April 15, 2013. A day that will live in runner's infmay

As I am sitting here watching the 9pm evening news, recapping the horrific events of earlier today, I am moved to tears. My heart is aching for so many reasons right now. I sit in disbelief that anybody could   have such hatred and lack of remorse with such cruel intentions to deliberately wound and kill so many innocent people. What kind of cruel world are we living in?

I try to imaging what this would be like to be apart of this horrific and chaotic day, and I just can't. What hurts my heart, is that today should have been such a joyous and happy day. A holiday for certain. And this day; Patriot's day, Boston Marathon Day, is tainted by these senseless acts of terrorism.

I sit back and reflect upon my own experiences of running races. My very first half marathon in Denver, years ago. The overwhelming and immense emotions of joy, pride, and accomplishment that is felt as a runner crossing the finish line; being cheered on by thousands of people, almost every single one of them a stranger yet a kindred friend who is genuinely happy to cheer you on and see you finish! And then to my first marathon in Chicago with almost 50 thousand runners. It was unbelievable that along every meter of that 26.2 mile stretch of city streets, the mass amount of spectators there to witness such a grand event, and cheer you from streets and balcony's, and encourage you to keep on as your body is feeling broken and beaten, and when you feel like you just can run another step, you hear a stranger in the crowd scream your name and cheer you on and re-assure you that you can do it! And to cross that sought after finish line and receive your medal, and know that you can do anything you set your mind to, and celebrate your victory with half a million of your closest friends. It is simply indescribable. And I think about those runners that have worked so hard & disciplined themselves for so many months, to  qualify for Boston and reach the pinnacle of races to experience that exhilaration and moment of maddening euphoria. And I imagine that all being taken away today.

I am not an elite runner, and I never will be. But I am a runner and I am a human, and I feel the heartache in my chest and the sickness in my gut in the aftermath of today. I pray that these senseless acts of hate will end. I know that the witnesses and the participants are forever changed after today, but I pray that it will not allow these terrorists to take away what we as American's have fought so hard to obtain. Let's not let them take away our freedom. Let's not let our fear make us prisoners. I pray for a better day tomorrow.
 

Welcome to twenty-eight

Well, birthday week has officially come to an end. It was a very up-and-down week but over all it was awesome! I am super aware now more than ever, just how blessed I really am to have such amazing people in my life :)

I am slightly embarrassed to admit, I've kind of been dreading turning 28 for a while now! It's not that I think 28 is old and that I'm getting closer to senility or anything dramatic like that, but it was just a big awareness and realization of where I am in life... In this moment... and figuring out where I want to go from here. If you would have asked me 10 years ago, where I would be at 28, my answer would include nothing of my reality, and everything that I don't have currently....Which definitely isn't a bad thing!!! I really do love my life and I am so pleased that I've had such great experiences on my own before the whole settling down bit. But I will also admit, I sometimes do have little twinges of longing after that same life that I so adimately pushed off to the side for the future. Maybe that's just normal though? It's just kind of weird to me that when my mother was my age I am now, she had two kids aged 7 and 1. I'm still renting a shoe-box sized apartment and keep moving around every 2 years or so!  Again, I will stress: I am not at all wishing that the married-with-kids thing was my life... because I don't  right now. It's just that I feel like I floated throughout my twenties without a care in the world, and all of a sudden, woke up with the real life stresses of grown up things! The reality that I have not nearly as much money in my savings account as I would like, I have a little bit more debt than I would like, saving for a house and (YIKES): retirement! and yeah...maybe I do want to think about finding someone who wants to marry me while I still have my looks, ha! I can't really describe it without sounding shallow so I'm just going to stop trying :)

Well, B-day week started out so awesome with a surprise birthdaycake from my friends Corrie and Kevin! I LOVED every bite of it! Tuesday night, I sweated it out with a little CPY in a last ditch effort to get in one last good workout at 27 :) and treated myself to a new yoga outfit with my birthday discount. Wednesday, I had the day off of work, as I make it a personal rule to never work on my birthday. The day was going so well as I treated myself to copious amounts of coffee and an afternoon at the spa, but it quickly came to a halt when on my way home, I managed to get myself into a fender-bender, and the news that my sister's house was broken into. Dang. So after crying and thinking that it was just a bad birthday that I wanted to soon forget, my bff Owen saved the day by taking me out to dinner and drinks & before I knew it I was already laughing about the accident. After all, that's what car insurance is for, right? 

Friday was the Rockies home opener and I celebrated the day with Andrew & Arika with some baseball and drinks, followed by birthday dinner at Hapa Sushi (my fav sushi place!) I had a turn out of about 20 friends and as I looked down that long table of people, I felt so humbled and honored that I had so many wonderful people there to celebrate with me! I really do have the BEST friends a girl could ever ask for! One thing I learned about turning 28, is that you certainly get a little bit more bold with age.....I may or may not have slipped the (cute) waiter my phone number and invited him out with us afterward! haha. Oh dear.....We finished the night with dancing and when I stumbled home after midnight, it was another realization that I can't party like I used to in my early twenties! Well, that's not true, I can still party but I'm paying for it for a looooong time afterward!

Saturday night, I was treated to dinner with Leigha and her family, followed by a night out on Broadway. (or a night out "On the Broad," if you will).
{it's okay if you don't find that funny}

As the weekend came to a close, I can't help but get a bit emotional thinking about how blessed I am, and realizing that in spite of my fears (and a slightly rough start) 28 is going to be wonderful year!! I am loving where I am in life, and I love the people that are here to support me and encourage me as I make my way. I am truly very happy, and I know it's only gonna keep getting better from here!

 

"Friends are the family you choose."--Re-quoted by my sweet friend, Alison Page-Cotter