U Can Finish 5 Miler + 2 Miler Distance Dare Race Recap 2015

Pre-Race MRTT Photo!

I'm so far behind on all my race recaps, so this isn't going to be very thorough, but I wanted to at least get it documented. This one is for the U Can Finish 5 Miler and 2 Miler (Distance Dare) from October 18, 2015. 

The U Can Finish races are some of my favorite because we get to run through the University of Central Florida Campus, my alma mater. This was going to be my 3rd time running it (read my last recap here from 2013), and each time they change the course a little bit so it makes it a little more exciting. Now that I'm writing this 4 months after the race, I honestly can't remember all that much about it, but I did meet up with my MRTT ladies (and one of their husbands) before and after the race and at least have those pictures! I do remember it being pretty crowded and pretty narrow on certain parts of the course and lots of twists and turns (hence why my runkeeper says I ran way further than I did) but overall an enjoyable race! It was fun to run through the baseball and football stadiums too since as a huge UCF fan, we spend a lot of time at the football stadium, so it felt cool to be able to run where the players stand!

Post Race

2 Mile Course

5 Mile Course

Can't meet up with MRTT and not take a shoefie

Love the 5 Mile Finisher's Medal

5 Miler

Official Chip Time: 50:35 (overall pace of 10:06)
Place: 678 of 1719 Finishers

Place: 295 of the 1048 Women Finishers
Place: 45 of 78 in my Women’s Age Division (25-29)

My Runkeeper stats:

5.36 miles in 50:40 (overall pace of 9:28)
Splits:
Mile 1: 9:26
Mile 2: 9:59
Mile 3: 9:12

Mile 4: 9:24

Mile 5: 9:14

.36 mile: 9:36

2 Miler

Official Chip Time: 19:43  (overall pace of 9:51)
Place: 410 of 1051 Finishers

Place: 196 of the 646 Women Finishers
Place: 28 of 19 in my Women’s Age Division (25-29)

My Runkeeper stats:

2.09 miles in 19:45 (overall pace of 9:27)
Splits:
Mile 1: 9:39
Mile 2: 9:20
.10 mile: 8:13

Distance Dare 

Official Chip Time: 1:10:17 

Place: 105 of the 388 Women Finishers

That's Good Enough for Another....

...UCF First Down!!! Music to all UCF fan's ears! Today is our 1st home game and I'm super excited! We lost our first two games (barely lost the Penn State Game  and got killed by Missouri) but hopefully being back at home will help! I hope to hear lots of "first down" commentary tonight!  We did lose our star QB and RB to the NFL after last season but we've got a good team, they just need to play well! 

I love tailgating and everything that goes along with the home, gameday experience. Well, I love it even more when I can indulge in some good drinking but that clearly isn't an option this season. I'm just glad I'm making it to any home games at all. This might be my only one (although having ABs will more than make up for the missed games!). Sitting in Memory Mall (where most of the students tailgate), people watching, grilling (or just eating yummy tailgate food in general), playing drinking games (hey, I can still play with water lol), and just enjoying the atmosphere... Ah there is just something about it! Love it! 

Last season EM was great during the games, would even sleep through the noise but I'm not so confident she'll make it through an entire game tonight.  At least she looks adorable, even if we do end up having to leave early! 

Here's hoping my one and only home game this season will end with a big WIN! Go Knights! 

Cars, Running, and Football - Thursday Thoughts

So after our amazing Fiesta Bowl Win (and the rest of the BCS Bowls finished up) UCF finished the season ranked #10 and #12, which is pretty flippin' awesome! Some people think we should be ranked higher but I'm more than happy with these rankings! The highest ever in school history!

I don’t think I ever posted about my new car! A few days after Christmas, G and I went car shopping and I came home with this beauty! 2014 Nissan Rogue SL – Fully Loaded! LOVE IT!

