Life Lessons

As with most cool things, I found this one by way of a friend's blog - Love You Muches. She's a committed, savvy blogger who is always on her A Game. She recently linked up with a group I'd never heard tale of - Rocket City Bloggers on their Year Long Blogging Challenge.

Well, Hot Patootie, Bless My Soul - it is just what I needed. While it often isn't very good, I simply adore writing, but find that I ofttimes neglect it for Facebook. Lame. Thus a conclusion has been reached .....

Last week's topic came in the form of a question:
What is the  most important life lesson you've learned to date?

The answer came easily, but the lesson did not. In fact, this is a lesson I'm still working on, and it seems to be getting tougher.

My maternal grandmother, Lydia, exuded many of the qualities I cannot seem to master. I never heard her speak an ill word about another person, she was always kind, giving, loving - really, the list could go on. Many of these things I choose to work on in order to be like her, but the one that keeps kickin' my tail is patience.
The most important life lesson I've learned is to be patient - and patience is indeed a difficult virtue to master.

Patient people always seem so calm, so at peace with themselves.
Me? I pace, fidget, clean, or nervously wiggle my foot when I have to wait.

But honestly, I don't even know if I can just sit and wait anymore. Within ten seconds, I typically whip out my iPhone and peruse the Facebook or Instagram. Yeah, because it's so important. I know.

But it's the life lesson that I keep learning.
Or trying to learn. :)

And then I ran a marathon.

I really can’t believe that I ran 26.2 miles.
Seriously.

It was intense.
Intensely hard.
Harder that I expected.
And not what I expected.

At mile 13, I was tired.
Around mile 17 I wanted to quit.
When I hit mile 19, I cried.
I said ugly things to my coach at mile 22 (but quickly apologized – I really didn’t hate her at that moment- it was the exhaustion!).
At mile 25 I cried again.

And then….mile 26 came.
And the 0.2 felt like a whole nother marathon.

But then I heard a voice from the crowd.
And my husband gave me the encouragement I needed to keep moving for another few seconds.
And  the 4 hours and 46 minutes of constant pavement pounding came to a heavy halt as they placed the medal around my neck.


Then I cried again.
I didn’t realize it beforehand, but running a marathon is an emotional experience and an emotional investment.

Months of training
Hours of dedication
Sore muscles
Smelly laundry
Injury
Hefty grocery bills
Fear
Doubt

All these things slowly culminate, and then you finally put yourself to the test – you get up at the crack of dawn with thousands of strangers to find out if you really can do it.

And then you do.

Pit stop at Dino World

Apparently staying on the 29th floor is a problem for those with a fear of heights... ;)

My door decorations - like I'm back in college!
I even had some rockin' Lisa Frank stickers around my name. :)

We aren't right.

Our super tall hotel

Let's hope there's no fire. I don't think my knees can take 29 flights of stairs!

From atop the Hilton

Sappy sappy sappy

At this point, the butterflies in my stomach are more like Flying Pigs.

My running buddies.

North Alabama's Team in Training Spring 2013 Crew

This is why I do what I do...

This is how I felt about the hill at mile 17.

And then I saw this sign. I HAD to stop to take a picture.

I'm pretty sure I'd still be hanging out on the streets of Cincinnati if it wasn't for this guy.

Boom.

Weekend bling.

Trip home - yes, Adam knew what it'd be like driving us home!
And he was right.

This was the first thing I saw when I got home - all thanks to my sweet Mother-in-law.

With your help, I raised $2,316.20 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.
My friend and teammate Mary said it best:

"I was a part of a team that raised over $340,000 to fund lifesaving cancer research...I could NOT have accomplished any of that if it weren't for the support that I received through YOU, my family and friends. Whether it was a monetary donation or words of encouragement, you made this weekend possible and I am honored to have experienced it!"Thank you.

Janell Runs a Half Marathon, Part 2

For the second weekend in a row, I ran a half marathon.

And it was awesome.

I was super excited to be heading back to the homeland - Tennessee.

There's just something about Tennessee, y'all...

Anyway, we headed out early Saturday morning and arrived quicker than I had expected. We popped out of the car to the smell of sour mash and the brisk 40s. Ahhhh, Tennessee.

Early morning start...

We were there to conquer Lynchburg, TN - home of the Jack Daniels Distillery - and to run the Oak Barrel Half Marathon.

Packet pickup.

Port-a-potties.

Preparing our minds.

