It's A Love Story

Marathon Training Week 1 Recap

2010-07-03T07:38:00.000-07:00

Week 1 Totals: 31.85 miles in 4:03:59 for an average pace of 7:39.6/mile

Tuesday: Run 1 of the week was centered on a 5k race in Opelika, AL. This are held every Tuesday and it is a challenging course with a good number of hills, which includes a steep climb at about the 3-mile mark. My fastest time on this course was 20:55 and this week my goal time was 21:17, which assuming exactly 3.1 miles for the course would be a 6:52/mile average pace. As the case with most races, the Garmin GPS distance did not exactly match, either due to not running the exact course tangents, the watch having poor signal, or the course just being measured inaccurately. My time this week was 21:36 with my watch measuring a distance of 3.18 miles, a 6:47.5/mile average pace. In addition to the race, I did about a 2-mile warm up and then ran the course after the race at a slower pace to log 8.36 miles for the day in a total time of 1:03:40 for an average pace of 7:36.9/mile. Overall, I was very satisfied with the day’s run and thought it was a good start to my marathon training.

Running Shoes: Nike Free 5.0 V4

Thursday: Run 2 of the week was a hard workout at the old Auburn track. The goal of this track workout was to run 10 by 800 meters (approx 0.50 miles) with a 400 meter cool down in between. This workout is commonly referred to as Yasso 800’s, which are used with varying success to predict an expected marathon race time. If you can run 10x800m at 0:03:10, you should be able to run a marathon in 3:10:00. My goal for this workout was to run the 800’s in 3:07. I had never run more than 7x800m before in trying this workout tonight, so realistically just finishing all 10 would be an accomplishment. My 800m times were 3:02, 3:09, 3:17, 3:15, 3:19, 3:22, 3:17, 3:22, 3:27, 3:25, which comes to an average 800m time of 3:18. The times were slower than I wanted, but again just finishing all 10 was difficult. Running around a track in hot and humid weather for a total of 7.5 miles takes a good bit of physical endurance but just as much if not more mental endurance. For the cool down and warm up, I logged an additional 3 miles for a total of 10.81 miles for the day in a total time of 1:23:33 for an average pace of 7:43.7/mile. This workout means I still have a good bit of hard work ahead of me to get into a 3:10:00 marathon shape but knowing that I have made it through one of these hard workouts gives me a good bit of confidence going forward with the training.

Running Shoes: Newton Distance

Saturday: Run 3 of the week was an early morning steady state long run around Auburn (http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=3841787). The goal was to get in 10 miles at a 7:05/mile average pace. After a short warm up around campus, I took off on the run. I knew a 7:05/mile pace would be very challenging to hold (stretch goals are always good). Instead of draining myself in the first few miles and then running out of gas, I ran at a challenging yet comfortable pace. I was very satisfied with how the run turned out. I hit the 10-mile mark at 1:14:25 for an average pace of 7:27/mile with the mile splits being very consistent. Consistency is something I have to work hard on throughout this training because I have a tendency to run hard at the beginning of a race and then run completely out of gas having to really struggle to the finish line. Using the McMillan Running Calculator (http://www.mcmillanrunning.com/mcmillanrunningcalculator.htm), the 10-mile time corresponds to 3:28:26 marathon. Again still a lot of work to do before I am ready to run a 3:10 marathon but if I can get to the 3:15 – 3:20 range for Tupelo, the 3:10 will be well within reach come December. With the warm up and cool down the total for the day was 12.68 miles in 1:36:46 (7:37.9/mile average).

Running Shoes: Nike Zoom Victory

Recipe of the Week: Vegan Chocolate Protein Recovery Drink

1 cup of Silk Chocolate Soy Milk

1 cup Almond Breeze Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk

1 scoop of True Protein Premium Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Rice Protein Concentrate

Calories: 287

Carbohydrates: 30 g

Sugars: 19 g

Fiber: 5 g

Protein: 28 g

Fat: 7 g

This drink is very tasty after a hard run and it gets some good protein in my system to help the body start rebuilding for the next run.

Happy Mother's Day

2010-05-09T17:36:00.000-07:00

Every year, Mother's Day has so much more meaning as I learn to appreciate and love my sweet mother as each year passes. I was so extremely blessed to have been placed under her love and care, and am eternally grateful for that. I pray that one day when I have sweet babies of my own I can be just a piece of the mother she has been, and I know that will magnificent and more love than I can ever comprehend. It's funny how our relationship has changed over the years. When I was very young, I adored her. I wanted to wear her make up and high heels and pretend to mommy my baby dolls like she mommy-ed me. I wanted to be just like her.
Then, a few years later around early middle school, she and my dad both just embarrassed me, being around them in public was a humiliation most of the time, but in the walls of our own home, I still admired her.
THEN, came my precious pre-teen and early teenage years. I just knew her one mission in life was to make me miserable and unpopular. We would have scream matches that ended with both of us in tears. I remember being a selfish brat and making her cry, which I now still feel HORRIBLE about. I didn't like her, and didn't mind telling her how much I didn't like her, but for some reason she just brushed it off and kept loving me unconditionally.
Finally, I started growing up a little and realized all the times she was out to destroy my life and friendships were actually for the best. All the times she said "No", she had a good reason. I began to appreciate her knowledge, I still got defensive on occasion when I didn't get my way or when I chose to bring home a loser and she would bluntly express that he was a loser :) This is when we started to develop our friendship. She was always there. All through high school, she was at every event as my biggest fan. When everyone else fell through, she was there.
When it came time for me to leave for college, I was itching to grow up and be independent. I remember a month or two before I left home, I would threaten not to come back and visit, I am sure she laughed so hard inside. My sweet mama and I cleaned, decorated, and moved me in with my dad and brother's help, then we had to say goodbye. I remember it like it was yesterday, I begged her to stay one more day, but she had to leave and let me grow up. The second my family left me in this new home in a strange, new city, I felt like I was as dependent as a 5 year old again, I wanted to pack up and meet them back at Corner, I called her crying countless nights and she just comforted and supported me the best she could from 200 miles away. I visited home EVERY chance I got, there wasn't a weekend my first semester that I stayed away, it was just as hard for her as it was for me. It was like being separated from your best friend. Somehow, I survived that first year and four more after that, to today. Each year, we have become closer and closer and I develop more respect and love for her everyday. I don't know why she put up with me through some of those difficult years, but I am so thankful she did and we can laugh at it now.
I can't wait to have babies one day, FAR from now. But, when I do, I want to be just like my mom. She has always told me how terrified she was when I was born because babies don't come with rule books, but whatever she figured out was perfect. I love you, sweet mother, and am so blessed to be your daughter!

On a similar- since it's Mother's Day, but completely different- because it has nothing to do with REAL moms, Lance and I have expanded our family and have a sweet new baby- Bo Jackson. He is a 6 month old, dapple colored dachshund, and absolutely precious. We rescued him about a week and a half ago, and he is such a sweetheart. Big brother, Maximus, is still trying to figure out if Bo is another dog or a toy. Max and Bo have both been sick babies this week, and Lance and I have spent more time (and money) at the vet than we desired. Bo has kennel cough and Maximus somehow got pink eye. They seem to both be doing better now, such a relief.

Lance and I are very settled into married life and enjoying it more and more each day. I graduate on Friday, and hopefully will have a job very soon. Lance is still working on his dissertation, and we are praying about our future after he graduates. For now, we are just enjoying our little family :)

Running with Faith

2010-04-30T13:33:00.000-07:00

The Sovereign Lord is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of deer, he enables me to go on the heights. Habakkuk 3:19

That verse has so much meaning to me. I know it was not written about or to a runner specifically but for anyone just going through life. God is our ultimate strength in any situation, and with him, anything is possible. As I run my first Ultra-marathon tomorrow morning since last October, that verse will be one of the many I repeat to myself as I try to make it through the race. As an ends, running really does mean much, but it can be used as a means to get so much more out of life. Not only can one obtain an increased level of health from running, but also in some extraordinary cases, one can use their talents in running to change the world one step at a time.

One of the most famous American marathoner runners, Ryan Hall, is a strong Christian that utilizes his amazing talents to help raise money to fight worldwide poverty (http://thestepsfoundation.org/). Another less publicized runner, Sam Felsenfeld, is currently running 60 marathons in 2010 to raise both awareness and money for the fight against autism, through the Train 4 Autism foundation (http://www.operationjack.org/). These types of ends for running both fascinate me and inspire me. I hope that one day if I were in either man’s position, that I would have the strength to do half as much as they are doing.

After learning about Sam Felsenfeld’s quest to run 60 marathons in 2010, I immediately knew that it was something special. I have run 2 road marathons and know how difficult a task just one is and cannot even fathom how difficult 60 in one year would be. After my most recent one in Atlanta last November, it took me until just this April to feel my body was anywhere near ready to begin training for another race.

Now that I am back in training mode, I want to utilize my running and my personal quest to qualify for the Boston marathon to help Sam in his quest to raise awareness for autism. In my cases, this will require significant training and improvement in my running to achieve the qualifying standard of 3:10, which is a 7:15 pace for the 26.2 miles.

In conversations with Sam, we discussed having him come pace me for my next road marathon, the St. Jude Memphis Marathon. This marathon would bring Sam’s total for the year to an astounding 61. I have a really good feeling about this race, with my wife Lacey having used it to qualify for Boston, and now having the opportunity to have a man with such impressive running credentials offer to pace me. It is difficult to be confident about something as daunting as a marathon but I am confident that I can do it. Jesus said that with faith, one could move mountains, so as I continue to grow in my faith I know that a 3:10 marathon is always within reach if I am willing to go for it. In doing so, I hope to inspire others to do what they dream of doing.

