Scattered Ramblings

Um...there are only 30 days left until I run in my first half-marathon. Wowza. I'm not sure where the time went. It seems like I signed up forever ago, but the closer the race gets the more I feel like everything is in fast forward or something. The past two weeks have been a busy blur.  Some tidbits from my life:

 I finally got a pair of decent running shoes! After months of running in these Aqua Socks, and tons of research regarding barefoot running shoes, I decided upon the Nike Free Run +. I am totally in love! These shoes are very hard to find in my area, and I literally got the very last pair left in this part of the state. It just so happened that as I was calling around to every surrounding town I could drive to in less than 3 hours, one tiny store about an hour away had one pair of  them left and they just happened to be the size I needed and the color I wanted. (As a side note, since reading the Secret I have been practicing the art of visualization and I'd been picturing these damn shoes in my head every day for a week before I started looking for them.) As a bonus, they were on clearance and I got them for 30 bucks off! Anyway, these are my shoes:

Aren't they beautiful!! And they're so lightweight and flexible that you can fold them in a circle. And they have the Nike + sensor inside them. They are the soul (sole) mates of my feet!

I've started drinking green smoothies in the mornings. Yes, that means taking a perfectly good fruit smoothie and putting crap like spinach and kale in there. A lot of people had been recommending them to me, and I must say that you really can't taste the vegetables. For real. Also, they really do help with energy and are a great post-run recovery drink. HOWEVER, I am not somebody that likes to spend a great deal of time preparing food (especially in the mornings), so I really don't see myself continuing with these after the race unless I just fall completely in love. Which hasn't happened yet. Even a little.

What a woman won't do for her health.

I finally got my official 5k time! 39:21!! I can't believe I broke 40 minutes my first race. I wasn't really expecting to even break 50!

My speed is improving. A relaxed mile is now anywhere from 11:30-12 minutes. This is a great improvement from my 14 and 15 minute miles that I started out with. I am walking a lot more than I used to, though, so that's something I'll be working on next week.

Last but definitely  not least, I've been given a blog award from Bethanny over at Bethanny's Tired of Being Fat. Her blog is quickly becoming one of my very favorites. Every day, she makes me laugh AND she finds the world's COOLEST pictures to put on her blog. I swear I don't know where she gets them. So thank you for the award, girl!

Now  I have to sum up my blogging philosophy, motivation, and experience in five words. Here it is:

 Slowly Realizing That I Rock. 

I would like to pass this award to Meredith at Run is the New Walk. She just started this blog after moving over from Wordpress and she inspires me ever day and I love her to pieces.

Ok, one last thing I've been tossing around in my mind....I realize that this is putting the cart before the horse, but I think that I want to do an Ironman. You know...the 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike ride, and 26.2 mile run? Yeah, that one. I really really really want to do one. Not now, not even next year. The tentative plan in my head is to do a couple half marathons, do the Walt Disney Marathon in 2012, maybe one more that year, mixing in a few triathlons and then start training for the Ironman in 2013 and complete it in 2014. I really think that I'm going to do this. I like having something to work for. Am I crazy? What do you guys think?