Photoshoots.

Pre-run stretching.

Shirt & race bib

Pre-race photo session!

Then it was racetime.

I headed out pretty fast - trying my best to warm up!

By mile 2, I was feeling great, keeping a good pace, and was enjoying the scenery.

As we breezed by some fields, I noticed that lots of people were coughing and complaining about the smell. What? Cow manure bother you? City mice. Sigh.

At mile 4, I met the fabled Whiskey Hill - a 278 ft climb (I think!). It seemed like it took an eternity to climb, but after 11 minutes, I was at the top. And as they told me, it was all downhill from there.

I got tired.

My hair fell out of the braid.

My nose was sunburning.

I was hot.

But I was running downhill!

Before I knew it, I was crossing the finishline with another Personal Record (PR).

Last week, I pulled a 02:07:08 finish.

My Team

This week - even with the monster hill - I managed a 02:04:12 and I couldn't be happier. :)

After the race, we spent some time shopping around the Lynchburg square, and we at the Iron Kettle.

My new ride...

Tough opponent.

Oak Barrel was a great race and another great weekend with my running buddies. We have big plans for the rest of 2013.1, but more on that later. Now, I'll leave you with two photos of yours truly. The first, a finish line pic from last week. The later, the best picture ever taken of me.

Oh gosh. This is so embarrassing. I mean, that hair. That face.
I don't even look like a runner! This has to be the best Ugly Runner picture ever.

Janell Runs a Half Marathon, Part 1

I’ve been taking it easy for the past week or so – what with my old lady achy calf muscles and all.
(I wrote about it here.)

Last week, I finally (wo)manned up and scheduled a visit with my trusty physical therapist. He thought that, based on the location and description of my pain, it was mostly likely tendonitis rather than a strained muscle. Either way, he had me take a week off from doing my training runs, perform some ridiculously normal exercises each day, and keep icing it each night.

So, I can’t lie - I was kinda excited to have a legitimate excuse to come home, eat popcorn, and be lazy. Let me tell you, Monday was amazing. I stayed in my elastic waistband pants all stinkin’ day and didn’t even look at my Mizunos. Lazy was awesome.

Tuesday evening rolled around.
Our Facebook TNT group page began lighting up with posts about meeting to run.
That’s when I started to get jealous.
I actually wanted to be out in the snowy night running.
That’s cray cray, my friends.  Pure crazy.

By Thursday, the pressure had gotten to me, and I finally cracked. I hit the trails with Dana and Karen to get in a nice 4.5 mile run before our half marathon on Saturday.   (!!!)

Carb loading on Friday before my long run.

The time off seemed to ease the pain a bit, because I felt great yesterday at the Scottsboro Half Marathon.

We all met at 6 a.m. to make sure we got there in plenty of time. It was a bit nippy out at that hour, but I knew that it wouldn’t be very long until I warmed up.

Saturday morning sunrise on the way on Scottsboro, AL.

Compared to the only other half I’ve done, a Rock ‘N Roll series, this one was tiny. Country Music had roughly 33,000 people, while Scottsboro had a cap of 500. I enjoyed being able to find my Team easily, and I even ran into a few other people that I knew.

At 7 o’clock, we were off to pound out 13.1 miles of rolling, Goosepond Colony hills, and I couldn’t have been giddier.  I love a good challenge, and I had one against myself: beat my previous half time…by a lot!

Tired and sore, but happy. And a little smelly, too! ;)

The whole gang post-race.

Loaded Tater at 50 Taters in Scottsboro, AL. 

Last year, I ran the Country Music Half in 2:39:43.
And I crossed the finish line at the Scottsboro Half in…. 2:07:08!

I couldn’t be happier. :)
Next Saturday, we have a training run in Lynchburg, TN. I hear there’s a killer hill!

I've been lazy....

My mom called me out on this one.
She said that I haven’t written a blog in far too long.
I guess ya can always count on moms to keep you in line! :D

Blogging was really sparse towards the end of 2012. Really.
And I have no idea what I was doing.
I ran.
I ate.
And I watched tv.

I’m embarrassed to say that the number of television series I completed outnumbers the books I read. Can we say couch potato? This year is shaping up to be a little better, and I’m determined to realign my priorities!

In time, I’ve heard my grandmother say that you make time for what you want to do. It’s kinda ridiculous how much time I spend scrolling around on Facebook, so I plan on quelling that nasty habit, too. 

