Blessed Beyond Measure

I keep waiting for someone to say, "APRIL FOOLS!!" because today my sister, Erika, told me that she and her husband, Drew, registered for the Duke City Half Marathon and will be running it with me...and then my sister-in-law, Amanda, said she signed up for the Duke City Half Marathon and accidentally submitted her registration twice so my brother Ben (Amanda's husband) is registered for the Duke City Half Marathon! I know that David and Elise hope to be here but as I completely understand...it's a little ways out for them yet to be able to say for sure if they will be able to make it or not! WOW! My dad and Laura will be participating in the 10K! All that I can say is I have been bless beyond measure! All I could do was sob out of excitement! I sent a text to my brother John (who despises running) and said he and Lauren (his girlfriend) need to get on the bandwagon too and get out here...if job/budget allows it! :) To all my other siblings and/or friends who are on the fence about what to do...no pressure...but if you're not running then you sure as heck better be there holding signs and cheering the rest of us on! 

My Face when I found out who all signed up for the Half Marathon!!!

One idea that I loved about the Dallas Rock 'N Roll Half Marathon (I didn't see this but David and Elise did) was that people had gone ahead either early that morning or the day before and set out signs for their loves ones (or it could've been someone actually running the race setting out signs for themselves)! What would I want signs to say for me? "Remember when you thought you couldn't do this?" and "For the time you didn't feel worth fighting for!!" and "Rapid thigh movement...feel the burn!" and "Mortuary ahead...look alive!" and for those who didn't have someone to cheer them on a sign that said, "Great job random stranger!" and "Race Entry: $59...Running Shoes: $120...Chafing in places you never knew you had: PRICELESS!" ...I could keep going....but...you get the picture!!

So I ended March logging 81.3 miles! That's the farthest distance in a month that I have logged thus far. I'm excited to see what April brings! One thing I know for sure is I should be running with a Garmin by May!! :D David has agreed to help me modify my training plan a little bit...so when it has been finalized I will share it here so you guys can see the plan that I am following. Today I did Zumba Sentao with my sister Abbie and sister-in-law Amanda. It is definitely harder than regular Zumba...you do a lot of circuit training...by the end we had done 100 push ups...at least 100 squats...tricep dips (with a chair...ouch) a million crunches (okay I may be exaggerating with that one) and I felt awesome afterwards. One thing that had me really happy is that my heart rate stayed around 130-135 which I normally have a hard time getting it above 120 with regular Zumba so I felt like a really burned some calories! 

I work the next three days so I will weight in tomorrow, run 3 miles, do circuit training Thursday and Friday is a rest day (yay)! This is my next to last week on nights. It is very bitter sweet. I'm beyond ready to get onto a "normal" sleep schedule and quit messing around with going back and forth between sleeping during the day and during nights...knowing that I have to sleep during the day tomorrow makes me feel depressed and "blah" so I am very excited to be able to sleep at night every night! I will desperately miss the night nurses...I know I will still see everyone in the morning and evening when giving report...but I will still miss the amazing night crew! I am, however, ecstatic to get to know the day crew better and to build the camaraderie with the nurses I will be working with on days! Truth is everyone that works on my unit is amazing and I know that no matter what shift (night or days) I will be surrounded with the best of people! 

Oh! One last exciting news...I finally made it to Defined Fitness to get signed up for my free membership! I'm super excited to get to use their facilities...and even more excited to be able to continue my strength training that I started in Dallas...I have one multi-purpose weight lifting machine here at my apartment...but it's not conducive to a great strength training regimen! I am also really excited because their treadmills have TVs built into their display which means I can go on Sundays to run and watch Call the Midwife at the same time! For those of you who don't know I do not own a television so I either have to go to my mom's or a siblings house to watch a show or wait for it to get posted on the internet...and who has time to wait and see what will happen next week *two weeks later*?! 

Pretty close to the above picture if I do say so myself!

As I stated earlier I am bless beyond measure! I know the perfect song to describe how I am feeling right now. It is called This is the Time by Superchick. The lyrics say, "Say hey! Hey! Wake your heart! And break, break, break apart, the walls that keep you from being you! And Walk, walk towards the light, and don't stop 'till you live your life, like someone died for you! This is the time, to try. Step out, your life is waiting. And as you fall, you'll find that you can fly!" 

So for those of you feeling like whatever battle you may be fighting is too much to handle...step out...your life is waiting! THIS IS THE TIME! And as you fall (which we all know I do!)...you WILL find that you can fly!!