Throwback Thursday // Happy Halloween!

circa 1996-ish?

Here is Mama & I at Fall Festival this year as Thing 1 & Thing 2:  

 
Tonight I will be dressed up as a graduate student/candy monitor.
Have a happy, safe & Reese's cup filled Halloween!

Kid President // A Pep Talk for Teachers

We watched this video at the faculty meeting this morning.
Whether you're a teacher or a student or once were a teacher or a student, you will appreciate this. You will also probably laugh out loud like me!

Anyone else want that kid in their class?
Let's be more awesome.

Recently

 Last long run complete...time to taper & get this bad boy over with!

Mom and I went out to Sinkland Farms after my run on Sunday. One of my favorite places to be! It is so beautiful.

The kettle corn is LITERALLY LIKE HEAVEN IN YOUR MOUTH. Needless to say it's already long gone...

Mom took a picture of the most adorable girl triplets in this little pumpkin sign. They were in their Halloween costumes, which I'm pretty sure were mice.  Melt my heart.

 It is officially fall, now! :)
Sooooo busy with finishing my first big unit for graduate school this week - and already signing up for spring classes! Next weekend we are heading to a wedding & then in three weeks...it's marathon time!

Five on Friday

Hello, friends. Happy Friday!
This week was a little less stressed than the past couple of weeks, and for that I am thankful. However, it's also been FREEZING and for that I am not so thankful. Except for the fact that I can pile on fun sweaters and vests.
For today's Five on Friday, I have chosen to post 5 teaching related quotes or "funnies" because lately, I think the weather is making the children go cray-zay, and I've been needing a laugh/reminder of why we're there.   If you aren't a teacher or a soon-to-be teacher like me, I hope you can still think of the little ones in your life & appreciate these. *All from Pinterest*
one

two

three

four

five

Off to substitute this afternoon & then have some Fall Festival fun :) HAPPY FRIDAY!

Race Recap: Runner's World Half Marathon

This past weekend I took a trip up to Pennsylvania for two important reasons: 1. To see Steven & go to the shiny place. I've been craving some good 'ol diner food 2. To run the Runner's World Half Marathon
It worked out perfectly that the race was happening the weekend I planned to go visit Steven. I was going to be in big trouble if I had to try and find a route by myself to do my long run. I was lucky!
The backdrop for the race was the old Bethlehem Steel. At one point in time, Bethelehem Steel was the second-largest steel producer in the U.S. I thought it was so neat!

The expo was held on Friday and Saturday. We chose to go on Saturday around noon, so we got to also watch the Eukanuba one-mile dog run from above. It was so fun to see all the different breeds of dogs who were running! Everything from a yorkie to a pitbull to 3 golden retrievers dressed as football players/referees.
The expo was inside the ArtsQuest building. It has 4 floors and the expo was spread among them which was PERFECT because it didn't feel too cramped. The first floor was the cafe, some Runner's World gear & books and the bib pick up. The second floor was the shoe lab and a couple of tables promoting Bethelem and local races. The third floor was the "main expo" with things you can buy, free water, Moe's had some food samples, treadmills, bondibands and sweaty bands were there to represent, as well as PRO Compression - which is the only place I bought something. I finally went for it and bought some calf sleeves. I really think they will help - and was told a million times while looking at them - that they will help me on these super long runs. The fourth floor was t-shirt pick up!

The race was Sunday morning at 8:00. I got up around 6:15 or so and ate some belVita breakfast biscuits which I got for free at the expo. OOOOOHHHHH my word. They are amazing. Didn't have any tummy problems running so I give a thumbs up. We got to the race at 7:00 and found great parking - woo! - then headed to the ArtsQuest building. Did the whole stretch/bathroom/shot bloks routine and then walked to the starting line around 7:40. It was in the 40's so I was trying to stay inside the building for as long as possible! Steven and I parted ways at this point - he went up to the 1-mile mark to wait for me.

Since I was running this as my "training run" for the week, I settled back with the 2:10 pace. I didn't want to run too hard. That put me at a 9:55 pace, which was perfectly comfortable for a hilly 13.1. I stayed with the pace group for the first 8 miles, then I picked it up a bit after the big hills were done and ran on my own.   Here is the 2:10 pacer. Shout out to Ingrid! Very encouraging the whole way:

Picture courtesy of Runner's World

If you look under her right arm - the grey shirt is me! Also a bit of my pink compression sleeve between her legs.   Some fun things about the race: - RW editors running with you! It was so fun to see Runner's World editors and staff members running the race with us. David Willey just came breezing on through cheering everyone on. Then Bart Yasso was high-fiving at the finish line - and really could be seen everywhere helping out. It was awesome!   - Guy handing out free twizzlers if you smiled - "Twerk for a skirt" Free running skirt, all ya gotta do is TWERK IT! -  Lots of music, cheerleaders, bands along the course - Lots of support from the town - Finish is mostly downhill and really exciting   Here I am at about the 10 mile mark:

