blogiversary

one year ago today i began this blog. i had no idea what i was going to write about or where it would take me, but im still here. and ive gotten a few new readers along the way, which is pretty sweet. here is my first post incase you wanted that background info... "and it begins"

one year ago today i was very different than i am today. my life, my views on many things, my thoughts, feelings, insecurities... all different. for the better too, i would like to believe. for those of you who already read my blog, you know i am a runner. for those who are new (HI!), i like to run a lot. and with running comes music. heck, without running comes music... i listen to music all the time. music is a huge part of my life... new songs quickly become obsessions and i listen over and over. i sing in the car like im auditioning for american idol. i use song lyrics for everything and enjoy relating music and lyrics to my life. this blog is even titled after a song lyric... you get the idea.

last december i did a "year in review" courtesy of my ipod, which i will be doing again this year. but i went to the goo goo dolls concert last night, and i thought i would do a blog anniversary post with the songs from the show/my favorite quotes from each song. (ps- this concert was amazing... extremely small/intimate venue, mixed age group, perfect sound and lights. really wish i had brought my good camera though. fail).

(before i get to the songs, i wanted to share something funny from the concert... a girl in the first couple rows had a poster that said "marry me johnny" on it. after the first song he stopped the show and said "marry me johnny, huh?... are you married already?" she said no. then he said "do you have money? cuz i got married for love once... fuck that shit." haha. the crowd went nuts! just had to share)

1. big machine- now your world is way too fast, nothins real and nothin lasts

2. slide- what you feel is what you are and what you are is beautiful

3. dizzy- youre dirty and youre sweet you know youre everything i need

4. here is gone- and we wake up in the breakdown of the things we never thought we could be

5. second time around- it was an awkward time, i hoped it wouldnt, hoped it couldnt last

6. january friend- cry, dont cry out loud... youve gotta bear your cross but never think too loud

7. cant let it go- and i was your anger, and you were my fear, and now that its over of course its so clear

8. black balloon- a thousand other boys could never reach you, how could i have been the one (once this song started a bunch of black balloons started flying around in the crowd. nice)

9. home- and i tried so hard, tried to be so strong

10. better days- and you asked me what i want this year and ill try to make this kind and clear, just a chance that maybe we'll find better days

11. stay with you- am i fooled by my own desires? i twist my fate just to feel you

12. now i hear- id cry aloud if i remembered all the mess id left behind

13. name- scars are souvenirs you never lose, the past is never far (right before this song he asked a girl in the crowd how old she was. she told him 18 and he said "well then i wrote this song when you were 3. they started playing the song and the crowd freaked out (shocking) and he goes "fuck, are you kidding me?" haha... im pretty sure id be sick of playing the same songs after fifteen years too haha)

14. let love in- theres nothing we can do about, the things we have to do without, the only way to feel again is let love in

15. as i am- you know i run to find the answers, what i need to find is you

16. iris- and you cant fight the tears that aint comin, or the moment of truth in your lies

17. not broken- morning comes and life moves on, and when it changed you didnt know where you belonged (this is going to be their next solo release from their new album "something for the rest of us". i hadnt heard this song yet.... needless to say its probably my new favorite song, and im so happy i heard it live for the very first time. i decided you all needed to hear it for yourself. enjoy)



18. broadway- forgotten but not gone, you drink it off your mind

one of my running tweeps, jamie, told me yesterday that GGD's drummer, mike malinin, runs marathons and ultra marathons... see, clearly this band rocks!! (cool article about him HERE). in hindsight i should have made a poster asking if he wanted to go for a run with me today. live and learn i guess.

happy blogiversary. may the upcoming year be just as exciting as the last :)

my first DNS

back in june i registered to run both the maine marathon (oct 3rd) and the mount desert island marathon (oct 17th) in hopes of becoming a marathon maniac. do you read runners world? you may have seen their recent article on how mdi was voted most scenic/best overall marathon. pretty sweet!

sadly i had gotten my dates mixed up on my calendar and two of my good friends were getting married on oct 16th which i wasnt going to miss. so, for the first time in my running career, i had a "DNS".


luckily registration opened up yesterday for next years marathon... im begging everyone i know (is there anyone i know that hasnt gotten married yet?) please plan your wedding accordingly, because im not missing this one again!