So, join me as I support Sam with my running passion and support any way that you can. Any donation amount to my donation page (http://operationjack.kintera.org/lancehaney) is greatly appreciated and even just words of encouragement mean a lot.

Catching Up!

2010-04-16T11:27:00.000-07:00

Yes, this one may need subtitles. I have had good intentions to write many blogs over the past few weeks, but never got around to it :) So, here is what has been going on in our little Haney house...

Easter
For Easter, we went to Corner and stayed with my parents. It was a nice weekend. Maximus LOVES playing in the country and getting spoiled by Gran. This year, Easter fell on a very special day. It was the same date, that 15 years ago, my wonderful Granddad passed away. The anniversary of his death has never been on Easter before, and I found that to be very special this year. My Granddad was not just a mediocre, average granddad, but he was, by far, the BEST granddad there has ever been. I have missed him terribly for the past 15 years, but I know he has a front row seat at everything I have done since then and I can't wait to see him again one day. Easter is an amazing holiday, I pray everyday we are reminded of the significance and meaning it gives to our lives.

Happy Birthday, Lance!

Lance's 28th birthday was April 11th, so the weekend following Easter, we loaded up and headed to north Georgia to visit Lance's family. Another nice trip. We took Maximus along to Taylorsville for the first time, and he did very well, except for the attempt Lance made at introducing him to his cat, Popcorn. That was not very pleasant. Lance had a nice birthday, it was the first birthday I have celebrated with him and we can't wait for MANY more :) He also racked up. Lance got a new pair of flip flops, dress shoes, and three shirts, plus a "husband" birthday card! .....in two years he will be 30 :) Once we got back to Auburn, Sunday afternoon I made Lance a special birthday dinner, which will lead us to the next topic. For dessert, I made my first ever attempt at vegan baking. I have made plenty of vegan dishes, but was very excited to bake! This is not the prettiest picture (and, No, the marshmallows are not vegan, but they are Lance's favorite!) but, if had tasted it, you wouldn't care how ugly it looked, the BEST thing I have ever tasted.

Vegans :)
That's right, Lance and I have finally made the full conversion to vegans. It took a while, but I think our process is a very successful one. We never really had vegan as our ultimate goal, we eventually just stumbled upon it. We started out just vegetarian, then we went all-natural (we ate nothing processed, hydrogenated, or with high fructose corn syrup) which was a very extensive label reading processed if we bought something pre-made, this led to us making a lot of things from scratch to eliminate all the preservatives. Then, we decided to rid our diets of dairy. We figured the only thing we should do now is proclaim a vegan diet, so we did. I love vegan cooking, some of it can be very involved- it's so much fun. I had a few recipes down, but they have gotten very repetitive in our weekly dinner menu, so I ordered my first vegan cookbook and am anxiously awaiting the delivery of veganomicon. I have never heard a bad review of this book, so if only UPS could get it here a little faster, I would be thrilled :) Lance and I have found quite a few favorite staples in our diet. We LOVE Almond Breeze almond milk, we buy the refrigerated one, but they also sell a shelf stable :) It is amazing, we get unsweetened vanilla. Another favorite discovery of mine (not so much for Lance) is carob chips- Oh my!- they taste just like robin eggs Easter candy. Carob is the replacement for chocolate, you can get carob chips or powder, and I am sold, I love it! I am addicted to these Luna bars. They are amazing, I also can settle for caramel nut brownie, since you can find them for cheaper in a box of 6, but cookies n cream and white chocolate macadamia are my FAVORITE. Lance likes to explore gluten free options and loves his tapioca bread. We traded out our Kroger bagels for Thomas, just check the ingredient list and see the high fructose corn syrup- yuck! We love Morningstar chik'n grillers , and vegan Bocas. I am very proud of myself, I now make my own polenta :) I love whole grain oats and frozen raspberries each morning for breakfast, I made this switch from instant oatmeal :) Lance still has his egg beaters and occasional fish, he's a laid back vegan. I actually got lobster for his birthday, it was precooked so I just had to let it thaw and boil it for a few minutes to warm it up. It was a WHOLE lobster, I used to like seafood, but this really grossed me out. I lost my appetite, I just knew at some point it was going to start crawling away!

School
On to our final subject, school. I GRADUATE IN LESS THAN A MONTH!!! I am so excited. What the future holds, who knows! Hopefully a job, that would be nice. Lance is presenting his PhD proposal next Wednesday, the 21st. I am very thrilled, I get to attend and make goodies to take for his committee :) I am using some of my new Fiesta serveware :)

So, there is your Haney update :) We are just loving our married life. It's so special spending every day with your best friend.

She's got a NEW 'DO!

2010-03-29T17:56:00.000-07:00

Yes, I have a brand new hairdo :) And I LOVE IT! I finally took the plunge and made an appointment to get rid of the LONG mop. I wanted to cut it a long time ago, but with the wedding I wanted long, pretty hair. Now that that is over, I needed a new married woman look :) AND I found a great back-up reason- I had plenty of length to donate my locks to locks of love. They require a 10 inch minimum, and I had about 14.
There was only one problem, I felt really bad because my absolute favorite hair dresser is 150 miles away and I had to let a previous hair dresser chop away at the locks. I felt like I was betraying my amazing stylist. The girl who cut it is actually the only hairdresser I have ever used in Auburn, so I was not very reluctant to give her a call; however, it has been about 3 years since I had seen her. I knew I had to decide on someone local to cut my hair because I can't just run home in the middle of the week anymore and spend 4 or 5 days with mom and dad just to have my hair cut. So, I called up the ex-stylist (This sounds like a crazy break up story, I know, but hair dresser relationships become very important!) and she cut away.
Since I had decided on locks of love, you have to cut the hair in a ponytail or braid.... Here is what my 10 inches looks like.... And, for some strange reason it grosses me out every time I touch it.

And, for every person who is jealous of thick hair, don't be! The picture isn't great but here is a cross-section view of that mop...

It had to be razored before it could even be cut because it is so thick and tough!

I have no regrets and am so glad that hair is finally gone. Best diet ever, I probably lost five pounds and have decreased the load on my neck dramatically. What does it look like now? Well, here goes...

I love it, Lance loves it, and Maximus loves it. Hope you like it, too.

Jamaica, Mon :)

2010-03-23T18:22:00.000-07:00

Yes, for our honeymoon we went to Jamaica, the loveliest place in the world. If we could leave right now and go back we would not hesitate for a second. We stayed at the Sandals Grande in Ocho Rios and would recommend it everyone. It was fantastic!!!
After the wedding, we left for Birmingham and stayed Friday night at the Tutwiler hotel. We had a beautiful room and a fantastic time there. We had a bag of food packed for us from the wedding and devoured fruit, hummus, shrimp, and cake, of course :) We had to leave at 6 am Saturday morning to get to the Birmingham airport and begin our journey to Jamaica. We left out of Birmingham at 8 am and arrived in Charlotte, NC an hour later, then boarded our flight that would land in Montego Bay, Jamaica :) We were so excited and enjoying every second as husband and wife. We finally arrived in Jamaica around 2:30 local time Saturday afternoon. We had to deal with immigration and customs, neither of which were too difficult, then board a bus that would take us to the resort. The drive to our resort was about 2 hours from the airport. By the time we arrived in Ocho Rios, it was about 5pm and we were very graciously welcomed and began our check-in process. We were taken into the concierge lounge because we had been given an upgrade to our room. We were expecting a beach side room (The resort has a mountain side and a beach side), however we were taken to a very nice suite type room on the mountain side. We were a little confused since our previous room was a beach side room. I am a beach BUM, and my sweet husband was going to do everything in his power to make me happy. We decided we would rather just have the beach room. After A LOT of back and forth rides around the resort we arrived at our beach room....we were tired and very sleep deprived and arrived in a room that was slightly less than our expectations. We decided just to go to dinner, and hopefully it would be better when we returned (we were also STARVING!). We picked a restaurant nearby and were so ready for food. I didn't understand this 5-star dining operation, apparently. I just wanted a salad, so I ordered a salad...I recieved ONE piece of lettuce with some toppings over it. The menus are designed for you to order an item from each selection... an appetizer, salad, soup, entree, and dessert and that makes a normal size meal. We got back to the room and the news had reached our AMAZING travel agent, she called and talked to Lance. She told us we weren't upgraded on the beach side because no rooms were open that day, but she would call and have our room changed the next day... and she did because like I said she is amazing! The next morning we got a call that our room would be changed at noon. This is Sunday now, so that morning we spent the morning at the beach then changed rooms, to the most amazing, beautiful room ever!! The rest of the honeymoon was much less eventful, which is just like we wanted.
I am not an adventurous person and after all the excitement and eventfulness of wedding week, I wanted to be lazy. Lance wanted to be Mr. Explorer and adventurous. I compromised some days and left my beach chair to kayak with him.... until we almost kayaked into a SHARK...,aqua cycle which was fun, and visit Dunn's River Falls which was incredible. This was me everyday:

We ate A LOT. I had ice cream at least once, most days twice along with dessert with every dinner. We had a favorite waiter, his name was Courtney. I can remember this because he looked just like Courtney Taylor, an old Auburn football wide reciever. Lance would visit him about 9:00 every night and he would sneak us ice cream. Here is what he sent one night:

Oh, he was a doll. We wanted a picture with him, but his restaurant was closed our last night :( We also had a spa day. When we made our reservation we recieved a spa credit, and using it was one of the best parts of the honeymoon.

