Four Pics and My One Little Word...

I know I am really horrible about blogging on a regular basis...I tell myself that I'm going to strive to be more consistent and then, well, life intervenes and before I know it I'm back to just popping up every once in a great while. So be patient with me...I'm trying! :-)

So I'm bringing back today something that I really want to have be a regular feature: Four Pics and My One Little Word. The previous post can be found here and once I get enough I suppose I might even get all bloggy and create a tab for these! Hey, a girl can dream, right? So without further ado...let's take a look at the Four Pics.

I'm going to give the background on this one first. I'm watching the news with hubby last Friday morning and they are talking about an outbreak of Dengue fever in other parts of the world and they roll that beautiful bean footage and lo and behold - take a look at that Unibrow!!! Holy Furry Caterpillar, Batman!!! What's kind of funny is my hubs didn't even notice it because he was looking at the words at the bottom of the screen so when I basically gasped in amazement he had to rewind and he was just as amazed as I was! Seriously, my big questions are do you think he grooms it daily like you would with other facial hair? Do the other dudes in his village look at him and hold him in high esteem for what is clearly an AH-MAZING uni...I mean, come on, that has got to take some work, right?!?

I spent a lovely weekend in our little mountain community of Idyllwild this past weekend with just the oldest son and daughter-in-law. They rented a small cabin and invited us to join them and it was just absolutely perfect. It was super peaceful and relaxing...something we really don't get too much of these days. And the weather was perfectly crisp - pretty much sunny skies but still sweatshirt and jeans coolness. This pic was taken on Friday afternoon from the downtown shopping area and off in the distance, just to the right of the large pine tree you can see Tahquitz Peak, a large rock that is a popular place for mountain climbing (something I will absolutely never EVER do!).

I absolutely fell in LOVE with this gorgeous bear. It is handcrafted, carved from Alabaster stone as the base and then coated in porcelain. I think it kind of reminds me of the Mama Bear in Brave and I just love that movie and the message in it; but it is gorgeous to boot. I even knew exactly where it would go in the house. As soon as I showed my hubby the picture he even said that he would put it in the same place I already knew I wanted it. So, yep, it came home with us! And it looks fantastic in our home (I'll have to snap that picture later).

So they have these painted deer all over the place and they are apparently some type of fundraising thing because they have plaques with people's names on them nearby. They all have different designs and you just spot them all over the downtown area. And what's really funny is that they totally freaked my husband out!!! Like, seriously, borderline neurotic freaked him out. I teased him that I was going to go touch that one (darnit, they had signs saying No Touching!) and he was like "Don't touch it - that would be bad!" hahaha Seriously...hilarious. I decided I'm going to send him that picture later this week just to remind him how much he "treasured" those painted deer!

And here's another reminder of My One Little Word: Courage

I'm finding that I'm needing to channel courage a lot more as anytime I even think about marathon training I get that little flutter of butterflies in my belly. I'm scared. But with courage I can travel the road to who I can be. Right???? Please feel free to remind me that I can! LOL

No Turning Back...

You know how some times you purchase something and immediately feel that buyer's remorse? Or other times, the remorse takes a little to settle in. You get it home, turn it upside down and backwards, move it into different areas and then finally just come to the realization that it isn't going to work. Or perhaps it is one of those times where you are actually thrilled you bought it; you love it; you cherish it...and then it goes and breaks well before it's lifespan should have ended?

Well, I have been seriously dealing with some buyer's remorse...but there is no turning back. It is done. Purchased, paid for, no returns.

I bought it and felt really, really good about it the whole first day! I was loving and cherishing it and then I went to sleep and the next morning I woke up with the thought "holy sh*t...what the hell have I done?!?!?"

Yep - no turning back...it's official:

I've registered for my first full marathon!!! And I'm terrified, anxious, excited, nervous...there's a whole lot of adjectives I could plug in here. What it basically comes down to is that I am a swirl of emotions. I know this is something I said I wanted to do, and it took a TON of courage to actually hit submit on the registration form. But I felt really good about it. I went home and downloaded Train Like a Mother by Badass Mother Runners Sara Bowen Shea and Dimity McDowell, I plugged all the workouts of the "Marathon - Finish It" plan into my Garmin and scheduled them on the calendar and then I realized...oh wait, that means I'm actually doing this. I'm going to run 26.2 miles. By myself. In a Marathon. With other people watching. Wearing a SunRype racing kit.

Who the hell do I think I am?!?!?

I think prior to that moment I had only really thought about TRAINING for a marathon, going to the marathon, having fun at the Expo, making it a fun weekend getaway with my hubby...I hadn't really thought all too much about RUNNING a marathon! HA!!!

Joke's on me, eh?

So I know that these next several months are going to be about not only preparing my body for the rigors of running 26 miles; but will also be preparing my BRAIN for the rigors of running 26 miles. Because, honestly folks, I think that's my bigger problem! Too often lately I've been allowing myself excuses and easy outs when I started this year off wanting to push harder, get faster, and get leaner. Instead the scale is moving in the opposite direction, my paces are getting longer instead of shorter, and my brain is giving my body a million and one willing excuses.

But there's no turning back...come September 7, 2014 I will be running the Ventura Beach Marathon even if it kills me. Okay, maybe not if it kills me...but you know what I mean. My goal - and I'm writing this as much for myself as I am for anyone reading - is to finish knowing that I put my best effort forward. I want to beat the battle of the brain and conquer my fears. I want to push when I want to quit and I want to go into it knowing that I can do hard things. And I WILL courageously cross the finish line with arms raised in victory!!

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Let's get this party started!!