really crowded hay bail climb.  We laughed when we heard someone inform their team to "take it easy, we have a long day ahead of us".  Kristin, Karen and I have all completed 140.6 races and Alec has run a bunch of half marathons.  I'd be lying if I said that the "which of these things is not like the other?" thought didn't cross my mind once or twice.  But that's alright.  We embraced it.  After getting over the hay bails, we made a sprint for it to get in front of some people.  The next obstacle was a wooden wall to climb over.  Then a cargo net that we had to climb over.  In the mud potting soil.  Being the first wave, it wasn't mushed up enough.  And that's when I heard my favorite quote of the day...

"OMG, I lost my bobby pin in netting"

I love women's only races.

We ran through mud pits that were about knee high, and tire mazes.  We climbed through Utopian tubes (or fallopian tubes as we kept calling them).  We scaled a net, did some matrix stuff in a rope maze, climbed up and down a muddy hillside.  We laughed a lot.  And made fools of ourselves.  It was fabulous.

By the end we weren't nearly as muddy as I thought we would be, but then we realized that we hadn't fully embraced the mud pits by belly flopping in them.  Next time my friends... next time.

We got cleaned up and started looking for some food and that was the only thing that I would complain about with this race.  There was nothing.  Not.A.Single.Thing.  We were told that there was some undercover guy selling chick-fil-a, but that sounded kind of scary so we packed up and decided to grab some bunch in downtown Atlanta.  We did have a ticket for one free adult beverage, BUT (and there's a bit but here), they were handing out cans of Busch.  At 9:00 in the morning.

Overall, this was a super fun event.  It definitely wouldn't have been as fun without my fabulous friends and I'm so glad that I got to spend the morning with you ladies. Next time... we'll rock the tutu's, hand made shirts, matching socks, etc.

And we'll belly flop into the mud pits.

Right

Right... so about that "I'm back" declaration at the end of my last blog - Um... I'll be back.  In time.  I feel like I don't have much to say right now.  Shocking right?  The house is keeping me busy (and I looooove it), work is kicking my butt (which is paying for the house... yay) and I haven't been doing much training so I have nothing to report there.  Wow, what an exciting life! :)

But I'm loving life right now.  Things are good.  I'm happy.  This weekend my twin is coming to visit and I'm super excited.  We're doing the Dirty Girl Atlanta (with Karen and Alec which is super fun) and I can't wait.  I think it's going to be a great way to just smile, laugh and have some girl time.  Saturday night we're heading to my teammate Jill's for dinner with she and Kacie and I can't wait to catch up with them, talk about Boston and the double Ironman (because those girls are crazy awesome) and just relax.  I heard Margaritas are on tap... perfect night!

In two weeks my parents are coming down.  I'm so excited to show there where we live and what we've done with the place.  I think it'll help my mom a little too, knowing how great it is here.  I know she misses me... and I miss her terribly.  Heck, I think they will love it enough to move here soon.  A girl can dream, can't she?

And then my sister just booked a 5.5 day trip in July down here.  She and I rarely get time together and it'll be great knowing that we have nearly six days to just do whatever we want together!  Plus, she's been totally amazing on Weight Watchers and I honestly can't wait to see her walk off the plane because I'm fairly certain I'm not going to recognize her.  She's down nearly 30 pounds already!  A.freaking.MAZING!

So I have a lot to look forward to in the next few months.  I'll take tons of pictures this coming weekend.  And hopefully I get the writing bug again.  I miss you guys!!!

How Come...

... 60 degrees feels like an arctic blast?
... my cutie patootie dog feels the need to squeeze his plump bottom between things he doesn't fit in (ie between my desk and the wall)?
... I have been living in Georgia for nearly two weeks and I'm fairly certain a particular family member STILL doesn't know we moved? :)
... I can meet someone once, yet she and I can giggle for nearly an hour on the phone about a beaver? Yep, we're like 12 year old boys I guess!
... I walked outside the other night to check on my hubby who was cooking dinner, only to find him with a beer in his pocket and his bb gun out, shooting an empty can of beer off the fence?  His response when I told him he looked like a hill billy? "Naw, I'm straight Georgia now".
... there is a Mellow Mushroom 1.7 miles from my house and I've yet to go?
... there is a cupcake store next to said Mellow Mushroom that I've get to go to?
... I smile every time I see my bike hanging in the garage but have yet to ride it here?
... I hate running hills but have been LOVING my evening runs with the hubby on the hilliest routes I've ever run?
... there are people I left behind in Ohio who I said I'll probably never talk to again, yet they are still annoying me? Hahah... I can't escape.
... we only have one car leaving me "stranded" day in and day out, yet I'm dreading buying a new car?
... I'm totally in the mood to bake, but I'm certain I don't have sugar, flour, eggs, baking powder or a recipe that's calling my name?
... I bought a new skirt for the dirty girl, knowing it's just going to get covered in mud?
... I'm worried about what shirt will look cute with the above said skirt? :)
... I've met the 50 year old neighbors, the 88 year old neighbor, had dinner with the 70+ year old neighbors, but haven't had the courage to introduce myself to the two "young" couples on my court?