Everyday, we had a new towel animal on our bed. This one was our favorite, we thought it looked like Maximus :)

Our honeymoon was wonderful. I loved everyday with my new, amazing husband. At the end of the week, we hated to leave Jamaica but I was excited to start our REAL life together.

Now, we are back in Auburn and enjoying every second together. We can't wait to see what all married life has in store. I still believe I am the luckiest girl in the world. Hopefully we will see Jamaica again soon :)

Wedding Wedding Wedding

2010-03-22T18:10:00.000-07:00

Since there is so much to catch up on, I decided to break the posts up for the wedding and honeymoon updates. So, here goes with the wedding review :) I could sum it all up into one word...PERFECT! But, I will elaborate :)

I guess the whole wedding day process kind of begins with rehearsal day. Thursday morning, Lance and I departed for the first time in a while. He went to stay with his family who had just arrived in town while I did some fun stuff with my bridemaids. That afternoon, my sweet MOH/best friend, Linnzie, stayed with me and we got ready for rehearsal. Of course, Lance and I had coordinating, wedding color themed attire :)

Rehearsal and dinner were great. It was so wonderful to have so many special people under one roof :) After rehearsal, Lance and I split ways not to see each other again until the big doors swung open and I was walking down the aisle :)

Now, on to the fun stuff! Wedding day finally arrived! It only seemed to take forever, and in an instant it was gone, but I promised myself I would enjoy every second of it....and that I did. My best friend, Linnzie, spent the night with me after rehearsal...no worries, no parties, we crashed about 10 pm :) We woke up the next morning to open my sweet wedding gift from Mr.Haney. A beautiful engraved jewelry box. He had engraved the sweetest little love note on it and it plays "My Girl" when opened. I got Lance Newton running shoes, they are his own little piece of heaven.
I had to check us in online for our flight the next morning to Jamaica, but ran into many complications and ended up in tears over the airlines. Our wonderful travel agent, however worked everything out, and we were able to handle everything at the airport the next morning. After the stress from the airline, I went for a little treadmill run to calm my nerves. My sweet, amazing, incredible bridesmaids arrived at my house early afternoon along with my hairstylist who did all of our hair, and an amazing job at that! We had the best time just hanging out and relaxing with each other. I don't know how many people can say this, but I had the best bridal party ever. They are beautiful on the inside and outside. These 4 girls are truly my BEST friends,each one of them has stuck by my side through every good time and bad. I didn't ask any of them to be my bridesmaids out of fear for hurt feelings or to make sure everyone was included which is sadly what some brides must do to avoid hurt feelings, I asked my girls because I could not imagine such a special day without them.

I was a very calm and excited bride. I had no need to worry or be frantic, I was about to marry my prince charming. We got to the church a little before 5, which we were a little late from my specific itinerary, but I tried not to be too bossy. I was so excited, but had a little anxiety... I had to fit in my dress! All the girls got ready because it took an army to get me in mine so I had to wait! They looked beautiful, the dresses were all perfect. Finally, I couldn't take the wait any longer and had to get in my dress. It went on perfectly. Everything came together more perfect than I could have ever imagined. Our photographer was incredible, Candace and Tyler Hilley. Tyler shot the guys and Candace took the girls for pre wedding pictures. They were so fast and awesome. We were ahead of schedule. So, we had some time to sit and wait...thankfully we had the sweetest ring bearer and flower girls to entertain us.

Finally, it was wedding time. My bridal party and I left the brides room and went upstairs to wait on our ques to walk. We had some time to wait around while the video played and parents walked. Again, thank goodness for those sweethearts in the picture above. I have never laughed so hard at such a needed time. They were so sweet and giggly. Madison and McKenzie, the flower girls kept saying, "I am just SO EXCITED!" Asher, the ring bearer, was flirting with the girls and giggling the whole time....it was precious. I was fine and very held together UNTIL it was time for Linnzie to leave me and get in line to walk. We have been BEST friend since we were 2 years old and been through EVERYTHING together. I told her I loved her and thanked her for everything, we burst into tears....I pulled it together and met my daddy. He did so well. It was finally time to see my sweetheart. The doors burst open while the wedding march was playing. I couldn't look at anyone standing, my eyes were focused on the most handsome man I had ever seen standing at the end of the aisle, Lance.
The service was perfect. We had two officiants, both who are very dear. Rev.Wayne Shelton who was my pastor growing up and like another daddy to me, and Rev. Chris Wilson who is the current pastor at our church in Corner. When Chris and his family came to New Temple, and Lance and I met them we just fell in love with them. Our ring bearer is actually their son :) So it meant so much to have both of them performing our ceremony. Bro. Wayne began with the marriage sermon. I have a FAVORITE bible verse and have always said it would be displayed at my wedding, and you bet it was. It is Song of Songs 8:6-7 and says:
       Place me like a seal over your heart,
       like a seal on your arm;
       for love is as strong as death,
       its jealousy unyielding as the grave.
       It burns like blazing fire,
       like a mighty flame.
Many waters cannot quench love;
       rivers cannot wash it away.
       If one were to give
       all the wealth of his house for love,
       it would be utterly scorned.

It was framed by my bride's cake and on the spread of our programs. Bro. Wayne begins the marriage sermon and he has based in on this verse. I found out later he had no idea how precious this verse is to me. When he was waiting with Chris and Lance before the wedding began, he opened the program and was surprised to see it listed... Amazing, just another perfect component. Then, Chris took over and being the funny man he is, cracked a joke that we were about to become Lancey :) It was PERFECT! He did the rings and vows in which Lance being so precious shed tears. Again, it just made it PERFECT. Lance kissed his bride and paraded me back down the aisle. We were MARRIED!   We had to run downstairs and cut the cake before returning for more pictures.... This is what we found:

Michelle McLaughlin did our cakes and we can't say enough great things about her. That girl is talented! We could not imagine more perfect cakes! She also did these to complete our Auburn table:

We finished our pictures together, again with our amazing photographers and headed down to our reception. We were so blessed with all our wonderful friends and family who came to celebrate this exciting occasion with us. My mom has amazing friends who spent the week decorating, and it was truly breathtaking. Our sweet friends from Auburn who introduced us, Blake and Traci, made the journey to Corner, AL for our wedding along with many sweet friends of ours who we are so glad we got to spend this time with. We left in a beautiful antique car, then spent the night at the Tutwiler hotel in dowtown Birmingham. The most exciting part was tearing into the reception food that had been packed for us. We had hummus, shrimp, fruit, cheese. veggies, crackers, cookie dough from my sweet mother :), and CAKE!! It was heavenly.

Marriage is such a blessing and we can't wait for the rest of our lives together. We watched our wedding dvd last night upon returning to Auburn and I told Lance I never want to lose that look I had for him at our wedding. That is my prayer and desire. I love my husband more than words can describe and am so proud to be his wife :)

Here are some of my favorite pictures from the wedding. You can view them all on facebook, here is the link to the albym.

Also, we had a dvd that played at the beginning of the ceremony and have posted it to youtube, here is the link:

One more thing, we HIGHLY recommend our wonderful photographers! Their website is www.hilleyfotos.com and our pictures will be posted soon under the 'proofs' section. They were such a blessing to have with us on our special day! Their packages are incredible and they are the sweetest couple. From the bottom of our hearts, thank you Candace and Tyler!!!
And of course, if you live in the Corner/Dora area and haven't already heard about her, Michelle McLaughlin, our cake maker is FANTASTIC if you can't tell from the pictures above. Thank you, thank you, thank you sweet girl! We were blessed with great vendors!

Ok, here are pictures:

Countdown

2010-03-08T20:37:00.000-08:00

We are finally on the final stretch of the wedding countdown! We can not believe it is finally here. Lance and I arrived in Corner Saturday evening and I had a dinner with my bridesmaids that evening. Since we have been home, it has been a very busy and eventful trip. My sweet memaw has been in the hospital once again, and she has been very sick. Sunday morning Lance and I got up to go visit her with mom, but before we left we got one of those dreaded phone calls from her nurse. When the nurse made her rounds first thing Sunday morning, she found memaw unresponsive. We spent the entire day at the hospital, it was a long, hard, and very emotional day. I would definitely say it has been one of the worst days I have ever experienced, this is how our wedding week began. Since then, she has started to improve some but we never know what the next second will hold for her. Even in her worst times when we were visiting, she still managed to repeatedly ask about the wedding. She is such a precious memaw. Lance and I are hoping to visit her tomorrow, and if she is up for it, we are going to take our wedding dvd and play for her.
Also, we spent ALL day today at the church decorating for the reception, it was very exhausting but everything is coming together beautifully. Mom and I are going to pick up my wedding dress tomorrow, then Lance and I are going shopping for some final items to take to Jamaica with us! I began packing tonight and was rather impressed with myself... only 3 pairs of shoes :)
It is definitely a time of mixed emotions. Part of me is ecstatic and so excited while the other part is grieving and hurting. I know memaw would just want us to be happy and celebrate this special time together, it is just hard when I see her in so much discomfort. One thing I have been consistently reminded of, though, is what an amazing man I am about to marry. He stands right by my side through every good day and bad. He is more than I could have ever asked for, and I am so lucky to be marrying him.
I will definitely give a dress update tomorrow :) YAY!! I can't believe it's almost here!

...And we are another week closer!

