What a week!

Wow, this past week has flown by and has been filled with many highs and lows.  Where to begin…

Last weekend I completed my 26.2 miles for the Cupcake Marathon.  Can’t wait to try out the cupcake recipe we received for signing up!

We had to send in a picture with the
race "bib" to be included in the marathon

On Saturday I helped out one of the relay teams in the Palm 100 relay from Ft. Lauderdale to West Palm Beach back to Ft. Lauderdale.  The team was made up of people fellow co-workers and they are really amazing runners!  They were comfortably in second place the entire first half of the race, then there was a snag on the course where one of the runners got lost for about an hour.  Eek!  At the 50 mile check-in point they were in 11^th place.  The second half of the race was all about catching (and passing) as many teams as possible.  They ended up in 5^th place, it was pretty exciting and, like I said, they were all amazing runners.

I even got a finisher’s medal for helping with the driving!

Cute finisher's medal... a coconut with sunglasses!

Sunday morning two friends from Alaska, Danielle and Bill, came off a cruise from South America and stayed at my place for a few days.  They are always so pleasant to visit with and it was great catching up with them and hearing about all their winter travels…. Europe, Africa, South America and Antarctica.  Yup, they are hard core travelers.  I especially loved seeing their pictures from the Galapagos cruise.  That trip is on my bucket list and I hope to get down there within the next year.  I collect Starbucks mugs and they brought me one from Peru.  Thanks again Dani & Bill!

My first Starbucks mug from South America

Tuesday I headed over to Ft. Myers to catch the last Red Sox spring training game at City of Palms Park.  I have no idea why I have waited so long to go to my first spring training game, it was so great!  The stadium is so small you are so up close to the action, I absolutely loved it!  Can not wait for next March!

Warming up!

Our latest and greatest left fielder!

Immediately following the game, I headed to the Ft. Myers aiport to catch my flight to Boston.  When I arrived, I was told the Red Sox would be there for an announcement at 5pm.  I couldn’t believe my luck!  I got to the see the whole team as they held a press conference to announce the name of their new spring training park…jetBlue park.  I realize I was just at the spring training game, so I saw them all there, and I have been to Fenway a ton of times, so I see them all there, but nothing beats a chance encounter… it was the entire team!  Woo!  I seriously felt like a giddy schoolgirl and I could not take pictures fast enough.

Beckett, Varitek, Gonzalez

Pedroia, Papelbon & Wakefield

Papi!

Love me some Red Sox!

The reason I was headed to Boston on Tuesday was because my grandmother (dad’s mom) passed away on Sunday and her services were on Wednesday.  It is nice to think that her and my grandfather are together again.

I did get to see my niece for about 5 hours on Wednesday and loved every minute of holding her, getting hugs from her and kissing her cute little cheeks!  I do have to say, that my arms were KILLING me after holiding her for about an hour straight.  I am convinced my sister is the strongest person ever :)

On Thursday I got this most awesome medal rack in the mail from my cousin Amanda!  Thanks Mandy, I love it!!

I love my new medal rack!

Well it is now April, the best month for birthdays!  Yup, mine is the 24^th…the first time my birthday and Easter have been on the same day.  Don’t worry I’ll keep reminding you all my birthday is getting closer and closer.  I love my birthday!

Make it a great week!!

This weekend was half great

Hello & welcome to new readers and followers!  And of course hello again to those of you who keep coming back to read my blog!

The great part of the weekend started for me on Friday afternoon when I got an email confirming my volunteer duties for this year’s Boston Marathon.  I will be directing runners and loading buses on Marathon Monday on Boston Common from 5:30 to 8:30 in the morning.  The runners get bussed out to Hopkinton for the start of the race and the Common is where the buses leave from.  I know the shift starts sooo early, but I wanted to be done with volunteer duties before the race started so I could meet up with my family along the course and cheer on my cousin, Amanda, who is running the marathon.  She is running as part of the Dana Farber Marathon Challenge team.  You can read about her marathon training on her blog, Rise to Run and you can read about her fundraising (and donate if you wish!) on her Dana Farber team page. She is doing awesome and is almost at her goal!

Even though I am not running the marathon, I still felt really cool to get an email from the Boston Athletic Association that started out “Dear Heather, Welcome to the 115^th B.A.A. Boston Marathon…”  Only a month away, it will be a fun weekend in Boston with my family!

Saturday was another great day.  I ran the Ocean Drive 5k and got a new PR!  So excited to shave 29 seconds off my time from the ESPN 5k two weeks ago!

The course was beautiful along scenic Ocean Drive and Washington Ave in South Beach.  The art deco buildings are so beautiful; they were even on our race bibs.