So, where are my priorities? Allow me to elaborate….

Reading
I’m a readin’ machine lately. It probably has something to do with the Accelerated Reader  (AR) points wall we have at school. AR is where you read a book, take a test on the book, and then you get pointes based on the thickness of the book and how well you did on the test. We did this when I was in elementary and middle school; I loved it then, and I love it now. I love talking to the kids at school about which books they recommend and having casual discussions about how great a certain book or character is. I’ve been rereading the Harry Potter series and many of my other once loved books in my collection.

Writin’
I’ve always had this crazy thought.
This “I kinda want to…” feeling …
This hidden dream, desire, longing…
to be a writer.

It’s always been one of those, in another life, I’d probably be a writer things.
But it’s also one of those there’s no way I’m good enough kind of things, too.

Writers write, not watch endless hours of The Walking Dead, Revenge, Frasier, or White Collar.

Running
In order to keep buying cute running accessories, apparently I have to keep running. Ok. Whatever.
So, I signed up with TNT (again!) to run a marathon (!!!) this spring. That’s 26.2 miles, my friend, twenty-six-point-two. Starting this Saturday, my training runs will be in the double digits, and that scares me! But I can do it. Fo sho.

Honestly, when I’m running, I try to not think about the distance I have to cover. Instead I convert the distance into approximate time. Then the time into calories. Then the calories (burned, of course) into how much food I can eat when I’m  finished! That’s truly what keeps me motivated. J

Now, Photo Friday:

New running shoes, hydration, and GARMIN!

Fall trip to and Auburn game with the Hubs.

Sweet messages of encouragement on donation checks make me smile.

And then this one time, I actually PLACED in a 5K race!

The brother. I like that kid.

And then my cooking idol responded to me on Facebook. Swoon!

Love my mommy.

I might be crazy.

-->

Isn’t the first step admitting that I have a problem?
Well, I do.

My name is Janell.
And I’m addicted to running.

Rudolph Run 5K

Obviously…because I did something super ridiculously crazy tonight.
I’m talking straight up cray cray.

Like $2,500 crazy.
Like 26.2 miles of crazy.

Gulp.
Yeah, I signed up with Team in Training again to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

I’ll bet you can’t wait to see how many times I complain about sore legs.
Or my old lady knee.
Oooooor what awesomely cute running clothes I get to buy!?!

Whew.
I feel better now that that’s out in the open.
Ok, now you can click on the Google Ad over there. Gimme some free money, yo.


Since I trust that you'll do as I ask, I'll leave you with this amazingly flattering picture of me from this last weekend...

Isn't that amazing?

Ze ad.
Click on it.

Or, donate here:
http://pages.teamintraining.org/al/flypig13/janellhill

Tradition Breaker

I love to eat.
I always have.
So my favorite holidays obviously have to do with food. :)

Growing up with my family as my neighbors, Thanksgiving was never an issue; we always gathered on Thanksgiving day around 11:30 to eat. Then, we'd all reconvene around supper time to eat again! Fat kid heaven, for reals!

But getting married and moving to another state really complicated things. Yes, twice the food, but quite a feat to be everywhere we wanted to be.

My very first year as an old maid, my husband broke his leg. His two major surgeries following the break were just a couple of weeks before Thanksgiving. Since we weren't able to travel, my sweet mother fixed an entire Thanksgiving meal and brought it to us a couple days before the family feast. Yes, my parents are really amazing. I remember trying to find a place to order pizza on Thanksgiving day. Then trying to put up the Christmas tree. Then breaking the Christmas tree stand. Then sitting in the middle of the living room floor, bawling my eyes out because I couldn't be with my family. I'm fairly sure that the husb doesn't remember most of this, and it's probably better that way.

Since then, we've typically spent our holidays traveling to this house then that house. We're always full and happy, but dog tired.

And so this holiday season begins - we are four days away from Thanksgiving, and I'm pretty pumped to eat way too much of my mom's hashbrown casserole. Yummm...

But we won't be traveling this Thanksgiving. Nope, we've simplified things. We've gotten lazy. We're breaking tradition. We're hosting!

I'll probably still be dog tired at the end of this Thanksgiving, but I'm excited to open our little house to both of our small families. I've planned the meal (oh no no, I'm not the only one cooking! Nooo, we want to eat!), I've started cleaning, we've even bought a ham! Talk about feeling like an adult. :)

We'll see how it goes!