2010-02-28T17:40:00.000-08:00

That's right, we are LESS than 2 weeks away from the wedding. Actually, less than 12 days (starting at 7:30pm). Lance and I had a wonderful weekend. My mom was able to come down and spend it with us AND brought us the best gift ever- well, maybe I am a little partial- a Rainbow vacuum cleaner. Just in case you have no idea what I am talking about, I can sum it up by saying it is the greatest vacuum cleaner that has ever been made. I have never been so thrilled about a vacuum in my whole life. Lance and also moved all of his belongings into our place this weekend, so that called for some rearranging. I was so proud of myself. I have a beautiful daybed that my parents got for me when I came to Auburn 5 years ago. It has always been in my bedroom, which is going to become mine and Lance's room after the wedding, so the bed had to be moved to the guest room. I got 3 sets of tools out and got to work. I took the bed completely apart and put it back together ALL BY MYSELF, and it is still standing :) I am still celebrating that feat!
On Saturday, some of the instructors I teach with gave Lance and I a shower. A couple who I teach with had it at there beautiful new home, and did an amazing job putting it all together. It was a tailgating themed couples shower, so we got some precious Auburn and grilling goodies. The sweet couple who hosted, Richard and Amy, are so precious and special to Lance and I! We had a great time and are so grateful to everyone who joined us!
I have one more week left here in Auburn before I pack up and head to Corner for wedding week! I have a test on Tuesday, and do not care at all about it. I try to study, and all my brain can process is that I will be marrying my sweet, amazing, wonderful sweetheart fiance in 12 short days!!!! I am so excited! Everything is done, we are just waiting on March 12 to roll around. Finally! I never thought we would get so close!!!

One more thing, CONGRATULATIONS to one of our close friends, Blake. He ran the New Orleans marathon this morning and qualified for Boston with a time of 3:13:13!!!! We are SO HAPPY for you, Blake!!!!!!!

Is something different??

2010-02-22T11:56:00.000-08:00

Did you notice anything different? Well, I decided to change our blog title. I know, the first one was sweet and all, but I admit, it was a little cheesy. Lance kind of halfway agreed to it, I kind of liked. It was alright at first when we couldn't think of anything else. And, beware, it may change again one day in the future. We will always keep you guessing :)
Why did I change it? It may be as equally cheesy, but I am the queen of cheesi-ness. Ask me later about some of my proudest moments coming up with run through signs for football games. My favorite was when we played another school who also had yellow jackets as their mascot and I came up with "Our stinger is bigger than yours". I do have pictures, I'm not kidding :) Anyways, anyone who is in "the know" with the wedding planning, knows that I have made our theme "Cinderella/Fairytale". Often times, I am referred to as "Cinderella" and our wedding as "Cinderella's wedding". I know this cannot be because I am in the least bit high maintenance.... I was asked what I wanted it to look like, and very innocently, I said., "A fairytale." I know this doesn't make too much sense yet. Well, and here I have a confession... I love the Taylor Swift song "Love Story" especially this part...

"Well, I got tired of waiting,
Wondering if you were ever coming around.
My faith in you was fading,
When I met you on the outskirts of town.
And I said,
Romeo, save me, I've been feeling so alone.
I keep waiting for you, but you never come.
Is this in my head, I don't know what to think,
He knelt to the ground,
And pulled out a ring and said,
Marry me, Juliet, you'll never have to be alone.
I love you, and that's all I really know.
I talked to your dad, go pick out a white dress,
It's a love story, baby just say yes."

I sing it really loud (and completely out of tune) whenever I hear it, but I really like it. I have had it in my head on repeat for about 10 months now, and out of nowhere today it seemed like a good idea to rename our blog.

I could have just renamed the blog title and see if anyone caught it, but now the whole world knows I love Taylor Swifts "Love Story" :) ...Another random fact for you!

Random Facts

2010-02-21T18:04:00.000-08:00

So, I had a creative idea tonight...I love to go back and read my Boston blog (allumlj.wordpress.com) and see how much I have changed in such a short time. One thing I put on that blog that was SO MUCH fun was a random facts post. I'm going to try it again, and this time I am making Lance do one as well :)

Here we go :)
1.I am EXTREMELY geographically challenged... and it's bad. Not too long ago, Lance had to take an evening and explain to me that Alaska and Hawaii are not beside each other....
2. I have accepted the fact that I am no longer a marathon runner, and it's almost a relief. I feel like I can have a life again.
3. I don't have a favorite color. My color preferences seem to change with the season
4. I am kind of crazy when it comes to holidays. I want to decorate and celebrate every holiday that appears on the calendar. I pray I never own a vest to match these holidays, though. Someone please stop me if I go that far.
5. I really don't like the stories I hear of Lance's rock star days, but love to see the pictures of him playing.. such a stud!
6. I'm over school, 5 years in the same program with the same unorganized professors is about all I can handle. I do love my major, though, and hope to really use it to make a difference one day.
7. When I came to Auburn, I told my mom I was going to sit outside of the engineering school everyday until I met a cute engineer :) Well, I guess it's a good thing I've been here so long. Lance is my sweet engineer, and he was well worth the wait.
8. I don't eat meat. I hope I never have to eat meat again. It makes me nauseous. I discovered this while working in a school lunchroom for a class I have to take and I had to prepare A LOT of meat sauce for spaghetti.. it was so much I had to use a "paddle" to stir it. YUCK!
9. My best friend, Linnzie, and I have been best friend for 21 years. I don't think many people are nearly that lucky.
10. I always swore when I got married that I would drop my middle name because I have never liked it. However, as I matured, I realized the beautiful meaning behind that name. In 18 days, my name will be Lacey Jean Allums Haney... you got it, the middle name will stay forever.
11. In addition to #10, I have always thought it would be so cool to have 4 names. I am finally going to be that cool person :)
12. I don't mind washing clothes, but I HATE folding them and would rather visit the laundry basket everytime I need something than take the 5 minutes to fold them all.
13. I LOVE to grocery shop. This does not mean I like Wal-Mart, I hate Wal-Mart. I like to go to real grocery stores, especially whole foods. WF is up there with shoes stores on my list. I love to make my lists and clip coupons :)
14. The greeter at the Auburn Wal-Mart, who is there when I seem to visit, really makes me angry. He made me pull my receipt out for a WATERMELON that wasn't bagged once, while someone else walked out the door at the same time with a plasma TV!! UGH!
15. Yes, I have a couple related to #13. When I make grocery lists, I organize them to fit with the layout of the store. This causes many arguments when I am with my mama, because we ALWAYS forget something because it was out of order.
16. My New Year's resolution this year was to quit neglecting myself of my morning coffee. Life around me has been much easier since.
17. I LOVE to cook, and I never use recipes. I make all of my recipes up in my head, sometimes they turn out, sometimes they are awful. It's a learning experience either way.
18. My biggest fear is being in a plane crash while flying over the ocean and being eaten by a shark. Clearly, I wouldn't be conscious by the time of the shark attack, but I don't use a lot of reason.
19. I can't remember names. It's the worst trait I have. I am very good at saying "Hey, girl!" just because I don't remember your name. It's nothing personal, I just stink at it.
20. One of the sweetest days in my life was when I rescued sweet Maximus from the shelter. He has made my life happier everyday since.
21. My favorite tv show is Biggest Loser. Every season premier, I plot a lot of lifestyle changes that would allow me to gain 150 lbs so I could apply for the show. Like I said before, I lack reason often.
22. I can never remember how old I am. I often pause when asked my age, because I honestly do not remember. Somehow I got stuck at 16.
23. This is pathetic, but I have to watch E!News at least 2-3 times each week, even if I have to catch the reruns the next morning at the gym because Lance says it "Kills his brain cells" when he watches it.
24. I love chocolate. I could eat chocolate on everything. I am not exaggerating. I would put it on tofu if I didn't think Lance would gag at me.
25. Whenever I hear songs that used to be part of one of our old cheerleading routines, I will break out the dance, and if I can't remember the entire dance, I call Linnzie. 9 times out of 10, we can figure it out. Then, that will probably lead to a round of cheers, dances, and old cheer memories. Ah, when life was so simple :)

And, here are Lance's random facts :) Be prepared to laugh OUT LOUD, especially if you have only known Mr. Serious Lance for a couple of years.

1. had bright blonde hair in 8th grade
2. had really long hair, down to my shoulders for my high school senior picture
3. had 1 ear pierced in middle school... I was cool
4. got both ears pierced as a senior in high school
5. made a C in my first college math class
6. made a C in my first college physics class... glad I kept trying :)
7. love Penn State but hate PA winters
8. tried to be a rock star as a senior in high school... failed :)
9. tried to be a rock start after graduating from Penn State... came
really close!!!
10. played a gig on a Friday night in New York City at a club owned by
Slash and Scott Weiland
11. had a 6 figure income for 1 year of my life... paid A LOT of taxes that year
12. bought a house when I was 24 then sold it when I was 26
13. got kicked out of middle school... I was a real trouble maker as a kid :P
14. love basketball but stopped growing taller when I was in 8th grade :(
15. my first rock concert was seeing Green Day when I was in 8th grade
16. I get lost while driving very easily, especially in Atlanta
17. because of all the running I do, I currently only have 9 toe nails :)
18. I can not sleep if the bed sheets are tucked in, I have to pull them out
19. I almost never ate vegetables until I met Lacey, now I'm a vegetarian
20. when I move, I usually give away my furniture instead of moving it with me
21. the mascots of the three universities I have attended are Lions,
Tigers, & Bears (Penn State, Auburn, Mercer)
22. within the first year I really starting running, I ran 2 half
marathons, 2 full marathons, 1 trail marathon, 2 50k ultra-marathons
23. I am working on a PhD and can NOT spell very well
24. when I talk to my mom, my southern dialect becomes much more noticeable
25. my Mom said she thought I would end up finding me an Alabama
woman, just like her brother did... moms always know :)

That was challenging, but fun. Hope you enjoyed it as much as we did!!! And, just in case you don't believe Lance was a rock star, here is a picture to prove it. Like I said, such a stud!!