Super cute race bib

The post race awards ceremony took place at Nikki Beach and it was nice to relax on the lounge chairs there.  I was so relaxed I may or may not have fallen asleep for about 20 minutes :)

Between the 3.1 miles I ran for the 5k, I also ran an additional mile before the race, to bring my total for the Cupcake Marathon up to 9.1 miles.  Still need 17.1 miles, but I have a 10 miler planned for Thursday morning, plus a couple other short runs this week, so I won't have a problem reaching my goal of 26.2 miles.

The weather was so nice on Saturday; I decided to stay at the beach afterwards to get a little sun.  Before leaving SoBe, I stopped at Joe’s Stone Crabs to pick up some lunch.  Delicious!

Yummy stone crabs!

The half of the weekend that was not so great was Sunday when I woke up feeling like crap!  I was so disappointed because I was supposed to go to my first Red Sox Spring Training game in Ft. Myers.  The thought of driving over there, sitting in the sun all day and driving home was not appealing, so I bailed.  However, like any die-hard Sox fan, I got online and bought a ticket for a game next week.  I can not let another March go by with out going to a Spring Training game.  Besides, I had bought a new baseball and two new Sharpies so I could try and get some autographs before the game.  For now, my ball will sit blank on my counter for the next week, so sad.  Oh well, something to look forward to!

My sad little baseball with no autographs

I am not really sure what was wrong with me yesterday, but I do feel better today and I plan on sweating the rest of it out of my system at tonight’s spin class.  The teacher on Monday is amazing!  Can’t wait for class!

Make it a great week everyone!

ABCs of me & annoying spin class

First up, annoying spin class… Last night after work I attended spin class at the gym here at work.  I just re-signed up for the gym after a 3 year hiatus.  Reason for the break, I really didn’t like any of the instructors and/or classes they offered.  Nothing motivated me to get to the gym.  Now with summer fast approaching and knowing I would want a class in a/c through the hot summer months, I figured I would give the gym a shot.

I decided I would go to spin class on Mondays & Wednesdays because these classes would be taught by two instructors I had never had before.  I do not like the spin instructor they have in the mornings, the class is more of his “show” and that bugged me.  I was all excited to attend my first spin class last night but as I was walking into the studio, the gym manager says “Oh ‘morning spin class teacher’ is subbing for Tina tonight.”  What!?  Aaaahhhh!  His class was as annoying and boring as I remembered.  All I want from a spin instructor is someone who turns down the lights, turns up the music and barks instructions at us for an hour, is that too much to ask? :)   

What do you expect from your spin or fitness instructors?

So runDisney is giving participants of the Princess Half Marathon a $20 discount on registration for the 2012 Disney Marathon if you register by May 15^th.  Remember how I said I would decide in July whether or not to run the marathon? 

Well, this is the first discount I have seen Disney give for a race, and Disney + Discount = Irresistable to me so I do believe I will make the marathon running decision by May 15^th.  I am definitely leaning more towards “yes”, but I need to let the fact that I would be running 26.2 miles, at one time, sink in for a bit.

FYI... the Cupcake Marathon is up to over 150 participants.  They are hoping to reach 200 by Sunday!  What a fun way to motivate myself over the next couple of weeks!

ABCs of me

This post is making the rounds so I thought I'd do it too! Here it goes......

(A) Age: 33

(B) Bed Size: Full

(C) Chore You Really Dislike: Washing the floors

(D) Dogs: No thanks

(E) Essential Start To Your Day: Coffee

(F) Favorite Color: Blue

(G) Gold or Silver: Silver or white gold

(H) Height: 5'2”

(I) Instruments You Play: Unfortunately none

(J) Job Title: Account Executive

(K) Kids: No ….I mean none

(L) Live: Miami

(M) Mom's Name: Marie

(N) Nicknames: Blondie, Princess, Heath, HB

(O) Overnight Hospital Stays: Once

(P) Pet Peeve: Stupid people

(Q) Quote From A Movie: "Liver alone, get it?  Liver alone”

(R) Right or Left Handed: Right

(S) Siblings: 1 younger sister nicknamed Cheekies!

(T) Time You Wake Up: 6am

(U) Underwear: Not always

(V) Vegetable You Dislike: None

(W) What Makes You Run Late: Me

(X) X-Rays: I think I've had one of my kidney when I was little

(Y) Yummy Food You Make: Thai Shrimp Pasta

(Z) Zoo, Favorite Animal: Lions, tigers, cheetahs… love the big cats!

Cupcake Marathon

From March 14^th to 26^th I am participating in the Cupcake Marathon!

This is a virtual Marathon (or Half Marathon, you pick the distance you want to run when you sign up) where you will run your chosen distance over a two week period.

Once you have provided photos of your treadmill time/distance ,GPS watch, Nike +, etc. to prove you have run the required distances, you will be entered to win fun prizes.

26.2 over two weeks… no problem!   
Plus this will be a great motivator to make sure I do not miss any runs.

You can read more about it, and sign up for it here and here.  Hope you decide to run the Cupcake Marathon!