The same day I bought the car, I had gone to my orthopedist and I was diagnosed with Plantar Fasciitis, inflamed tissue in the foot/heel. I self diagnosed myself first via Dr. Google and then went to the doctor and he confirmed it. The remedy: cortisone shot (damn that shot hurt!), inserts for my shoes, and calf stretches 20x a day for about 4 weeks and then I should be good to go about the time the shot wore off. He said I could still run just not to do speed work (which is exactly what I was planning on working on in 2014 so I’m glad he told me that). I had been running even with the foot pain as it actually felt better once I started going (probably from getting stretched out) and hurt the MOST when I wore flip flops. He suggested not wearing flip flops but understands we live in Florida and I live in them and pretty much told me if I’m going to wear them then I need to get a good pair of flops from the running store. I plan to do that next time I venture to that side of town.

Tomorrow, I’m running the Inaugural Walt Disney World 10k! I haven’t ran since the day I got the cortisone shot – so 2 weeks from tomorrow. I probably should have got a few miles in this week but oh well, I guess this will be a good kick off to the year. G is crazy and is doing the Dopey Challenge, which is the 5k, 10k, ½ Marathon and Full Marathon, 4 races in 4 days – 48.6 miles! I’m just really hoping he doesn’t injury himself, he hasn’t trained at all and has ran even less than me the last few months.

And that concludes my Thursday Thoughts for today, a link-up with Jen @ Ramblings of a Suburban Mom.

We drove, we saw, we won! - FIVE on FRIDAY

As I mentioned earlier this week, we took the long drive to Glendale, AZ to see UCF win the Fietsa Bowl against Baylor University, so with 6ish hours left of the drive, I figured I'd work on my Five on Friday post and our trip recap (sorry in advance, it'll probably be long)

(ONE) THE DRIVE

The drive there wasn't that bad, I kind of recapped it during my earlier post but here is a little FlipaGram (btw this app is awesome!) documenting it! (PS. Hubby made it and  is a huge Eagles fan and they clinched their division as we were driving through Tx, while playing the Cowboys, so that is why that is in there). Took us 32 hours and ~ 2,200 miles to get there and 30 hours, 51 minutes; 2,165 Miles  to get home (that includes stopping, it's much faster when you don't get lost lol) The drive home was uneventful and we didn't many pictures - believe me, no one needs to see what I look like lol, but the few that were taken are in the video below.

During the drive, I've been able to finish 4 (well 5 if you count a short story prequel) books. I haven't had this much time to read in so long and I loved it!!  Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn and Reconstructing Amelia by Kimberly McCreight were both really good! I also read Diane Chamberlain's Necessary Lies which was amazing (although I'm a little biased since she's one of my favorite authors). - I also read the short story prequel called The First Lie. I threw in a kindle freebie called A Family Affair by Mary Campisi which was good (although predictable). 

(TWO) THE STAY 

We stayed in Downtown Phoenix, which by the way is the lamest city ever. I get that it was a holiday, but seriously it was incredibly dead. Even Starbucks! The most action in the 3 days we were there, was when we went to breakfast at Matt's Big Breakfast. (Was featured on Food Network's Diners, Drives, and Dives). We had to wait 45 mins, food was really good although I wouldn't wait 45 mins again, but being 10am on New Years Day, I guess it should have been expected. I saw more people there than I saw the entire rest of the time while walking around Downtown Pheonix (including going to 3 other restaurants and Starbucks). I did get a chance to meet up with my 2 cousins and Aunt and new baby cousin (does that make her like a cousin once removed or a 2nd cousin? I never know). It was nice to see them, it had been 8 years. I had been nervous it would be awkward since we hadn't spoken much on those 8 yrs besides FB comments and such but it wasn't awkward at all and I'm glad we got to get together! Our hotel was nice and we got an excellent deal on it since we got the employee discount from our friend so that was a plus but if we ever come here again we're totally staying in Glendale by the stadium, the nightlife seemed to be much more exciting there! 

