I'm not dead!!!!

So....where did I disappear to?  Nowhere really.  I just got busy with life and wasn't doing anything worthwhile around the house to make this little house/DIY blog seem interesting.  My life has seemed rather dull to me and I don't think I'm THAT funny so yeah.  I just never got around to updating anything and here we are, 582 days later, with a brand new update!

In those 582 days, I've run two half marathons, gained an indecent amount of weight despite all that running, stopped and started a bunch of little projects around the house and in my life, and just generally putzed around.  I've painted and re-painted rooms.  I've installed a new faucet and a new garbage disposal.  I've injured myself doing silly things.  I've read a lot of books, watched a lot of movies, gotten rid of cable, become very good at napping, and continue to really suck at cooking.

If you're reading this, you're probably wondering, why the heck are you back?  It's all Salt's fault.  As in, the famous Salt from Run Salt Run, whom I've been following online for quite some time.  Turns out, we even lived in the same apartment complex back in Baltimore, MD for a number of years and never even knew it!  So sometimes I get a little stalker-y on her posts......but thankfully she doesn't hate me for it!  Anywho, Salt aka Lauren, is a really awesome lady, and reading her posts for the past year or so have finally caught up with me.  I've finally been inspired to write about something.  And that something is.....if you haven't figured this out yet just wait for it....RUNNING!

Yes, running.  That sport that sometimes makes you go "what's wrong with that person?!"  I ran two half-marathons in 2013, the Capital City half marathon in May and the Columbus Nationwide Children's Hospital half marathon in October.  Between the two, I enjoyed the Nationwide race a lot more.  I felt it was better organized, I enjoyed the expo so much I went twice, and I really preferred the route and the amount of people I saw out there supporting us crazy runners.  At the Cap City, my time was terrible.  I didn't really prepare that much and just kind of winged it (such a bad bad BAD idea), finishing in a little over three hours.  But hey, I finished it, right?  Wrong.  I was mad at myself for my performance and convinced my mom to pay for my entry into the race in October.  I promised myself I would genuinely train this time around, and I did.....for about six weeks, off and on.  I think my longest run was 5 miles.  Again, BAD idea but this time I was a little more physically fit overall so it wasn't as bad.  Still bad of course.  So even though I shaved 15+ minutes off my finish time, I was still mad at myself.  I KNEW I could run faster than 13:58/mile because when I did actually train, I was running 12-minute miles.  I sat down and thought long and hard about where I'd gone wrong (besides not actually, you know, training).  I realized that my pacing sucked.  I was starting out much too slow and staying too slow.  My form sucked.  My breathing was all wrong.  If I was going to do it again, I was going to do it right.

I started working on my general overall fitness a few weeks later.  I compared the Cap City and the Nationwide runs and decided that I'd prefer to wait for the Nationwide for all the reasons listed above.  I dragged out signing up and waited until the race was at full price AND less than 500 spots available, but I signed up!  I had been training for a couple weeks at that point, so might as well sign up, right?  Sure! 

Well.....then I got horribly sick for two solid weeks.  I couldn't even walk up the stairs to my bedroom without nearly passing out.  So no gym, no running, NOTHING for two weeks.  UGH.  I wanted to crawl under a rock.  The good news is, I got back on track at the tail end of week five of my training plan.  If you're going to miss out on your training for an extended period of time, do it towards the beginning!!!  Sure, my body hated me on that first long run of four miles after two full weeks of no physical activity at all, but I've done worse (obviously) and didn't die.

This means now, you shall be blessed with multiple posts each week, detailing my running adventures, along with whatever else I feel like sharing.  So enjoy!  And hello to any new people!

PS - New blog title ideas are much appreciated :)