Runners Tell All: My Proudest Moment

Your Favorite and/or Proudest Running Moment
Crossing that first finish line? Running a mile without walking?
What’s your proudest running moment to date? Brag on yourself!

When Amanda first mentioned this link-up, I scanned all the topics with excitement trying to figure out what I’d post for each one of them, and I knew – without a doubt – that when this topic came up what I would choose. I just knew it’d be the moment I crossed the finish line of my first marathon. (This link-up started a couple months before my race.)

But that didn’t exactly pan out like I wanted, so while I’m very proud of what I did accomplish, it’s not at the top of my list when I start scanning my brain for great race moments over the past 2 1/2 years. (Dudes. I’ve been actively running that long, CRAZY.)

The thing my mind always settles back into is my third half-marathon – The Bearathon. In that blog post, I explain a little why it meant so much to me at the time but to sum it up – it was the race I had worked for (in my mind) for at least a year. It was ultimately my goal race, even though it wasn’t technically my first half.

Everything just came together – the weather was great, I felt strong (despite the freakish hills), and I made sure to enjoy every single mile (even when I wanted to chew my legs off and jump in a taxi). There was also no one there at the finish line for me.

Does that sound sad? I promise, it wasn’t.

It made it full circle for me. No one was there to push me to start running, I was just there – alone in a gym, scared as hell that people were going to judge my 200 lbs of awesomeness for jiggling on a treadmill but I did it. And I did it over and over again, until finally – there I was alone at a finish line knowing I fucking did it. And it was wonderful. I proved to myself what I was capable of and …then I videoed my reaction. I’m glad I did, it serves me a good reminder of who I was, who I am and who I’m going to be.

Biscuit & Gravy

Alfred & I have officially become the best parents in the world. We caved and not only got Lillie a puppy – but a kitten as well. For the past two weeks, our conversations have gone mostly like this:

Lillie: Where is Biscuit? She needs a hug.
Me: Why don’t you leave her alone for a few minutes. Let her breath.
Lillie: But she needs hugs, not breaths.

She’s a wonderful little puppy that my husband somehow convinced me was a good investment when he snatched her up from a friends house. They didn’t have the time for her, so it’s worked out well for both of us at this point. We estimate she’s around 3 months old and something like a Chihuahua/dachshund mix. I’m just basing that off of her pointy ears and incredibly long torso/short legs. Watching her run full-speed makes my heart happy. It’s like she has no joints at all, her legs just kick straight out and up.

Gravy came home with Alfred a couple days later when she jumped in his truck – twice – and she actually let Alfred hold her. We’ve had a few cats over the years (I’m a huge cat lover) but the downfall every time is that they won’t let Alfred just hold them when he wants too. Basically Alfred’s problem with cats is pretty simple: they’re not dogs, so I was really surprised to see him carrying a cat.

I must note that Biscuit was already named when we got her but Gravy was not. My Emilie gets full credit for that. They both get along really well and play together nicely. Since we’re not home for most of the day, it’s nice to know they’re not lonely (one of the reasons I held off on saying yes to a puppy for so long).

House training has been a nice reminder as to why we don’t have a second child - cleaning up poop is overrated.

Which reminds me – when Lillie calls Biscuit. It sounds pretty similar to “BIIIIGSHIIIT” and it is hilarious.

Based on that fact alone – totally worth the poop.

Magic

Last year while in Las Vegas (where I ran my first half!) we went to see David Copperfield at MGM.

Alfred, Sunny, myself & Blake hitting Vegas up in style.

Blake was actually chosen to be part of the show where David made him disappear. Blake says he has no idea how it was done (he’s a filthy liar) but it was still really incredible to have someone we know be in the show. And immediately afterwards we were all transported into 8 year olds convinced we wanted to be magicians. (We definitely recommend the show if you’re going to Vegas any time soon!)

So, of course, we had to stop into a magic shop and browse. If you bought a trick (no, not that kind you perv) they would take you into the back room and show you how it is done. We couldn’t really justify buying something until we realized we could use Lillie as an excuse. She’d simply love a magic trick!

Well, when we came home she was not even close to be interested. But now that she’s a little older, we thought we’d try again. And yep, she loved it.

Sorry for the poor lighting and uh, the no editing, but you get the gist.