(THREE) NEW YEARS EVE

We drove out to where the team was staying in Scottsdale (our big man-ly UCF Football players were staying at the Fairmont Scottsdale Princess, couldn't help but laugh at that) on the morning of NYE. We picked up some UCF Fiesta bowl gear and our commemorative tickets (our reason for going there) which showed all of the scores for the games this season. We explored the gorgeous resort, complete with a winter wonderland and $25 ice skating (which I wasn't paying to do but still cool they had it). We then went down to downtown Scottsdale since we heard there was another store with UCF gear, and the store was actually the Liberty Bowl Museum which turned out to not really be as cool as we thought it was and had the same stuff they had at the team hotel headquarters. (Plus ugly Baylor stuff too).  For NYE we went to a sports bar by the stadium called McFaddens. We knew the "place to be" was at the Mills Ave Block Party in Tempe but none of us felt like being super crowded and not able to get drinks so we chose what we hoped would be more low key (the UCF Alumni association was also supposed to be there but for some reason they weren't). It was definitely more low-key but we didn't make a decision on what we were doing early enough to get reserved seating so the only table we were able to find was outside and it was really cold. Good thing we were dressed casual and in sweatshirts plus they had heaters so it wasn't too bad and we made nice with the bar tender so drinks were served very quickly to us! We did get a chance to move inside towards the end of the night though. I was expecting the night to be more like the night before the Penn State game, and it wasn't, so I was slightly disappointed but I got to ring in the new year with my love and some great friends while making an awesome memory!

(FOUR) THE TAILGATE

We couldn't decide what we were doing in advance so we picked up two 12pks, parked the car, and walked to the organized Fiesta Bowl tailgate. Well obviously we couldn't bring our beer into it and there was no re-entry so we decided to stay out and drink our beer first and hen decide if we wanted to go in. G wasn't feeling well so he wasn't drinking and went in to the tailgate to meet up with some friends that were already inside and I called some of my friends who were doing a normal tailgate in the parking lot and they invited us over there so we went over there to hang for awhile. Turns out they randomly parked next to a large group of people who went all out for the tailgate (they were locals who apparently come every year regardless of the teams playing). I mean they were grilling prime rib, ribs, burgers, dogs, etc. the spread was incredible and they had a full liquor bar, margarita machine, tons of beer and music playing. Best of all, they were the most friendly and generous people ever. Invited us right over to drink and eat and have a good time. We ended up staying there until the start of the game, it was a ton of fun and I got to hang out with my friends who drove in from Santa Barbara plus some other Florida friends. I think I speak for the group of us when I said it was an awesome time! 

(FIVE) THE GAME

The game was awesome! We had great seats on the 20 yard line, back row (which is our preference so we can stand and not bother anyone) the row in front of us was empty and so ewe had a lot of space to spread out and be comfortable. We were surrounded by (mostly) UCF fans and the atmosphere was so much fun. We played great, always ahead of Baylor (well they tied us once) and came out with an amazing victory of 52 to 42. (I was annoyed that it was impossible to get a picture of the scoreboard that was clear though!) UCF, the team who wasn't supposed to win (unless you ask the Phoenix Zoo Tiger who has now predicted the correct team 4 years in a row), the underdog, the team from the school that people don't hear about often enough, yea WE WON A BCS BOWL! We went in ranked 15 and beat the #6 ranked school. Just another milestone for UCF's incredible football season! We have come a long way from my first year at UCF where we were on a 17 game losing streak in a crappy conference. I couldn't be more proud to be a UCF Alumn! I'm very anxious to see where we end up in the rankings on Tuesday. We stayed after the end of the game to watch our team receive the Fiesta Bowl Trophy and continue to cheer them on. This was such an incredible experience and totally made the long drive worth it. (And the ride home not feel quite as long as it would if we would have lost). I won't lie, I didn't go into this thinking we'd win, I mean I was hoping we would but if we hadn't I wouldn't have been too shocked only because just getting to this bowl was a big deal and we were playing a "better" team.  Boy, am I glad I was wrong and the tiger was right! 

