happy friday

Seriously? Doesn't mother nature know that my Halloween costume does NOT account for long sleeves or a coat?

i need new music!

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I'm sick of my iPod right now and need some new tunes REAL bad.

What are some good songs I can download/add to my Grooveshark? OR...what is your favorite Pandora station? I'm always looking for suggestions!

Tell me on Twitter - @shar_bot

true life: i survived my first half marathon

I did it! Yesterday morning I ran 13.1 miles through beautiful Newburyport, with a total time of 2:07.13. Like I said, I went into this race with very loose time goals - the only rules I had for myself were to go at a pace that I felt comfortable with and to run the whole thing.

There were 5 of us that decided to run it together (relatively speaking). 

We were trying to be cool and matching with our obnoxious sweatbands, but they were actually very useful for spotting in the crowd, and they did their job of absorbing sweat quite nicely (American Apparel, $6 each).

Left to right: Mollie, Melina, me, Michelle, Kerry

HC Class of 2010, whuddup

I was also lucky to have my amazingly loving parents there supporting me (they drove all the way up from Pennsylvania!), along with a few of my friends (thanks Shap and Mo!) and my sister's friends. There was no shortage of support yesterday, that's for sure!

Sign made by Shap and Mo :]

I was also pumped to see so many Crusaders in action - I ran into Christine and Courtney at the starting line, and also saw Christine in the race around mile 4. Familiar faces make everything less scary :]

So about the race. The first 8 miles were absolutely glorious - the sun was shining with a slight breeze, my legs felt fresh and ready to roll, and the miles totally flew by. I was loving life.

Then mile 9 presented itself and I started to get into my head...there were a few hills during the last miles and without an iPod or running buddy I got a little bored, and all I could think about was how annoying my tight long sleeves were, the next water stop, the finish line, cold beer, bed...

At mile 10 I was trucking along, and luckily my parents and sister's friends were on the side of the road cheering me on - a dose of energy just when I needed it! My dad snapped this pic of me right around the 10th mile - I look like I'm traveling a lot faster than I felt...

I got a kinda-sorta burst of energy (maybe it was just mental?) when one of the volunteers yelled that we only had a 5k left. My legs felt sort of like lead, and my knees were kind of hurting, and I knew I had blisters on my feet. But I also knew that I would hate myself if I started walking, so I kept running. I probably could have walked faster than my jogging pace at some points, but there were tons of bystanders toward the end and their cheering kept me going!

Overall, I was just so glad to be running outside in such a beautiful part of New England on a picture-perfect fall day with so many other people.

Things that made me smile:

- All of the little kiddies cheering, trying to jog alongside the runners

- Fun signs that said things like Your feet are hurting because you're kicking so much ASS!
- The man 300 yards from the finish line yelling at me to Keep going! Think of the beer! BE the beer!
- Finishing after the rest of the crew - I had a whole team of cheerleaders right before the finish line!
- Salt deposits on my face - never had those before! I was proud of them.
- Good luck signs made by friends
- My swass-ridden drink tickets
- The surprisingly fast-moving beer line

ALMOST THERE

We did it! :]

Schweddy drink tickets

Me and the parents at Panera post-race (Mom is repping HC!)

So much love and support and fun in one day - can't wait to sign up for another one! :]

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5 days.

5 DAYS!

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I'm nervous and excited and feel as ready as I'll ever be. I wasn't able to do my 10 miles this weekend (due to lack of motivation and poor food choices) but I did bang out 8 miles last night and felt WONDERFUL. Let me just reiterate that I am not going for a PR here, and I'm impressed with myself at this point for getting past 5 miles, since I've never even tried to before. I signed up for this half marathon to see if I could do it, so my training has not been super intense. I've loosely followed Hal Higdon's novice half marathon training schedule and shuffled it around a bit, but for the most part, I've clocked the miles and feel ready. My biggest challenge now is mind over matter on race day!

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This week begins my taper and carb-loading...I wasn't sure what to eat the week before my race, so naturally I want to change everything about my diet. Not really, I'm just amping up my bread and pasta and fruit intake, with some meat and veggies thrown in there. I found this article to be helpful - it gives tips on what to eat before and during your long runs. I'm not sure how I feel about energy gels, so I picked up a bag of Lifesavers from the grocery store to use as fuel during the race. Will these help? I guess I'll let you know on Monday.

I also found this great article with tips for your first long race. Some are more geared toward marathoners, but I found some tips to be helpful, like Don't plan on running with a partner and Skip the pasta party. I already knew that I didn't want to run with a partner. I think I run faster when I'm running alone, so going at someone else's pace would most likely psyche me out. That can't happen for 13 miles. Also, since there's a whole group of us girls running, there WILL be a pasta party - now I just know to schedule it for lunchtime on Saturday!

