Wedding. Race. Retreat. Wash. Rinse. Repeat

This post originally appeared in my private blog on March 30, 2009...




A few days ago my aunt asked me for some weekends that I'm free so they can throw me a wedding shower. As I scrolled through all the Saturdays on my hyper-organized & triple synced calendar, I realized that my weekends are filled with

• someone else's wedding things (wedding, showers, bachelorette parties)
• my own wedding things (dress fittings, cake tastings, engagement photos, etc)
• 5ks, indoor tris, or
• being Eric's pit-crew for his 6 hr races or his half-Ironman
• Women's retreat, new teen leader mini-retreat, core retreat, mission trip

So, that's where I've been too - I realized I haven't blogged in forever - because well, I was doing all of the above!

I love my crazy-busy life and wouldn't have it any other way - except it doesn't leave much room to be sick....like today. I am skipping half a day of classes to finish a project for school (half procrastinated, half I was too sick to work on it when I had time this weekend)/I can't breathe or see because my allergies have practically swollen my face shut. okay, that's a little dramatic. haha.

Secretly I wanted to post and use as many of my labels as possible. J/K

My First 5k

This post originally appeared on March 21, 2009


This morning I ran my first 5k! It was awesome being surrounded by thousands of women (it was a women only event) of all shapes, sizes, ages, ethnic backgrounds, etc just celebrating being WOMEN :) The race was around Candler Park and the surrounding neighborhoods. I went with Sarah, Rachel (an Iron Woman!), and Haley. The race included few small hills, of which my only walking time was the up hills. YAY me. I finished with 15 seconds to go of my goal time of 35 minutes. When I got back in my workout groove this fall, I was running 48 minute 5k times. So glad to have dropped 13 mintues :) I know I'll never be extremely fast, but I would like to get down to 33 or 30 minutes by the end of the season.

The LifeTime Fitness Indoor Triathlon is a week from tomorrow: 10 minute swim (pool). 30 minute bike(spinner). 20 minute run(treadmill). This race is unique because it measures distance covered rather than fastest time. I probably won't do well since I'm not much of a sprinter.... Looking forward to it though!

Successful Snow Day!

A week ago, Monday March 2, was my first day of GSU Spring Break.  Since I usually spend Monday’s at school, and since much of the city was closed due to a freak snow storm the day before, my mother and I took advantage of this day off of school and work to get caught up on wedding planning.  

Here’s a list of the great things we accomplished on Monday:

Me:

    * two new photo albums up on wedding website

    * set up DJ info on their website and started a do and do-not play list

    * set up info on our website for guests to pick songs for DJ to play

With the help of my mother and grandmother:

    * tried on 3 more wedding dresses

    * ordered my original favorite along with the veil

    * set up order info for the bridesmaids to order their dresses

    * found a super cute possible MOB dress for mom

    * picked out and ordered an awesome dress for me to wear to Eric’s sister’s wedding

    * went to the flower market to find colors and flowers to recommend to the florist

    * bought 2 dozen vases/candle holders for the reception table decor

    * bought ribbon for bridesmaids’ bouquets

With Eric:

    * Reviewed our favorites at Macy's and Crate & Barrel for our main registries

    * Checked into Pottery Barn and Williams-Sonoma, made mental list (aka took pictures)
        of items there we’d like to put on a short registry list

    * Began our registry at Macy's, which now includes: china, knives, pots/pans, bake ware

    * Nearly finalized our everyday dishes, flatware, and oddball kitchen pieces

    * Reviewed all choices and potential choices with parents, and received great feedback!

Advice: 

    Eric and I strongly recommend taking a camera or camera phone with you every time you go shopping. We've taken pictures of all the random stuff we say, "we should register for that" or "I really like this pattern".  The day we officially started the registry, I just pulled out the camera, we reviewed our favorites in person and it saved us SOOO much time. No need to sift through all the items at the store that we’d already vetoed; just headed straight to the favorites!

I TRIed it and I liked it - Our Triathlon Results

The post originally appeared in my personal blog on March 3, 2009...




Official race results were posted today!

Eric finished #31 overall and #26 in mens.
I finished #98 overall and I can't even count all the m/f before me as there were #104 racers :)
I met my goal: not to finish last! And, I improved my previous time trials of 2:15 to a race time of 1:45

All in all, I am thrilled! I could have pushed a little harder on the run, as that is my weak area. But, I decided that I would rather have fun and finish last than push to get just a little better time and hate every second of it. I do believe I've caught the bug - I can't wait to compete in my indoor triathlons at the end of March and April. It will be awesome to see improvement between those two races, since they will be EXACTLY the same (well, Lifetime at Alpharatta vs Mountain Brook...so basically exactly the same!)

Eric started his formal Ironman 70.3 training this week. He has just about given up his car & motorcycle for the next 4 months. His goal is to bike or run to work, church, and my house, unless we carpool for a date or late-night. He is combining this with a tithe for Lent of giving his saved gas money to a charity. Ah, I love him :)

Whew! Catching up on Wedding to-dos

This post originally appeared in my private blog on March 2, 2009....




Today's snow day was the perfect excuse to get caught up on wedding stuff.

Me:

• two new photo albums up on wedding website
• set up DJ info on their website and started a do and do-not play list
• set up info on our website for guests to pick songs for DJ to play

With the help of my mother and grandmother:

• tried on 3 more wedding dresses
• ordered my original favorite along with the veil
• set up order info for the bridesmaids to order their dresses
• picked out a super cute possible MOB dress for mom
• picked out and ordered an awesome dress for me to wear to the 7 other weddings I am going to between now and my own
• went to the flower market to find colors and flowers to recommend to the florist
• bought 2 dozen vases/candle holders for the reception table decor
• bought ribbon for bridesmaids bouquet

With the help of my fiance:

• Reviewed our favorites at Macy's and Crate & Barrel for our main registries
• Checked into Pottery Barn and William Sonoma, made mental list (aka took pictures) of small registry items there
• Began our registry at Macy's, which now includes: china, knives, pots/pans, bake ware
• Nearly finalized our everyday dishes, flatware, and oddball kitchen pieces
• Reviewed all choices and potential choices with parents, and received great feedback!

I'm a little ready for bed.


PS Eric and I strongly recommend taking a camera or camera phone with you every time you go shopping. We've taken pictures of all the random stuff we say, "we should register for that" or "I really like this pattern". Today I pulled out the camera, we reviewed our favorites in person and it saved us SOOO much time. No need to sift through all the items we already vetoed!

Our First Triathlon

Saturday, February 28, Eric and I completed our first triathlon.  Training for this race has been a good distraction from wedding plans, and cheap way for us to spend evenings together.  Even though Eric has competed in cross country races, swim meets and bike races, this was his first “all-three-sport” race.  With the exception of summer swim team, this was my first-ever race.  After a few months of training, excellent coaching from the staff at Lifetime Fitness and Eric, and many encouraging friends, I found myself crossing the finish line a good fifteen minutes faster than my goal time, and thirty minutes faster than my best practice time.  Eric finished in the top twenty five (final results haven’t been posted) and was most pleased with his bike time.  The race marked the beginning of Eric’s formal Ironman 70.3 (or half-Ironman) training.  Long way to go before his race at Disney World this May.  I think it’s safe to say that we’ve “caught the Triathlon fever” - We both have more races scheduled for this year!

Special thanks to my siblings, Katie, Jacob, Alex and Deirdre for waking up before sunrise to cheer us on and take pictures.  Since Eric was faster than a speeding bullet, the sibs didn’t make it there in time to get photos.