receiving the trophy

And just because I miss my baby girl so much (she stayed with my parents for the week) I figured I'd throw I'm a couple pics of her that my parents sent while we were gone. Can't wait to see her in a few hours, I swear she looks like she grew!!  (my parents really do need to learn to take better quality pictures *hint hint*)

Road Trip and 2013 Reminiscing

As we make the 30+ hour drive to Glendale, AZ for the UCF Fiesta Bowl and catching up on some blog reading, I see a lot of 2013 recaps and it got me thinking about my year. We (and by we, I don't mean me, I haven't driven 1 mile) have been driving since Sunday, Dec 29, 10am est and it's now 1:15pm MTN on the 30th. We've made stops for gas, food, and bathroom breaks. It hasn't been that bad (as a passenger). I've read 1.5 books and watched 2 movies. The most exciting part was a wrong turn around 3am that took us through the adorable (as adorable as a town can appear at 3am) town of Bandera, TX. We ran into some other crazy driving Knight fans in Alabama at a random gas station and have been tweeting with some other road trip knight fans. It's been fun. I'll do a full recap of our trip once we get back but for now, wanted to touch on highlights of the year.

(1) As cliche as it sounds, the number one highlight of my year has been watching Miss EM grow. From a newborn to a toddler, babies change sooo much. EM's little personality has developed so much and she is such a good baby. I seriously have never met or heard of a baby has good/easy as EM. (Terrifies me for a second child, no way we can get that lucky twice). She is my little angel, my little buddy, Mommy's little girl. I love her so much, and also cliche to say, but until you have your own child, you really can't comprehend the love between a parent and child, it's incredible!

(2) G and I celebrated our one year anniversary in February. We stayed at Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge and had a safari view room. Having giraffes outside your balcony was very cool! (I'm a sucker for animals) Having a 3 month old, I didn't want to be far away but still wanted to be able to celebrate being husband and wife. We took EM to Animal kingdom of on the Friday of that weekend and can't wait to take her back now that she's a little older and loves characters. EM stayed with my in laws for the rest of the weekend so that we could enjoy some US time, We ate at some nice restaurants (Coral Reef and Boma) and walked around the parks. We had a wonderful first year and it was a great first anniversary.

(3) I went on 5 cruises this year. I know, crazy. All of them (except the one where I was sick and couldn't leave the room) were so much fun in their own ways. I know next year, we only have one booked (in February) and that will probably be our only one since I'm hoping to be pregnant, and that is definitely a good enough reason to miss cruising in 2014. 

(4) I started 2013 with a goal of running/walking 300 miles in the year. I log all my walking/running activity, even if it's the half mile round trip to my in laws (hey, everything counts!). About half way through the year I realized I was going to definitely going to be able to beat 300 miles and upped my goal to 400 miles with a stretch goal of 500. I did end up having a bunionectomy in July, so that put a damper on any running/walking for about 6-8 weeks but I'm still very happy to report, as of December 28th I logged 421.88 miles for the year. I may even get a few more today and tomorrow while we are in AZ. I'm not making a 2014 mile goal since I don't know when I'm going to get pregnant and how much ill actually be able to run but I did make a 30 before 30 goal of 1000 miles by 11/2/2015 so that's essentially 500/miles each year. Even with recovering from giving birth (I think I got my go-ahead to start exercising again in Mid-Jan) and my foot surgery, I completed 8 races, and  the first one wasn't even until July. [(1) 2 Miler, (1) 4 Miler, (1) 5 Miler, (1) 10 Miler, (1) Half Marathon, (3) 5ks].

