31

I had a wonderful birthday yesterday and am enjoying day two of being 31 years old!  Yesterday, my boys woke me up by serenading me with "Happy Birthday" and then they made me a delicious waffle and bacon breakfast.  I opened a few presents after breakfast including a new movie about owls (Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole) because my oldest son knows I love owls!  He is quite possibly the sweetest little boy I know and I love that he saw that particular movie in the store and thought of me.  We watched it after breakfast and it was a pretty cute movie.  I, of course, loved all of the owls, as Nick knew I would!

Then we grabbed some lunch from Subway and went to the park for a picnic.  It was a beautiful day, although definitely warmer than last week.  We went for a walk after our picnic on a trail that ran along the Mississippi River.  It was a great trail through some woods and we even found the coolest little lizard.  He had an electric blue tail and was awfully cute.  I don't do spiders, but I love lizards!  Nick was pretty intrigued by the lizard, too!  After our walk, the boys played on the playground, which was so fun to watch. Jack loved the swing and sliding down the slides with his brother.  Nick learned how to slide down the fire pole thing (not sure what the proper term is) and we were so proud of him for overcoming his initial fear of it!

After the park, we went out to dinner with my Mama and then it was time for presents and cake and ice cream!  It was a really great birthday and I am one lucky girl!

Naturally, yesterday was my rest day in every sense of the word.  No true workout, although we had a great walk at the park, and I didn't even count calories yesterday!  I did get a 2.4 mile run in on Saturday, which was ok.  I went during the heat of the day, so there wasn't a lot of shade on the trail.  Not my brightest idea, but it was manageable.  I had hoped to get 2.5 miles in, but I got back to my car at 2.4 and was ready to head home.

Today, however, I wanted to push myself further, so I planned to run 3.1 miles in honor of my 31st birthday.  Matt, the boys, and I headed out to the trail after work and not only did I run 3.1 miles, but I ran 3.5 miles!  I'll let you read that again and let it sink in. 3.5 miles.  A month ago, I didn't even think I could run 1 mile, let alone 3.5.

Early on in the run tonight, I didn't think I was going to make it to 3.1. I felt sluggish and blah, but I got into my groove and I surpassed my goal.  It felt pretty freaking amazing, I'm not going to lie.  I think it helped having the boys and Matt there for motivation!  But I don't think Nick knew what to make of me after I finished my run.  I was squealing and throwing my hands in the air like a madwoman.  I felt on top of the world and now I know I can do the Halloween 10K in October.  I've been having my doubts and thought I would run/walk it, but I'm going to run the hell out of that race, mark my words.

Ok, thank you for bearing with me as I bask in my accomplishment!  Most days, running for me isn't an enjoyable activity in the moment, but I always feel bad ass afterwards and today was the ultimate bad ass feeling.  I think this is what pushes me forward more than anything.  I live off of that post-run high and so I keep pushing myself harder.

On another note, if anyone has any clever names for my end of the year challenge, I'm all ears.  My creative juices are not flowing at the moment and end of the year challenge just seems like a lame name.  I think for the purposes of this particular challenge, I will probably post monthly progress reports as opposed to weekly reports.

"Running is the ultimate faith healer, restoring belief not only in oneself but life's possibilities."