Marriage License

2010-02-20T18:01:00.000-08:00

This past Wednesday, Lance and I went to get our marriage license! It was a very exciting day that we have been looking forward to for a long time now. I have had it in my planner since probably August, and it has seemed so far away for so long, then all of a sudden it was here. I don't have class on Monday, Wednesday, or Friday (pitiful, I know), so we just had to have a good day that was easy for Lance to get away from lab. Initially, we had planned to go on Monday, but Monday was President's Day so we figured the courthouse would be closed. Wednesday was a good day, Lance had lab meetings that morning, and it would be simple for him to get away from lab for the rest of the day once his meetings were over. We had been so excited and looking forward to it all week. That morning, I went to the gym early, then came home and got ready for our big marriage license day. I picked out a special outfit, had a full face of make up, fixed my hair perfectly, even wore uncomfortable shoes. When Lance got in from campus, we couldn't wait, so we hit the road to the Opelika courthouse. I had a folder of all of our legal documents. I must have forgotten we are getting married in Alabama where you can marry your brother if you want.... We got to the courthouse, aimed with camera and our important folder, I was expecting this to be a BIG DEAL. We found where we were supposed to go, and walked in to the correct area. After aimlessly standing for a few minutes and waiting for one of the ladies at the computers to get the priviledge to give us our marriage license, a lady finally asked if she could help us...and she did not seem nearly excited enough to get to help us, but it didn't look like we would have another chance at help. She asked for our drivers license, social security numbers, and parents' names. She printed out a form and we signed to verify our information was correct. Then, she handed us an envelope with a document and said, "This is your marriage license, information is inside for your name change. Have a good day. Congratulations." (Notice I punctuate all of that with periods) THAT WAS IT?!?! We didn't need any of our important information in the folder that was so nicely organized? Nope. Apparently it's not as big of a deal to the Probate Judge's office as it is me. However, we DO have our marriage license! I was going to upload a picture, but it does have our SS# printed boldly and I'm not taking that risk :) We are so excited, and thrilled that in LESS than 20 days we will be married!!! It seems unreal at how fast the past few months have flown by, but I am so thankful they have.
On another note...I have been thinking a lot lately about life and all the plans I had that didn't work out. Of course, now I am so glad none of those plans worked out and I am so thankful I am not the one controlling my own destiny. Lance and I talk a lot about life after Auburn, it excites me and scares me at the same time. I am terrified of where we may end up living because I am not a fan of being out of my comfort zone, but that is what makes us stronger in the end. I am excited, however, for all of the new experience we will have and the memories we will make together. I have began to pray for God's will in this next phase in our lives. Yes, it may be a few years away, but I just want to know that our plan is God's plan in this situation. I ask you do the same, also. I won't worry, I won't spend time trying to figure out what WE want, instead I want to spend my time in prayer knowing that the best choice for us will easily be revealed.

One more thing, today is a special birthday day in our lives. Happy Birthday to my almost mother in law, Mary. And our sweet little Maximus is 4 years old today! He has had a month long of celebrations. He got some of his favorite nylabones, and will probably get more. Today, he got a special "boys day" with his daddy and trip to the park and a treat when he got home. Now, he is curled up asleep under a warm blanket right beside me as I type this blog...what a hard life. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SWEET BABY MAXIMUS!!!! This is a picture of him in his birthday present from his Gran, a blue snuggie :)

Valentine's Weekend in Corner, AL

2010-02-15T19:06:00.000-08:00

This past weekend, Lance and I hit the road again for our last trip to Corner before the wedding. We had a few things to complete and little things to get done, so we packed it all in Thursday-Sunday and headed north :) It was a great trip, we met with our travel agent who is putting our honeymoon together, and we are more excited than ever to be on the beaches of Jamaica! I think we are both thrilled we chose Jamaica over our first decision, which was a cruise. We are going to need time to rest and relax after the whirlwind of our wedding is over. Speaking of the WEDDING, only 24 more days to go!CRAZY!! It has snuck up so fast, it seems like yesterday we were 200 days away. Lance and I were thinking about the upcoming weeks on our drive back from the country, and we have 2 weekends left in Auburn before I leave to go to Corner for the weekend before the wedding. We have everything we need and in order, now we are just sitting back and waiting for March 12 to arrive :)

Lance surprised me with a sweet Valentine's gift Sunday morning. I forgot to take a picture, but he got me beautiful Auburn bride and groom champagne glasses to put on our Auburn table at the wedding, sweet ;)

Wednesday of this week, Lance and I are taking a trip to downtown Opelika, AL to get our marriage license! Can you believe that, MARRIAGE LICENSE?!?!? We will definitely have a post with pictures following that day. We have all our documents in order and ready to go. We wanted to do it today, but it is a holiday, so the court house offices were closed and tomorrow we are both stuck in class the majority of the day. So, we decided to make Wednesday the big day.

Now, we are sitting in Auburn waiting on snow, once again. We got to see a beautiful snow fall this past Friday in the country, it was so lovely. The prettiest snow I have seen in a long time. I must say all this snow makes me long for the beaches of Jamaica even more!!!!!

Very Long Update

2010-02-08T17:56:00.000-08:00

Yes, it has been a VERY long time since our last blog update. Why haven't we updated, you may wonder....well, we haven't had too much spare time to sit down and write an interesting blog. The wedding countdown is down to 32 days! We are so excited, and cannot wait for our BIG DAY! A lot has been going on since our last post. I'm very excited, and going to start incorporating pictures into our posts :)

I had my lingerie and bridal showers in Corner last weekend. I don't have the lingerie shower pictures yet, but will post some when I get a copy of the picture cd. They were both so lovely, and I realized how loved I am by my hometown :) Here are some pictures of the bridal tea at my church:

This was the first time I have actually seen our colors together in a big setting. I thought it came out beautiful and am so excited to see how beautiful and perfect it all comes together in the wedding!

We had 7 different cakes, each complete with a cinderella carriage name plate :) They were (L-> R) mandarin orange, coconut, chocolate, red velvet, peanut butter, cheesecake, and italian cream. All were amazing!

My BEST friends since, at least, high school! Jenn, Heather, Me, Channing, Linnzie, and Erika. Jenn, Channing and Linnzie are 3 of the 4 bridesmaids and Heather and Erika are going to sit at the sign in book. I love these girls to death!

I had a great time! Here is Linnzie and I trying to sort through all the gifts....it was a little overwhelming!

Everything was lovely, we had the greatest time. The big stack on the right side is all of the Fiesta place settings I got, oh I was excited! I couldn't ask for a better best friend to stay with me all weekend and help me with everything! And she got the cutest new dress for the shower :) If I haven't mentioned it already or if you haven't figured it out, Linnz is my maid of honor. We have been best friends since we were 2 years old and been inseperable since then. We have planned our weddings together since we knew what a wedding was. We used to perform wedding ceremonies together in my parent's living room when we were little girls and make my brother, Luke, marry my size Barbie :) Neither of us can believe it's actually time for one us to have a REAL wedding! She's been the biggest help and greatest supporter.

I have also been busy with a new toy I LOVE!!! I wanted to get a hard floor cleaner with some of the money we recieved at the shower. I looked and fell in love with the Shark products! I didn't stop at just getting the floor mop, but I also purchased the hand help steamer. They are both amazing, and come highly recommended. I have steamed everything in this house, excluding Lance and Maximus. I have the best time with it, and the greatest thing is that is sanitizes also!! That was definitely my selling point. If you're looking for a new past time, buy a Shark steamer, it will keep you busy :)

Lance has also been very busy! He has set a date for his proposal, and had his plan of study approved by all the faculty on his committee! YAY!! If everything goes as planned, we will be departing from Auburn in May 2011. It's been great here, but I think we are both ready for a change and to move our lives together. He is working so hard and spending all day, everyday in the lab. I am not going to try and describe what he's doing because I am not anywhere near the intelligence level he is, and I am completely unfamiliar with materials engineering, therefore I would butcher his important research. The one thing I do understand is that he is getting readings now that he understands.... and that's really good! I am so proud of Lance and am so grateful he is such a dedicated and hard worker.

As for my education, I have decided to not get my Master's here at Auburn. There are not any assistantships available, so I would have to pay the full tuition price- which is A LOT! And, honestly, none of the nutrition department faculty seem to have any idea what is going on. I have a feeling I would get stuck here another five years, and we definitely do NOT want that. After graduation, I am going to try to use my degree and get a job, I'm hoping maybe something like WIC, then when Lance starts applying for jobs,we are going to pick out places that also have close by internships so i can apply and hopefully complete my dietetic internship. Then, I will be eligible to take the RD exam and be a registered dietitian. A VERY lengthy process for a title that pretty much gets no respect and low paying jobs, but that just seems to be where my passion lies. We're are just praying and knowing that the right opportunity will come along.

We are both back to impact activities. Lance started running again a few days ago, and is slowly increasing his mileage. His feet seem to be holding up well. Today was my 6 week mark for my stress fracture to heal, so I tried a step/cardio class this morning and my stress fracture area felt fine. I had a slight discomfort in my hip, but I am very excited that I can at least add a little bit of impact in my workouts. I'm hoping a couple of times a week won't do any damage. Good news!!!