(5) As part of a team, G and I helped raise over $7,000 for Give Kids the World and I couldn't be more proud of our team for raising such a substantial amount of money for such an amazing organization. (Will link recap here once I get non-mobile) 

(6) As a UCF football fan, this has been quite a year. Obviously that's a GOOD "quite" as I'm writing this while driving over 30 hours to go see our team play. UCF beat multiple ranked teams, has been ranked higher in the polls than ever before in the school's history and is playing (and hopefully winning) their first ever BCS Bowl Game. We traveled to Penn State in September to see them play and that was probably one of the most fun football events I've ever attended (other than the one where I met G of course!) and I can only hope these few days in AZ come close that level of fun! (or even top it) EM enjoyed coming to the games as well! 

(7) Having only been in our house a few months of 2012 (and with a newborn) we didn't really start making it our home until 2013. We've been enjoying adding our own personality to the house by decorating/completing some of the rooms and filling the house with pictures of EM and our family! 

(8) We did Drinks around the World in October and that is always such a fun event! Was nice to have my family and  my husband's family and our friends all together having a great time!  

(9) After much back and forth of what exactly I'd be writing about, I started this blog in August. I love that I've found a new hobby and love the blog community. I'd be lying if I didn't say I'm shocked with how involved I've become with the blog but I actually look forward to the opportunity to share my (our) life with the world (ok, not the world but the very small amount of people who actually read it) and even if it's only a few people, I love writing! I hope I continue to enjoy it as much through 2014. This is my 80th post. I'd say that is dedication for 4ish months.

Happy New Year All! 

Thursday Thoughts

Well I wanted to get you all a recap of the cruise we just got back from but I ended up having to work super late last night and by the time I packed for today's cruise, I was just too tired to use my brain to recall everything. Maybe I'll be able to type it up on this cruise and be able to post it when I get back. 

Yes, you read that right, I'm going on another cruise today. It's the same ship and destination (Cozumel) as EM and I did in September on EM's 1st Cruise but one less "sea day" as this is only a 4 night weekend cruise vs a 5 night week-day cruise.  This will be EM's 3rd cruise. This makes my 5th for the year and overall 23rd cruise. Yes, you can say I'm obsessed and luckily I married someone who loves them just as much!

UCF is going to their first ever BCS Bowl! The only downside, it is in Glendale, AZ. We were really hoping to go to the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans but it was announced that we will be playing Baylor at the Fiesta Bowl on New Years Day. As soon as we were able to start making travel arrangements (we were on our cruise) it was already 3 days after the announcement and only 3ish weeks before the event so all the flights were coming up around $800-$1k, wayyyy too much. After about a week of exhausting every travel option, we decided we are going to drive. This means a 30+ hour car ride, EACH WAY.  I am not excited about the drive at all. It'll be G and I and our friends Dan and Shari (they just got back from the cruise with us). With splitting  rental car (since we all drive sedans, we decided to rent a SUV), gas, hotels and the cost of tickets and NYE/tailgating plans we'll each probably spend about what it would have cost for JUST the flight which makes me feel better about actually driving. Yes, the drive will suck, but it was the only affordable option for us to go and we're all very excited about the game! So, we're leaving the 29th and plan to get there sometime on the 30th (recover from the long drive), party it up for New Years Eve, tailgate for the game, hopefully WIN the game, and then drive home on the 2nd to be back the 3rd. No, we're not taking EM, she'll be getting some nice bonding with my parents that week. It's just not the trip to take a one year old on. I might actually get to see my two cousins (one which just had a baby girl a few months ago) who live in Phoenix too! I haven't seen them in like 10 years so it'll be nice to see them in person and not just on FaceBook.  GO KNIGHTS! #ChargeOn #UCFiesta

Today starts 18 days off from work! My company works a 9/80 schedule so I get every other friday off plus they shut down from December 24th through the 1st every year. So with the way the off fridays fall with the holidays, by taking 2 true vacation days, I was able to have 17 full days off and because of the cruise I had to take 3 vacation days and have 18 days off. This is my favorite perk of my company! Although, I won't be getting much relaxing done during these 2.5 weeks. Between the cruise, hosting Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, celebrating Christmas at my parents the 28th and heading to Arizona, I'll be exhausted when it comes time to go back to work on the 6th. Oh yea, I have a baby shower too! I'm exhausted just thinking about it lol #FirstWorldProblems

So that's it from me for my Thursday Thoughts... be back in a few days!