If he can do a marathon, I can do a half! via

I already know that no matter how Sunday's race goes, I want to run another half marathon. There may even be a marathon in my future, but that's crazy talk for right now. I love feeling the way I've felt since I started training for Newburyport, and I love being a runner. There is so much motivation and support and personal potential in the running community that now I wouldn't trade for anything.

I can't wait for my next race! Manchester Road Race 2011, anyone? :)

i heart lilly

{AV} from {long distance loving} is hosting a Lilly Pulitzer giveaway on her adorable blog - check it out!

I thoroughly enjoy everything about this Lilly pattern - just imagine how jealous everyone at the grocery store will be when they see me gracefully toting my supplies to my car in that market tote! Yesssss.

$5 movie tickets at fandango.com

I received this glorious e-mail in my inbox this morning and bought 2. Last time I went to the movies, I paid $12 for ONE ticket. Redonkulous. 

Definitely making sure I stash up now, because I want to see this movie and this movie reeeeeeal bad.

Enjoy! 

(offer ends in T-minus 17 hours and 35 minutes)

Movie Tickets for $5 each!

the big scoop

Warning: long post ahead! Don't worry though, lots of pics :]

So guys, the clothing swap. It was at the NERD Center in Cambridge, and I was impressed - the venue was way more legit than I expected. There were a few sponsors, and I got a free Vita Coco coconut water, and a free Magner's cider. Double yum.

This is what I laid eyes on when I walked in:

Gimme gimme gimme

This is the only picture I took during the swap because as soon as they opened the "doors" at 8 PM sharp, I was too focused on not losing an eye to try to snap some pics. Literally, the only thing I could do was grab things that were in colors or styles I liked and worry about the sizes later. I stuffed as much as I could into my large lululemon tote that I brought, and ended up lucking out on some really nice things. Here are some of my faves:

Sunny J.Crew blazer (wrinkly from the wash)

Pretty J.Crew short sleeve cardi - tag was still on it!!

Long wool sweater vest

Cognac leather waist belt found on the floor - snagged!

All in all, it was a great success and I'm keeping my eyes peeled for the next one in Boston. I'm a huge fan of these get-togethers, mostly because I love everything about recycled fashion and consignment stores. Not only is it a green initiative, but you get to meet great people, and you can find really great things for little to nothing at all (Remind me to show you the adorable vintage black wool skirt and black leather waist belt I found at Salvation Army recently for $4.99 total).

Ok, moving on. Half marathon training. All is going well - the only thing that has been throwing me off lately is this crazy rain. Do any of you run when it's pouring outside? Before half marathon training, even an ominous cloud was enough to keep me indoors but now, I find myself praying the rain will hold off long enough so I can get my run in. Who am I? :] I also figure that I just need to get my butt out the door before it starts raining because once I'm in it, I'm in it and will just have to deal.

These are the sneaks I've been training in and I kind of love them. They're like slippers.

This weekend was a much-needed retreat up to Hanover, NH to visit my sister, who I haven't seen in a few weeks. I made the 2 hour drive right after work on Friday, and basically collapsed from exhaustion. Work has been crazy busy lately, hence the blog hiatus.

After sleeping in on Saturday morning, we all piled into the car to begin a day full of adventures. First, we drove over to Quechee Gorge in Vermont for some cheese and maple syrup tasting at Sugarbush Farm, which was AHMAZING. I ate lots of cheese.

Lara giving us cheese samples

We sampled allllll of these cheeses (and the syrup)

Yes, these were all free to sample.

Self-timed

Hi sis!

Sugarbush has a little chapel on the hill!

The chapel

We went to Simon Pearce in Quechee for lunch, but I didn't take any pics. Pretty interesting though - all through the store, they had huge blown up photos of the damage from Irene. It was amazing how quickly they recovered!

After lunch we made our way to the Harpoon Brewery. Has anyone had their pumpkin beer? Phenomenalllllllll. One of my favorite things was the fact that we could take our beers on the tour with us (consequently a few of us had to make a bathroom break halfway through). We bonded with our tour guides Cat and Neville, and our tasting session ran about 30 minutes long. My favorites were definitely the pumpkin and the cider. How October of me.

Before the tour with our brews

VIP access at the tasting

Well my lovely readers, this is my life of late. Dan is planning a trip up this weekend, and Newburyport is less than 3 weeks away - ahh! Busy, busy, busy. TGIW! :]