  Kudos to Steven for that picture! Whenever I know someone is taking a picture of me running, I try to do the smile/thumbs up. It says: "Hey, I'm doing fine and having fun!", which is typically the case. Plus I hate pictures of me running where I look MISERABLE. Trash.     My official results:

  I am so happy with how I ran this race.  Stayed conservative, picked it up for some negative splits in the end, and still felt like I had some juice in the end. Perfect training run I would say. And I felt pretty darn good for having done 18 the previous weekend.

Overall I have nothing but positive things to say about this race! I am so thankful for Steven who ran around the course to see me at 3 different points - and bless his heart had to sprint to see me at the finish. Shouldn't have picked up my pace... :)
If you're looking for a fun, supportive, beautiful and challenging half-marathon, this is it! I would absolutely run this race again and hope to in the future!

One Month

30 day countdown to the marathon has begun.  Where has the time gone?!! I'm getting more excited and nervous as the days go by.  My midweek runs are still lacking somewhat - grad school is NO JOKE - but the long runs have gone really well, so I'm feeling optimistic.
My longest run to date is 18 miles, which I ran last weekend. I felt really good during it and that has definitely helped to lift my spirits as training continues.  My plan has me running 20 miles the last weekend of October.  That will be such a crazy feeling to hit 20 miles.   Of course there are still some kinks I need to work out before the day of the race comes, but I have 30 days to do it so I think I'll be fine!
Tomorrow I'm heading up to Pennsylvania to run the Runner's World Half as my glorified training run of the weekend as I visit Steven at school :)  

Please send all good running vibes my way this next month :)

Monday Letters

Hope y'all had a great weekend! I did some homework, watched my Hokies get their 5th win in a row WOO! and ran 12 miles.

 

To try and keep up with this blogging thang, I am writing some letters!

Here we go.. 

Dear October, I love you, but please stop feeling like June. I'm pretty sure I got sunburned this weekend.

Dear marathon training, I could not be more excited for you to end. Not because I don't like running, but because every time I think, "Wow, what a perfect time for a nap," I actually get up and do a run. I miss my naps.

Dear Target, can you please move your one spot section to the back of the store? I am in debt seriously because I buy thousands of things that only cost $1...because you know, since they only cost $1 I can fill the cart. Sheesh.

Dear Steven, thanks for coming to see me next weekend. I have Hokie tickets for us. Can't wait!

Dear grad school, as much as I would love to spend every waking minute dedicated to you, sometimes a girl has gotta get on hulu+ and be done for the day.

Dear Halloween Oreos, why do you taste so much better than regular Oreos? Should never have put THOSE in the cart...

Today I'm off to 4th grade & then to SPEEDY LIZARDS RUNNING CLUB! Going to go hang out with the future marathoners of America :)

Hello October

Heyyyy y'allllll!
My poor little blog is being neglected. I have been failing with teacher talks and commenting and posting in general. Grad school & marathon training are both NO JOKE! Plus work & internship.   Anyway, it is now October and I am going to try and post more often! I don't want to lose this little memory keeper.
Here's what I'm looking forward to this October:  

1. Double weekends with my boy! Steven is coming HOME to visit me next weekend!! He surprised me last week on the phone letting me know he is coming.  My heart is happy. The following weekend I am going to see him in PA. I am also running a half-marathon there - Runner's World Half & Festival. There is something about that area of PA in the fall...it's dreamy!
2. Pumpkin patch goodies! I seriously love going to our pumpkin patch. Pumpkins, farm animals, kettle corn, ice cream, HOLY SMOKES I can't handle it. I want to live there.
3. Running 20 miles My big 2-0 is scheduled for the last weekend in October.  I ran 16 last weekend and don't think I could stomach running another 4.  However, I will have three more long runs in before it so I'm confident that I will be able to do it! Just 6 weeks until the marathon!!
4. 4th grade field trip! We have our first field trip this month! OH my word, I am loving my class of 4th graders. Let it be known it's 15 boys and 3 girls......definitely never a dull moment.  We're going to some barns at Virginia Tech.
5. Substituting in Kindergarten I have one scheduled sub day in my kindergarten class from last year coming up.  Although it's different kids, I have a sweet spot in my heart for kinders. So excited to spend my day with them!

Hope y'all have had a wonderful start to October! I say bring on the crisp air and crunchy leaves - seriously though...it was in the 80s here today!