Five on Friday

It's that time again, FIVE ON FRIDAY!

(1) I finished ALL of my Christmas Shopping on Wednesday! Still waiting for most of the items to be delivered (yep, I did it ALL online!) and I'll have 3 days in between cruises to get them all wrapped and/or mailed but very happy to report that my shopping was done by December 6th!  What I've come home to the last two days:

(2) It really annoys me when people say  "you don't have to get me anything" "save your money" etc, you KNOW damn well I'm going to get you SOMETHING so please give me a few hints, ideas, wish list, or specific item you want.

(3) I had a team building work event on Wednesday night and we all went to the Solar Bears Game (that is Hockey btw). It's always a good time and EM was well behaved as usual even though the game started at her bedtime. She never did fall asleep but didn't get cranky until the 3rd period (and that is when we left).

(4) Last Night Louisville won the game against Cincinnati which means UCF is officially going to a BCS Bowl Game!! First time ever! G and I will be going too! We are both VERY EXCITED!! This has been one AWESOME season for UCF! It'll most likely be in New Orleans, NOLA for NYE? SCORE!! We are also the American Athletic Conference (AAC) Champs!! Woohoo!

(5) I planned to pack for our cruise last night but I felt like I was starting to get sick (sinus pressure/congestion) so I took some NyQuil and went to bed super early. Want to kick whatever I may be developing before it actually gets me! Woke up not feeling much better. Tomorrow's race is going to be rough if I can't  breathe! I'm off today so I can relax all day and then pack before heading to my inlaws for their "Christmas Cocktails" party - Em is sleeping there since we have the OUC Half Marathon tomorrow morning.

Cruise countdown 2 days!! Yey! It's a high of 86 today(kind of ridiculous for DECEMBER!), which hopefully means we'll have beautiful weather on the cruise!!

What are your plans for the weekend?

UCF vs. USF

all bundled up

Black Friday is not just for shopping! As a UCF Fan it meant wearing black for our blackout game against USF and having a blast tailgating. We hate USF and it took us until Friday to FINALLY beat them. In the past they really weren't that much better than us when they beat us, and this year we are SOOO much better than them and they ALMOST beat us. It was a rough game to watch, way too many interceptions and fumbles and just crappy playing by the Knights, but we did it, we finally beat our rival USF. Tailgating was fun even if the game was stressful to watch. We brought EM for the tailgate portion since it was beautiful outside. She was pretty cranky though (she has a cold and is hardcore teething - has gotten all 4 teeth in one month and is working on cutting her 5th) and since we knew the temperatures were going to drop, my wonderful mother in law took her when she left tailgating so that we both could stay for the game. I left in the 3rd quarter because I had a massive headache and wanted to get home to EM (even though she was sleeping, I still felt bad not leaving with her when she was feeling sick). I listened to the end of game on the radio during the 45 min ride home and it was definitely a nail biter. Final Score: 23 to 20. Whew!  

Plus we moved (some back) up in all the rankings this week (surprisingly, considering how terrible we played) Up to 15 (from 17) in the AP; up to 17 (from 19) in the USA Today; and up to 16 (from 19) in the BCS - breaking all UCF records in the polls!

A few fun photos from tailgating and the game. 

Giant Size Beer Pong

EM had fun playing in it (no there wasn't beer in it)

our Knight mascot

BLACK OUT

Jacob was sporting all our UCF Swag

hey, they don't sell beer in there!

My love and I