So that's what our lives have been like. It's exciting knowing the wedding is so close. Our invitations were actually put in the mail today :) In no time, we will be saying our "I dos". HOORAY!!!! I promise I'll be better about updating... I've been slacking, this I know :)

My College Experience :)

2010-01-12T17:36:00.000-08:00

So, I have been thinking. Here I am at the end (almost) of my undergrad days. I never thought I would finally reach my last semester of college and be so close to graduation, but- THANK GOD- here I am. Graduation is so close, I can smell it. I have been thinking, though, on all that I have learned in these last 4 1/2 years, and I would not trade this knowledge, not necessarily academic knowledge, for anything. I have learned so many valuable lessons, lessons that encourage me to say these last 4 1/2 years are priceless. Yes, an education is ridiculously expensive, but every second has been worth it. I think about my freshman year, in so many ways it seems like that was just yesterday, but also like it was 100 years ago. I was just a baby, so young, scared, and naive. I had no idea what this new world of Auburn would have in store for me. I dreamed and imagined what it would be like, and I told my parents daily I couldn't wait to move out! About a week after living here all on my own, just me and my sweet roommate, I realized how well I had it made back in country Corner. I was determined, however I would make it to the end and one day it would be worth it because I would be an Auburn graduate! I knew one day, that time would come, but it still seemed so abstract and distant. Here I am, it has come and I am so thankful. Thankful for all the hard times and the easy, thankful for all the heart aches and the smiles, thankful for all the love and help, and thankful for all the discoveries I have made and conclusions I have come to. One thing is for sure, the same Lacey that first stepped foot on this campus 11 semesters ago, is nothing like the Lacey who will be holding her degree on this beautiful campus in a few, short months.
I can't hide all that I have learned, it has all helped make me the woman I am today. I learned balance, in life, relationships, family, and leisure. I learned how to live and love without restraint. I learned that making a 'C' is alright, life goes on, and microbiology sucks! I learned true friends will always be there, no matter how many times you "think" you have let each other down. I learned to believe in fairytales and true love, my prince charming really did exist, and is more amazing than I had ever imagined. I learned that I could never be a nurse, and it's ok to change your plans, really our plans aren't that great anyway. I learned a faith that moves mountains and gives life to the dead. I learned how strong I am. I learned nothing is impossible. I learned how amazing the miracles of an almighty God can be. I found my passion. I had my passion taken away, and realized life still goes on. I learned how much I am loved. I learned what an amazing family I have and how blessed I am to have them. I learned who 'Lacey' really is. I learned how to change a flat tire. I learned how to deal with curves life throws you without my mommy or daddy here to hold me and tell me it's going to be ok. I learned I will never be too old to to sit in my mama's lap and cry. I learned it's ok to cry. I learned how to clean, well I'm still working on that. I learned how to be selfless. I learned how to be dependable. I learned how to care for another, well sweet Maximus dog, and we're still alive and kicking. I learned how to come out of my shell. I learned how to meet new people. I learned how to accept diversity. I learned to accept and love people completely different from me. I learned that I am one lucky girl. And finally, I learned how much I love Auburn!
These past few years have been life changing and irreplaceable. It's been wonderful and life will go on afterwards, even better than it is now, with my soul mate by my side. War Eagle!

Other Than Running...

2010-01-11T05:54:00.000-08:00

So, what else in the world goes on with Lance and I besides Lance running a lot and me being mopey because I can't run a lot? Well, a lot, actually!
Classes start back today, and I have had a very bad attitude about it since the last final I took in December, but I have decided to change my cruminess towards school. With the start of each new semester, it just means Lance is closer to finishing and we can start a "real" life outside of the college student trailer park :) What will I be doing in this time? Who knows! I am starting my Master's degree with a Biochemistry class today, but I'm not sure where I'll go from there. Wherever Lance and I end up, the first thing on my agenda will be to complete my dietetic internship so I can become a Registered Dietitian. A Master's degree would be great, but right now the department is being sketchy about assistantships and I am not paying anymore money to take stinkin' classes! :) I may just get a job after the wedding and keep it until we decide where the next chapter in our lives takes us.
Speaking of the wedding, it will be here 2 short months from tomorrow! I can't believe it is getting here so fast! This past weekend I finished addressing 300 invitations, and my sweet mother is in Corner putting together these invitations, they came with "some assembly required". There is 4 pieces, a big back piece, the center piece which is the actual invitation, and a transparent top layer which have to be in perfect alignment for the 4th piece, the ribbon, to be threaded through and tied. Yes, she is an angel for helping out so much! Everything has been done, the cake, flowers, tuxes, etc. have all been ordered. My bridesmaids' dresses have come in. All the extras for the reception decorations are piled up in my old bedroom in Corner, and we are just waiting for our big day to come!
The wedding stuff takes up most of the time, but it will all be worth it!
Well, off to class we go....now, if we could just get it to warm up a bit! Brrrrrr........

Lance Runs a Race

2010-01-10T18:25:00.000-08:00

Lance and I finally made it back to Auburn this past Wednesday after being away with families for almost a month! It wasn't easy coming back to a house where running shoes, water bottles, Garmins, recovery socks, race numbers, and medals filled the house. It gets easier everyday, I just have to keep reminding myself there is something else out there for me, that will be even greater than running. One of the sweetest ladies I know, her name is Dawn, told me something that I had not thought of before. She said that running "was" my life, but my calling was elsewhere. It's words like these I treasure. It meant a lot to here that, because running was my life, and it has gotten me to where I am today. Now, it must be time to move on. My dear running, I will miss you :)
So, I know you are wondering "What about Lance?" Does he just mope with me? Well, actually Lance was spontaneous this weekend and decided at the last moment to go run a marathon. I was scheduled to teach at the gym that morning, so I didn't make the trip. I have warned him the first few races he runs and I have to be a "crowd member" may not be the happiest days, but I'll get used to it :) His race report is below. Way to go, Lance!
Lance's Report:

After logging just 1 mile since shutting down the body down since December 22, 2009 with a bad case of plantar fasciitis, I decided to give it a go at a race. It was the Red Nose half and full marathon races in Columbus GA. Thursday before the race, I decided I would just go out and see how far I could run without any training. The race was free so I had nothing to lose other than some useless pride about how long it might take to finish the race. I had no expectations and was just happy to be out there capable of running, especially with Lacey’s recent bad news with the stress fracture and hip arthritis. I figured I would start with the full marathon runners and just run until I felt like stopping.

It was a brutally cold morning with temperatures in the teens and with a strong wind, that I am sure had the wind chill temperature in single digits! I knew if I still had a nose after the race that it would surely be a red one just as the race name implies. Just a few steps into the race, my feet felt like bricks of ice and tried to run in a pack of runners to help shield me from the cold wind. The first few miles went by slowly and painfully but as the sun began to rise, I really started to enjoy the lovely surroundings the course offered. It was a run that went along some river in Columbus GA and you even crossed over a bridge and ran part of the race in AL. There were no spectators and very few other people out in this chilly weather but every 2.5 miles, there would be a small crew of people out with cups of water and Gatorade for the runners. They were all very friendly and encouraging.

So how far did I end up running you might ask… Well, I finished the half marathon race portion and felt like running more (crazy I know). I had no idea and really did not think I would finish the entire 26.2 miles of the marathon course. I knew there were numerous places along the route I could just stop and call it a day, so I just kept running until the tank was completely empty, fumes and all. I ended up totaling 22.95 miles for the day. A very nice training run done at a very slow pace but with all things considered, it was a very productive and rewarding day. The next race on my calendar is the Auburn Classic Half Marathon this coming Saturday. Again, another one with no expectations and I will be just going out having fun running and enjoying the fact that God has blessed me with the health to do something that is at times rather challenging.

So this weekend helped kick start my 2010 running adventure, where my goals are to run a sub-18 minute 5k, a sub-40 minute 10k, qualify for Boston with a 3:10 marathon, and just finish my first 50 mile and 100 mile races. All of this will pale in comparison though to March 12, 2010 when I finally get to call the amazing woman in my life, my wife (who by the way already ran the Boston Marathon and beat me in the only race we ever ran together)!

