I Could Give You 101 Reasons...

...why it’s been over 3 months since I last did an update on my 1001 day challenge (see the 101 in 1001 tab above if you are confused). But, I won't. I'll just hope that an update now will suffice.

So what have I been up to lately? Well, besides writing my thesis and surviving my last class as a graduate student, training for a marathon, working as a TA for two professors (yes…two), editing for the Journal of Applied Communications, writing part time for the Certified Angus Beef Industry Information team, and applying for jobs….I haven’t been doing much of anything! (This is a time when a ‘sarcasm’ font would be useful…)

In the midst of this chaos, I have managed to cross off at least a few goals from my 101 list. So here’s the run-down (completed goals are red, in progress are purple):


29. Do the Dave Ramsey Financial Peace University program

48. Run a full marathon [Ran the Prairie Fire Full Marathon in Wichita on 10/9/11, time 4:53:45]

49. Start doing Yoga once a week [I didn't really take to yoga, so I have switched to pilates instead!]

51. Drink 1 liter of water every day for a month [30/30 days]

64. Tithe 12 months in a row [July, August, September]

72. Go to church twice a month for a year [July, August, September]

74. Make prayer a part of my daily life

90. Meet 5 of my Twitter friends in person [Traci Naile - @osuboiler;]


Although I haven’t checked of an overly impressive number of goals over the past few months, I have made progress on some pretty significant ones. Over the summer, I really started plugging in to one of the churches here in Stillwater and it has been awesome (actually one of the things I will really miss about this town when December rolls around). It was actually my church that connected me with the opportunity to do the Dave Ramsey Financial Peace program – which, by the way, was amazing. But that’s a story for another day. It was obviously also hugely rewarding to complete my first marathon, and during that process I completed goals #48, #49, and #50.

There’s one more goal I want to talk about today – one that I’m going to undertake in the coming week and, to many of you, may come as a bit of a shock. Due to the high level of stress currently overtaking my life (i.e., trying to finish my Master's research/thesis) and the growing number of things making an appearance on my “to do” list (note list of responsibilities in paragraph 2 above), I have decided for the sake of productivity – and my sanity – to jump off of the social media bandwagon....

No, no permanently. In fulfilling goal #6 (here) I will be taking a one-week sabbatical from all things social media. That means no Facebook, no Twitter, no Pinterest, no Instagram, and yes...no blogging. At midnight tonight, I will officially "unplug" from the world of 24/7 information sharing. For 7 whole days, I will not tweet, post, message, comment, upload, "like", pin, or share anything through any social media network. To evade the constant temptation staring me in the face, I am even going as far as (temporarily) removing all SM applications from my iPhone and unsubscribing to all Twitter updates I receive via text message. This is drastic people. And I have to admit, I am kind of excited! Don’t get me wrong, I love my social media networking. But there comes a time when enough is enough – and my brain needs a serious vacation.

So, if you really want to reach me in the next 7 days, you’ll have to pick up your telephone. Until next week, farewell! I will be enjoying my time of disconnectedness...


~Jen

Wordless Wednesday: #PrairieFire

Here are a few of the photos I shared on my iPhone app Instagram over the weekend....

Gearing up the night before.

Pre-race love from sweet Ella.

Woohoo, I'm a marathoner!!!

Hope you have a wonderful Wednesday...

~Jen

Week 16/16: Thoughts from the Finish Line

Week: 16
Mileage Total: 35.2 miles
Feeling: Proud.

Well, I made it. And now – a little over 24 hours after crossing the finish line – it seems like a much bigger feat than I thought it would 16 weeks ago.

Part of my goal in sharing this personal journey through my blog was showing people that it is possible. It is possible to take on and accomplish what seems like “too much ” – like a thesis, four part-time jobs, and marathon training. It is possible to recover from a roadblock or “detour” in the journey. And, as I learned yesterday, it is possible to not quite attain that goal you set for yourself, and still have succeeded just the same.

Also in sharing this journey, I vowed to honesty – sharing the trials and triumphs without “sugarcoating” the experience. Today, you will get a dose of both of those.
Yesterday sucked – period. My mother would scold me for using the word “sucked,” but that’s exactly how I felt. The race was a struggle for me from the start. There were very few miles that I actually felt confident in my performance. It started with lung problems in miles 1-5, transitioned into “toughing it out” miles 6-15, and finally transitioned into mental fatigue and straight up physical agony for the last 2 hours of the race. Truth.

I really thought I was prepared for this race. I spent 16 weeks running, stretching, cross-training, and focusing on my health to get myself ready to take 26.2 miles head-on. During training, I pushed a decent pace, so I decided my goal time would be sub-4 hours. After all, just a year ago I completed the Prairie Fire ½ in 1:58:04. Doubling the distance at the same pace should be easy, right? Wrong.

Before that starting horn sounded, I told my sis-in-law that I would be outright disappointed with any time slower than 4 hrs. 15 min. For the first hour and a half of the race, I trotted along with the 4-hour pacer, thinking that was a fool-proof plan. I started to fall back just before mile 10, but reached the half-way point at just over 2 hours, so I was still confident I could make my goal. By mile 16, my performance began a rapid downhill decent.

There was literally only one thing that kept my feet moving that last 10 miles: my family. Around mile 18, I was ready to throw in the towel. I was cold, it was starting to rain, and every muscle, bone, & tendon in my body was aching. Between miles 17 and 18 when I saw my family, I slowed down and walked a few steps toward them. I heard two things. My dad said, “This is the hardest part, you just have to keep plugging along.” And my mom simply told me, “We are so proud of you.” It took all of my will-power not to break down into tears, and a little “umph” on top of that to make my legs start moving again. Every bone in my body was telling me to give up. But my family had come all this way to see me, ran all over the city to cheer me on, and no matter how bad it hurt, I wasn’t going to let them down.

For this past 16 weeks when people have asked me why I was doing this – training for a marathon – I told them it was for me. Running was “my thing” that I had to escape from grad school, work, and all of life’s responsibilities. It was always for me. But yesterday – I finished that race for them. If I’d tried to finish for me, I would still be lying out in the rain somewhere on that course.

So when I say, “it is possible to not quite attain that goal you set for yourself, and still have succeeded just the same” – that’s why. No, I did not run my first marathon in less than 4 hours. In fact, I barely ran it in less than 5 hours. My official time was 4:53:45. Pretty slow by some standards. But guess what? I crossed that stinking finish line, with my family whooping and hollering as I did.

It’s funny because when we got in the car yesterday my mom said something to the effect of “will you ever do that again…” – and the immediate response was a heck no! After all, I count that 5 hours among the most painfully miserable of my life. But as I was getting ready this morning, hobbling more than walking because fiber of my being is in pain, I looked in the mirror and thought – next time I’ll do better. And I will.

Thanks for those of you who followed me through this journey. I’ll leave you with my favorite race day image – getting a high-five from my sweet baby niece Ella!

Remeber, always enjoy the journey.


Joyfully signed,

~A Marathon Runner