(funny story- i told ty last night "just letting you know, im signing up for this marathon again and im not gonna miss it.... so that means we cant get pregnant next year"... to which he replied... "do you want me to pay for your registration?" true love, folks!) :)

congrats to all runners this past weekend who ran mdi, bay state, and nike womens! also congrats to all boston qualifiers (seems like so many people BQ'd this weekend!).... hope you all got in yesterday within the crazy 8 hour sell out! ill be there for the 5k and somewhere along the marathon course volunteering!

just 6 easy steps

for todays totally random blog post i decided to give away my most highly coveted secret... how to fold a fitted sheet in just 6 easy steps! drum roll please...

put one end on the bed as if youre making it

tuck front end on top of bottom end

fold over and tuck once more

neatly tuck one side on top of opposite side

fold and tuck once again

untuck and fold over... voila!

the story of us

has anyone else (anyone other than sappy-ilovestupidgirlymoviesmorethananyone-willcrywatchingthemoverandovereventhoughiknowtheending-me) seen the movie "the story of us"?

maybe its because the movie came out in 1999 when i was graduating high school/heading off to college/still dating my boyfriend from high school who was (shocking) not going to the same college as me, so of course my life was ending!... (for those who care, he just got married... and im sure you all know im almost there myself)

aaaaanyway, long story very short the movie is about bruce willis and michele pfeiffer and the struggles they encounter with their marriage. its sad. its funny. and i love watching it. i know no couples are perfect (but we're damn near close).

that being said, todays pointless blog will be the story of us... 83 more days!

back before i had facebook, myspace, or twitter, i spent most of my time chatting wth friends on aol IM. i was living in portland with one of my best guy friends and he had introduced me to his friend melissa over the summer of 2006. melissa had a best guy friend named tyler, who was dating melissas roommate at the time. she talked this guy up like there was no other male on the planet, and the pics she had of him were not too bad either. late that summer there was a crazy break up, and tyler was single. melissa thought maybe we should meet (i was easily convinced to agree).

one day melissa got an IM from tyler, something along the lines of: "i just want to meet a girl who wants to wake up, go play a round of golf, pick up some beers on the way home and watch the game. is that too much to ask?" to which melissa replied: "i think you need to meet my friend danielle, that sounds just like her".

she then sent me what he had written to her, and i replied "tell him that is my dream date as long as i can drive the golf cart".

we met on august 19th, 2006. our wedding date is january 1st, 2011. the story.of.us.

of course there are lots of things in between... our first kiss was late night on the stairs at washburn 39 @ the university of orono. the morning after we met we each ordered coffee black with one splenda. he came along to disney and hung out with my dad and step-mom while i ran the half marathon (i think HE deserves the medal i got!). his brother got pneumonia and i changed my career path because of it. he hunts. i run. he got me to drink wine and try a pickle. i never beat him at tennis. our trip planned for six flags was spoiled due to him being too tall for all the roller coasters. we've named our two golden retrievers Stella & Diesel (although we dont actually have them yet...). we play scrabble like were trying to win some "couples who play the most scrabble" award. the red sox have won the world series. the pats have failed to win the superbowl. we have attended almost 15 weddings together. we always have to take two photos.... the first:


and the second:


whats that? youre not convinced?

God help our children (and our poor poor wedding photographer!)

our story isnt perfect, but its ours. lifes a journey folks.... dont take one second for granted.

race #10, a marathon PW

last october i came up with the idea that my new years resolution for 2010 would be to run a road race every month. the original plan was to run the chicago marathon on 10/10 as my #10 race... a slight change in plans (aka getting engaged!) made things a bit financially more difficult for chicago to happen, so race #10 became the maine marathon.

fast forward to the first week in june this year when training began for maine. i had it all planned out, and day 1 of training went just as expected with a track workout consisting of a mile warm up, 8x400 meter sprints, and a mile cool down. im pretty certain this was the only day i actually followed of the 18 week marathon plan.

anyone who works nights knows its not easy to get training runs in when youre supposed to, especially with long runs scheduled on days youre working. i thought i was going to be able to change my training schedule around to accomodate work but it just didnt happen. 5 weeks before the marathon i began freaking out and decided i would just do the half marathon instead.