Goodbye 2009

2009-12-31T18:11:00.000-08:00

I can't believe we have made it to December 31, 2009, but it's here so of course we have to do a blog on all that has gone on this past year. I also can't believe the first decade of the 21st century is coming to end. I remember the last day of 1999 like it was yesterday, gathering Y2K supplies wondering what in the world this new century would hold :) Of course, it has been no different than the centuries before it. It is incredible, though, to look back on these past ten years and think about all that has changed. I was just a silly, boy crazy, 12 year old girl, now I am a much more mature 22 year old getting ready for my wedding to my prince and graduation from college. And in 2019....I'll be in my 30s!! Yikes :)
It's amazing how much can change in 365 days, last New Years I was out with my girlfriends planning how we were going to be single best friends forever and move to New York when we were done with school and be city girls ;) Right after the first of the year, I had an injury that once again sidelined me very close to Boston, I didn't know what this would mean for the biggest race I would ever run and soon enough I found out. After a very short training for Boston, my dad and I made the trip and I finished the Boston marathon. I thought this would be my proudest moment of the year, but then I met Lance 8 days later. Immediately, I knew I would marry him. My parents have always told me they prayed for the man God was preparing for me, and when I met him I would not have a doubt he was "the one". When I met Lance, these prayers were answered. I have been blessed with a man that exceeds any and all expectations I ever had in a mate and I cannot wait to begin our new life together in 10 weeks (from tomorrow)! After Lance and I started planning our first race together and he put together the hardest training program ever, we began preparation for the Atlanta marathon on Thanksgiving day. Lance added 2 extra runs to this training program, a trail marathon and a 50K and did great at both. We trained harder than either of us had ever trained before for Atlanta, and we were so confident for the Atlanta marathon. After our first 20 mile run, I begin to worry a little. I started aching worse than ever, in my right hip. I tried to not let it bother me, but the pain got worse and worse. In Atlanta, we started off strong and crashed later. Lance and I both finished in pain and learned that it would be best if we didn't run any marathons together in the future. Lance starts out faster than me, and I finish faster than he does. After Atlanta, I was ready to redeem my time, so Lance and I registered for the Mercedes marathon on Valentines Day, 2010. We took some time off before we started training, and I had no idea what was in store on our first training run. Lance and I went for a 10 mile run to begin Mercedes training. After I finished, I knew something was wrong. I don't make appointments with the orthopedic doctor unless I'm hurting very badly, and I knew this was one of those times. I made an appointment with a doctor at the Andrews Orthopedic Clinic in Birmingham for a day I would be in town during Christmas and anxiously awaited for a diagnosis. The first appointment left me with plenty of hope I would be back out running in no time, the word "stress fracture" was mentioned, but I didn't sweat it. The lovely course my 2009 was taking all changed on that second trip to the doctor on December 28 when I found out my marathon days were over.
Lance has decided to take a few weeks off to try and let his plantar fasciitis heal, and has been planning his races for 2010. I told him I will be very happy for him, but don't be worried if I get jealous... I want to be out there with him, but I have decided I think it is more important to take care of myself now and learn some new things that won't hurt my hip any further than to be having hip replacement surgery in my 40s. I have already been swimming, and I love it. Yesterday, I swam 2500 meters, which is about 1.60 miles. I've tried pilates which has left me hobbling around from sore abs and legs, but I am always up for a challenge. Of course, I miss not being able to just hop on a treadmill or go out for a run, especially when I see a really big hill I want to run up, and it stinks knowing it's not a temporary thing. I am glad, though, that I finally had a doctor that cared enough and was concerned enough to send me for an MRI, I am grateful for him. I've had hip pain for the past 2 years, and have always thought it was due to something else, I can't imagine how awful it would be if I went 2 more years unchecked. Although that day was heartbreaking, my year definitely comes out wonderful. This has still been the best year of my life and I consider everything that has happened a blessing. I have loved everyday of this year. I have the most amazing friends, the sweetest and most loving family, and a fiance that I can't even describe with words- he completes me. 2009 has been wonderful, and I am sure 2010 would only be better.

Lacey's Update

2009-12-28T19:43:00.000-08:00

Well, I went back to the doctor today for my scheduled MRI and was expecting OK news. I was prepared for a stress fracture and knowing I could be out of running for a few months, but then I was expecting by late spring to be lacing up my running shoes again. I had my MRI at noon, they did a scan of my hips and my legs. After the MRI, I met with my orthopedic doctor. First, he told me that I had a stress fracture in my femur bone which is the bone that runs from your knee to your hip. The fracture is in the very top part of the bone closest to my hip, then he proceeded to explain to me I also had arthritis in my hip, that's where all the pain in my hip has been coming from. I can remember before I started training for Boston, the pain that I would feel in my right hip after a run, I thought it was just IT irritation because shortly after the pain began I started having IT issues, but apparently it was the arthritis all this time... And, yes, I am 22 years old with an arthritic hip... SERIOUSLY??
He eased his way into explaining to me that I should give up the marathons, and most of the running all together. He said running usually helps to prevent arthritis in joints, but if you do get it or already have it and begin running, then it speeds up the process of losing the cartilage in joints and makes the pain worse. His recommendation was a couple miles at a time a few times a week, after the minimum of 6 weeks that I have to take off to let the stress fracture heal. I didn't know how to take it at first, I heard what he was saying and understood it all, but never grasped it until a few hours after we left the office.
When I left the doctor's office, my mom and I had some errands to run and one of the errands was going by a running shoe store to get mom a pair of running shoes since she has recently started training to run a 5K. I realized how I upset I was when I walked into the store. Any day before today, it was so familiar and like walking into a store of close family members. Today, I felt like a stranger. Then, of course seeing all the upcoming race announcements that would normally challenge me and encourage me to register before I left the store just left an empty place in my heart. I didn't realize until that moment how much running meant to me. It has almost been like a best friend that I have taken with me through so many hard and easy times in my life. Runner is an adjective I am most likely to use to describe what Lacey is. I don't know what lesson I may learn from this, but I can only be eager to find out. It's kind of scary wondering where I'll go from here, but that is what makes the adventure exciting and challenging. I have a favorite bible verse that I couldn't resist from almost reciting throughout the day today. It is Psalm 37:4 and says "Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart". A very dear former pastor of mine shared this with me a few years ago, and it instantly became a prayer. If you aren't a runner, this all may seem so silly to you, but I'm sure it can relate in another aspect of your life. I honestly believe I was meant to fall in love with running, without it my life would be so different today. Finishing my first marathon gave me a since of pride and accomplishment I never thought I would have. Finishing the Boston marathon gave my testimony new meaning and witness of the amazing God we serve. If it weren't for my passion for running, I would not have met the man I will call my husband in 73 short days. I believe God gave me the desire to run, and I have been blessed by it. I must be excited to see what the future has in store. My running shoes may never be laced up again for a marathon, but I will still treasure all the memories they have given me.

Fractures, Pain, and Inflammation...OH MY!

2009-12-23T17:59:00.000-08:00

Well, the title says it all. Lance and I are sedentary. We are finished running for at least a few months, why, you ask.... Lance can barely walk thanks to plantar fasciitis, and I go back to the orthopedic doctor on Monday for an MRI...yep, stress fracture...in my HIP.
Now that I think about it, my hip has been hurting pretty badly for about 3 months. I went to the doctor yesterday thinking I had a pulled hamstring. After a thorough examination, my doctor said I had no muscular problems, but there was a line around my hips/thigh bone on an x-ray and it was very painful anytime he pressed down on the outside of my hip. Monday,we will have a verdict.
Up until today, Lance has been running consistently. He ran 11 miles yesterday, but woke up this morning with severe pain in both feet. After hearing my news yesterday, he has decided to also sit out until his feet heal.
I don't mind the time off, I just wish it wasn't FORCED time off. I am still not sure how I feel about this injury, but if it is a stress fracture, I may be re-thinking marathon running. Maybe I should just bronze my Nike Victorys and stick to the itty bitty 13.1 half marathons. A retirement announcement may be in order, but I'll make that decision later.
Nothing can rain on our parade, though. We are 78 days away from the wedding and my sweet fiance and I are ready for our very first Christmas together! It is such a blessing to spend this special holiday around the people I love the most. Hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas.

Lately...

2009-12-13T19:34:00.000-08:00

Lance and I have been taking some time off from running the past couple of weeks to get ready to start training all over again. We start our new training this week, on Tuesday. We've had enough time off that I don't dread it, it's just not the first thing I am looking forward to :) I am crossing my fingers everything feels nice on that first run, and not too achy. Since the marathon, Lance has been treating his plantar fasciatis and I have been battling left knee and right hip pain. I don't think it's anything new, the hip (which is actually more of my butt) is from my new tight hamstrings that won't go away, and the knee problem can be fixed by my dear, sweet chiropractor. Going to the chiropractor is definitely on my list of favorites. Lance has been treating his feet with tart cherry juice, Bromelain supplements, pineapple, salmon, and some rest. It seems to be working very well. Bromelain is our new favorite supplement, it is a natural anti-inflammatory that is found in the skin of pineapple. Tart cherry juice is something else he researched and is suppossed to help fight inflammation- it is VERY tart, but also a winner.
The new training plan is pretty intense, well at least for Lance. I am going to get in as much as I can, but my goal is to not get too sick of running. This last training wore me out, and I ended up running a marathon with an exhausted body. Who knows, we will see how everything worked out in February :)
Well, Christmas is only 12 days away! I finish up classes with my last final on Tuesday. Lance has everything in place to start collecting data for his research, and the wedding is only 88 days away! In less than three months, we will be married! I can't wait. I was thinking about all the joys and blessings this past year has brought. This time last year, I was getting ready to start training for Boston. I had no idea I would train a little, get injured, barely train, bomb Boston-but still finish!, meet the love of my life, and be planning a wedding that will happen 3 months into the new year. I don't know what I did right, but I am so thankful. 2009 has been a fabulous year, sure there have been hard times and not so fun times, but all the great and wonderful things FAR outweigh the bad. I have been so blessed with this incredible life. I can't wait to see what is in store next for me, and my sweetheart :)

Running Lately

2009-12-05T17:01:00.000-08:00

Well, Lance and I have been recovering physically, mentally, and emotionally from the brutal beating Atlanta handed us. We went on our first "real" run yesterday at the Intramural fields, and we ran 3.27 at a 7:38 average pace. It was nice and felt really good to actually run again. Our legs felt good, I was still a little tired. We ran on the IM fields because of the soft grass and we didn't think we need anymore pavement beatings right now. It was very muddy, which I didn't like too much but I lived through it.
Today, Lance and I went to the gym and I ran 7 on the treadmill. Yes, I would much rather run outside but I have a tad bit of a fear, especially right after a marathon, that I will get out 6 or 7 miles and get a really bad pain somewhere and miserably have to hobble back to where I started. But the little run today was nice and I'm ready for the road and outdoors again, even if it is FREEZING!
Lance and I will officially start training for Mercedes on December 14, until then we will just be making sure our legs are fresh, while still getting in some non-training runs. We are excited, and still trying to plan our 2010 races. Right now, we just have Mercedes for sure. It's a little tough to plan for anywhere we need to travel to because I have classes on Friday (GASP!)! I know, it's awful. I haven't had Friday classes in at least 4 semesters, so I'm not sure how I feel about it. But, we are trying to find some other races to cover more of our 50 states marathon tour :) Oh yeah, if I haven't announced this before- Lance and I have set our goal to run 50 marathons in 50 different states. It's kind of hard because we don't want to run 2 or 3 in, say Tennessee, but there are so many fun ones throughout the year Tennessee offers. We have found a lot of fun races that we can't wait to have the opportunity to run. Eventually, we will have the chance to get them all run :) It may take us 20 years, but we have a start. I have 3 states covered and Lance has 2.... The difference: I have checked off Massachusetts, but don't be alarmed- if I requalify I WILL be back to have a rematch on the Hopkinton to Boston course!
Hopefully our posts will get more frequent and exciting in the next couple of weeks, until then we will be resting our legs! Happy Weekend!