Anything you're curious about?  :)

Knock Knock

Hello?  Is anyone there?  Is this thing on?

Ahem...

Hi.  Sorry that I've been gone so long.  Life threw me lemons and although I'm fairly good at making lemonade with them, I decided that this patch was worthy of more - like some tequila and salt.  It's been a long road, but we're in Georgia and loving it.  I love the town of Suwanee where we moved to, the house is amazing (albeit FILLED with projects that seem like they will never end) and I'm starting to feel like I'm home way faster than I ever thought I would.  That's good. 

But with all the good going on, I've been doing a lot of self evaluation and while I like some things, there need to be some changes too.  I think that's good to do every once in a while, as hard as it may be.  Honestly, sometimes you might not like what you find out about yourself.

For me, it's not about what I don't like about myself.  I just kind of feel like I'm on a never ending ride of commitments - all things that I brought on myself and things that no one else would ever give a damn about, but they eat me up inside.  I'm the kind of person that wants things done yesterday.  That's hard to do with a move.  Real hard.  And with training.  And with work.  You see how it starts to spiral.

So in my latest self evaluation, I decided that I needed to take control again.  I mean, this is MY life and I can do what I want with it.

Our first visitor comes on the 27th of April. Kristin dear, the house ain't gonna be done.  I will try to have a mattress for you to sleep on and I will have appliances in the kitchen to cook with, but there might be spackle on the walls, paint on the old floors, a bathroom without a sink.  We'll work around it.  The next set of visitors come in May (my momma and dad... yay!!!!).  For them, well, I know my hubby and that's why we're working such long hours each day - I kid, I kid.  We want to show off the house to you.  But, there will still be boxes laying around.  And there might not be new floors down yet. Heck, we might STILL have the poison ivy infested beds out front (okay, no, we won't), but I know that you'll love the house just the way it is.

As for training - here's the big one.  I had a nice little chat today with the best coach in the world.  She gets me right now and right now, my heart is anywhere but in training.  I've been in training for 6 years.  Longer if you count the "marathon years" (haha... the ones where I ran just one marathon a year as my only race... oh the days).  It saddens me that training has become a chore.  And this is probably the thing that I've struggle the most with through this whole move.  I want to run and bike and swim.  I love those things.  But I need to do it because I want to do it, not because I have to do it.  My season is changing a lot this year from what I had originally planned.  This is something that I struggle with too, but I know that I'm doing what's right for me right now and that's a good feeling.  I've been loving my nighttime exploration runs where Tom and I leave our neighborhood and just explore.  We've found some awesome trails and parks and old town Suwanee.  We talk about his day and mine (as we adjust to us not being together all day) and what we want to do this week, this month and this year.  I'm going to just "wing" it a bit for the time being and see what happens.  It's good for my mind and my soul.  I don't know if I'll be racing in Knoxville in less than a month and that doesn't worry me in the slightest.  I might not race at all this year.  We'll see.

And work... we'll business is booming which is amazing.  And I'll make due with the fact that my warehouse is in shambles and I can't find half of my inventory.  My customers know no different.  I'm getting into a daily routine that's better than it's ever been - I wake up early, walk the dogs, hit the office, fill my orders and before I know it, Tom's coming home and we're starting our day.  I'm getting used to this.

So life is good. 

One last thing about training.  So, these hills in Georgia. HOLY FREAKING WOW!  If you can't bounce a quarter off my butt after running these every day, nothing will stop the jiggle.  I think in the last 11 days I've run more net elevation gains that I have in 32 years of my life. 

And I'm loving that too.

I'm back people... Thanks for being patient with my absence and for being understanding as I figure out this game we call life.