2 weeks left to go til the big day and i found myself running through the backroads of new hampshire with 11 other crazy teammates in the reach the beach 200 mile/24 hour relay. the day after that i ran a 10k.... for a total of 26.55 miles. despite the fact it took me over 45 hours to run that distance, i changed my mind (for the millionth time) about the marathon once again. i was going to go all out. (katie also said i would be her hero if i ran a marathon without training... who wouldnt want to be someones hero?!) :)

the day before the marathon i worked at the expo with sarah at the train 4 autism maine chapter table and we met a ton of people and really got the word out about what we were doing, why we were there, and how they could help. it was so much fun! (but sorry, no we cant get you into the boston marathon... we were asked quite a few times).

i picked up my electric lime green gear bag and headed to my parents house for dinner. i felt really sick (nerves, im sure) and really didnt eat much. i went home and watched some tv, and fell asleep about 10pm. of course i woke up at 3:30am ready for the day.

(better than last years hunter orange? its a toss up)

i called dunkin donuts to see what time they opened (5am) so i stretched and danced around the apartment to some good tunes til i could go get some caffeine.

3 weeks ago it was 79 degrees at this time... welcome to maine

andrea and jaime picked me up at 6:30am and we were off. i was still pretty nervous about the whole thing and really didnt want to have a DNF (with my longest training run being 16 miles over a month ago, who knew what was going to happen today), but there was no turning back now.

before leaving the house i realized i only had one espresso love GU (usually i go through about 4 or 5 during the marathon), so i decided to pack myself a lunch. half a peanut butter sandwich and a bag of ruffles potato chips. protein and salt, yum! andrea thought i was nuts and decided she needed to take a pic.

i ate the sandwich at mile 16 and a few chips throughout 17-20\

here goes nothing

see ya in 26.2

me and andrea before taking off

i think the race pretty much started on time at 7:45am with a loud boom. the start is really slow since its just a two lane road for the first few miles, and 3500 marathon/half marathon/relay runners makes for a crowded run. we saw sarah working the water stop at mile 1 and just waved as we ran by. i snapped this pic at mile 4 cuz i think its one of the most beautiful parts of the whole run.

i was just about to mile 5 at 45 minutes or so, and the half marathon leader was on his way back (almost at mile 9). speedy!! i like this part of the race because from this point on until the half marathon turn around at mile 7ish you get to cheer on the half marathon runners who are coming back the other way. when i got to the turn around i asked the flag man if i could change my mind… he laughed and said "no". thank you! although i may have felt like i wanted to turn around, that is actually just what i needed to hear at that moment.

things went pretty well for the first 10 miles or so. a weird hip pain developed about mile 8, which is sweet since ive never had hip pain before (but hey, thanks for showing up on race day!)

this is the smile of someone who doesnt quite know whats coming

i got to 13.1 at 2:07, so i knew i wasnt running super fast, but i was having a good time. i had met up with a man from iowa who was doing 50 states, maine was #44. we talked for about 2 miles... i hope i didnt annoy him! its nice when you can find someone to chat with, it gets lonely out there!

again i caught up to the military walkers... 34 men and women set out at 6am to walk the course. simply amazing.

shortly after mile 16 i felt a familiar pain forming in my left knee. this same pain had been felt two years ago on a run, shortly before my knee popped and i couldnt even walk. stupid IT band. i knew at this point it wasnt now a question of “if” my knee would blow out before the finish line, but “when”. walking felt much better than running, so i hobbled along for a while. i tried running again, but the pain was still there. i had already taken 8 ibuprofen so i waited until the next med station to lather up with icy hot and tried to keep going. over the next mile or so my knee loosened up and i was able to run again.

it was also right around now that i had the whole crying issue again which used to come up at every race. this hasnt happened to me in so long, i actually thought those days were behind me! but alas, i started to choke up, the tears began flowing, and the breathing became more difficult. the marathon brings out a lot of emotions, and 4 plus hours is a lot of thinking time. but it came and it went and i trucked on.

i saw this guy shortly before mile 19 and just had to laugh (and of course take a pic!).