Post Marathon Update

2009-11-30T18:09:00.000-08:00

Well, it's been 4 days since the torture we went through in Atlanta, and Lance and I are recovering well. I have been hitting the gym pretty hard, and Lance has just about worked through all the deadness and soreness in his legs. We have decided to start our training for Mercedes on the 14th, about 2 weeks from now. We are both so excited to get back into training. It's crazy how you hate and dread those training runs, but the second you don't have to train, you miss them so badly. We also have decided that for Mercedes, although we will train together, we are going to run the marathon individually. We aren't using Garmins, and running with as much simplicity as we can :) We are still planning to do a marathon in Colombus, GA in January as a training run. It's a new marathon, and it's free, so why not? After that, we will taper in preparation for Mercedes. I am excited! I think this is the best I have ever felt 4 days out from running 26.2. I know Lance and I are both ready to hit our goal, we just don't need to run a marathon with the worst elevation and climbs in the country! I am still very bitter towards Atlanta, and it may take awhile for me to get over my hatred, I'm holding a good grudge on this one! Lance put together this elevation map earlier today. It compares the Atlanta elevation with the elevation for Mercedes. Hopefully now you can see why this race almost killed us. We like hills and we like challenges, but this was pure TORTURE! We aren't looking for a flat, easy course, we love elevation changes and have nothing against hills, but once again-Atlanta just sucked!!! Ok, enough blasting Atlanta, here's the elevation map, Atlanta is on the top, and Mercedes is on the bottom... Ouch! Doesn't it make your legs hurt just looking at it ?!?!

Atlanta Marathon Race Review

2009-11-28T11:15:00.000-08:00

Lances' Recap:
After putting in numerous hours and miles of training, Lacey and I thought we were as ready as anyone could be for the Atlanta Marathon. We had talked with people that had run parts of the course, read all about the course, and knew that is was hilly and definitely not a flat course. With all the training though, we constantly had hills in every run and thought that training in Auburn would be more than adequate for Atlanta. Even with significant preparation, a marathon is not necessarily a race that you want to make more challenging. Just running 26.2 miles can, and as we found- out a constantly changing terrain, really punish the body.

We woke up race day morning and felt wonderful and were full with excitement and anticipation. The weather was ideal for a marathon, with temperatures not expected to be above 55 for the entirety of the race. The plan was to maintain 8:00 / mile pace for the first 22 or so miles and then see how we felt and try to turn it on at the end. This goal, which we thought was easily attainable based on how the training had gone, would easily qualify Lacey for the Boston Marathon with a 3:30 (she has to run under a 3:40 to qualify). In addition, the goal would give me a good hard training run to gauge how much harder I would have to train to qualify myself with a 3:10 in another race.

Well the Atlanta Marathon course had other plans in store for us during the race! The first few miles came and went easily keeping the 8:00 / mile pace, but about 8 miles in Lacey started to slow with some tightness in her hamstrings. This small slip in pace beginning at this point still had us well within qualifying her for Boston and at the half split (13.1 miles) we were at an 8:07 / mile pace. That’s when I began to realize that I had done some serious damage to my body with the constant up and down that the course had already thrown at us and now we had to turn around and do it all over again (Atlanta is an out and back course). My quads were completely gone and were no longer providing any cushion with each step we took. This was something that had never happened in our training runs regardless of the hills we took in Auburn so I knew a sub 3:30 was probably out of the question but I still figured I could hold on. With a water stop around mile 16, I was still running well and in order to try and work some stiffness out of my legs I gave it a good kick and sped up to pick up water for both Lacey and me. I was hoping that this little burst would help reawaken my dead quads.

That last kick lasted until mile 18 when Lacey looked over at me, thinking she was slowing me down, and saw that I was struggling just as bad if not worse. At this point of the race, I did not think my body was going to allow me to finish. Every step was filled with jarring pain in my knees due to the quads not being able to act as my shock absorbers. We tried not to slow but with every look down at the watch it began more and more obvious we were slowing dramatically. I felt so awful because I was supposed to be the stronger of the two of us and should be able to push the pace to keep us both going to ensure Lacey qualified for Boston. I had nothing, though, and told Lacey to go on without me and that I would just finish as soon as I could. Running on less than fumes with pain in every step, I finally made it to the finish line in 4:29:01 (Lacey finished in 4:19:16). By far the worst race day performance for either one of us and ultimately rather humbling. A marathon is not easy but both Lacey and I determined to keep running them and enjoying the fact that we are capable of even attempting such a demanding physical activity. One day, we will run Boston together and look back on the Atlanta race as something that helped make us better and even more determined runners.

Now we are already looking forward to the next one. Last night, we signed up for the Mercedes Marathon that is run on Valentine’s Day 2010 in Birmingham AL. We will get back to training in a week or two after our bodies had recovered sufficiently from the beating Atlanta gave us. We both know we are better runners than the times at Atlanta indicate, and we are more determined than ever to run the best race of our lives that we both still know is inside us! Only 77 more days until the next opportunity.

Lacey's Recap:
Lance said it best and professionally, I'll sum it in my non-professionalization up with this: ATLANTA SUCKED! It was the hardest race I have ever run in my life. Lance and I trained so hard and put so much time and effort into a strict training plan, and I know we were ready. We just got a marathon thrown at us that we did not expect. I guess we figured since Atlanta is so close to Auburn and it's not in a mountainous region, that it could not be as hilly as everyone said it was... well, we were wrong! It was so hilly! We passed out hotel between 17 and 18 and I seriously considered bailing on the course and heading back to the room, but I knew Lance wouldn't let me, and I am NOT a quitter! When, Lance and I both crashed around mile 18, we did have a pretty good time at first. We were laughing with all the volunteers at our run/limp/hop groove we were in. Then, around 23 it wasn't funny anymore, the pain was SEVERE. Every step felt like knives stabbing in my hamstrings, butt, back, and feet. OUCH! I wondered for a few miles, why I like to run these crazy races, but as soon as I crossed the finish line I remembered why. I run because I have the ability, health, and determination to push myself to new extremes and it makes me stronger everytime. Running gets me through things that nothing else can, and without it I would not be the Lacey who I am, and I would not have the amazing fiance I have either. Running has worked pretty well for me :)

The constant demand of pushing up hills is still exerting it's effect on Lance and I. Just come watch me attempt to walk, and you will understand, those hills were not for sissies :) Lance and I were planning on going back to Atlanta every Thanksgiving and running this race again, since it was our first race together, but I think we have decided Thanksgiving will be spent with families, and we can just leave it to ourselves to get a run in that day :) It was very humbling, and I do believe it made us stronger. We WILL hit our 3:30 goal. One thing that is different about this race from all the others is that the second after I finished I was ready to run another marathon. I knew it would need to be a couple of months, but I can't wait to cross my next finish line. There could not be a more perfect next race for us than the Mercedes Marathon on Valentines Day. I'm excited! I ran the half last year and didn't think the hills were too daunting. Lance and I are tossing our Garmins for that one and just running by how we feel- this is how I ran Memphis and finished in 3:35:42, so I think it works well. I'm just thankful we are both such healthy and dedicated individuals who both have this crazy obsession with running. Yeah, I admit we may have something loose in our noggins, but I wouldn't have it any other way :)

'Twas the night (or day) before the MARATHON!

2009-11-25T07:21:00.000-08:00

Well, once again... it's almost here!!!!! We won't get to write a blog tonight because we will be in Atlanta, so here it is!! Lance and I have our bags packed and are ready to hit the road. We have 2 gallons of water, 2 pedialytes, and MANY bagels to make the trip with us. We both feel great and have fresh legs, we are ready to RUN. Lance totaled up all the miles and hours we have put into this training. We have trained for over 88 hours and ran over 630 miles. We haven't stopped for a second since the first week in August. When we first began our training, Thanksgiving Day seemed so far away, but we both knew it would be here before we knew it and it is! There were many runs I thought every mile, "this is never going to end" but it always ends and you always wake up for that next run. It is fun yet so challenging, challenging not only to your physical strength and ability but also your mental strength. We have both pushed ourselves harder and farther than ever before and we are confident we will be successful in this race.
I think it is ironic I will be running my third marathon with my husband-to-be on such an important day of thanksgiving. I am SO thankful for the gift God has given me to run the distance, and I pray I never forget where my strength and determination comes from. And even more, I am so thankful for my sweet, wonderful, amazing fiance who has changed my life in so many wonderful ways. This training and journey to the marathon would have not been the same without him. We have so much to be thankful for, it's sad we only think there is one day out of the whole year when we should reflect on everything we are thankful for. I am reminded daily of all the blessings God has given me, I don't deserve any of them but am so very thankful for them all!! Hope you all have a wonderful and blessed Thanksgiving :)

"But those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint." Isaiah 40:31