another great sign i saw somewhere along the way

obviously

when i got to mile 20 i knew i had some power left in me to try to run the last 6.2 miles. one of my huge twitter supporters, @MiniRowRow (check her out here!) texted me right before the race and reminded me of a phrase she heard over and over when she was running one of her long runs last week…..“just f’n FINISH!”. i just kept repeating this to myself and trying to enjoy the beautiful day for what it was. i was out here doing something not everyone can do, and i was going to get myself to that finish line one way or another! shortly after mile 21 i heard people cheering for me up ahead, and as i got closer i saw it was megan and josh! thanks for cheering me on guys!! i needed this more than you know.

so far ive taken a pic at every “mile 22” sign in my marathons. almost there!


and going across the bridge between 22 and 23 my friend Diana drove by honking and waving out of her car! i had no idea it was her at the time but she told me on facebook. haha love her!

just before mile 25 the marathon course turns onto baxter boulevard and you can see the finish line. this seriously annoys me and is such a difficult part of the race because you just want to be done!! there is a water stop right after you turn though, and elizabeth had made orange jello shots for her favorite runners (21+ of course!). i had run out of water in my camelbak about a mile back so i was so happy to see her. her motivating words and pat on the back (plus about 3 cups of water) really helped push me to the finish. (i didnt think i could stomach a jello shot though. maybe next year!)

and then just like that, the finish line was upon me. the whole crying thing began again but i choked it back and pushed on as hard as i could. my mom was right before the finish line jumping up and down and cheering so loud, and i could see andrea up ahead of me at the end of the shoot.

marathon #3 in the books!

i seriously started crying when i saw andrea here at the end. even though she had finished over a half hour earlier, she stuck around and waited (and wanted to give gross sweaty me a huge hug!). i probably would have backed out of the full had it not been for her…. mostly i think it was her ridiculous text messages that she sent me the night before the race haha xoxo

melissa finished about 45 minutes before i did and she also stayed around to watch me finish! this is truly what friends are for and i love her to death.

we always do our hardcore pic before races, but we forgot… so we attempted one after the race. note to self: dont do that again.

taking this picture was actually quite painful

the marathon winner was a 29 year old male from new york, with a winning time of 2:36:35 (5:59). the female winner was 27 from connecticut, with a time of 3:00:54 (6:54). i cant even run one mile that fast, let alone 26.2. amazing.

my 26.2 info-
i was the 705th marathon runner to cross the finish line. i was 264th of 357 females, 102nd of 125 in my age group. gun time for the half marathon 2:07:27, gun time for 26.2 was 4:44:35, with a net time of 4:43:30 (10:48). that makes this a marathon personal worst by 30 seconds (maybe if i hadnt stopped to take pictures, gotten those damn rocks out of my sneakers, downed the 3 cups of water at elizabeths water stop....) but im totally fine with that. i know i didnt train like i should have, and when i could feel my knee locking up i knew i needed to just finish however i could and keep myself from getting more injured. i dont recommend what i did to anyone, but i do not regret my choice to stay with my original race plan and finish what i started. the marathon is tough, theres no doubt about that. but its totally worth it.

love the sleeve and medal

new maine marathon sticker

i came home right after the race, took a shower, and got into bed for a quick nap. all i could think about was how badly i wanted a huge towering plate of nachos... so after nap time i went to the grocery store and got all the fixings. yummy!! the hungover boys on the couch (tylers bachelor party was this weekend) swore they didnt want me to make them any, but when they saw me eating them they both went and made some of their own. never underestimate the power of nachos!!

mmmmm, nachos

a HUGE thank you to everyone who supported me before, during, and after this nerve wracking endeavor. (id love to think everyone will read this post and see that i thanked them but thats probably not really true, haha). a sincere thank you to my mom, tony, tyler, aaron, kellie, john & debra. thank you sarah (x100!), andrea, mr. and mrs. lapointe, and melissa. thank you also to very supportive twitter friends @MiniRowRow @operationjack @keeponrunning @RunnerDJC @BadEmma @obie_one @runkerrierun @BeckOnTheRun @allyspeirs @thisamazingday @vtmelj @liquidluncher @jcurtis028 @runnergirl33 @edwandell @chanthana @HealthontheRun @mainetriguy @jhanken @djgray1200

im sure im forgetting someone (probably many) but honestly, i couldnt do it without you all. its such an awesome feeling to have so many supportive family and friends in my life. i am truly blessed.

10 down, 2 to go!