Givings and NaNoWriMo

Where did we leave off?

Birthday run!

11/19/2014

 

Funny that this run was literally almost the exact same time as the previous one!

Thanksgiving run!

Little did I know that I was training for the 2014 Seattle Half Marathon during these runs... Cliffhanger!

In the meantime, I've been spending a lot of time with family and friends.

I turned 26!

5 days later, so did JW!

We hosted Thanksgiving...

As well as Friendsgiving!

I also won NaNoWriMo and wrote over 50,000 words this month!

Phew! Next I'll be sure to update the decision to run the Seattle Half Marathon on a whim...

Volunteering and Cold Weather Running

Over the weekend, I volunteered for the Mud & Chocolate Run. They host a 4.5 mile trail run on Saturday, and a half marathon trail run on Sunday. I was looking for local volunteer opportunities and saw that they were in need of some, and I'm so glad I found them!

This boutique race is organized by NRG Running, and their founders, Jon and Nina, are the nicest and most laid back runners/race organizers I have met! They also host boutique race The Rain Run, and Nina told met they get some people who fly in just for that race!

For the 4.5 Mile run, there were 97 runners and I helped out at the finish line, passing out chocolate medals and bars to the finishers. For the half marathon, I was stationed at the check-in table, handing out t-shirts to those who had preordered them, and selling t-shirts to those who wanted some.

I'm so glad I picked Saturday to help out at the finish line and Sunday to be under the tent, because of course the first day it was bright, sunny, and beautiful - and Sunday it started to pour! I felt so bad for the trail runners, haha. Fortunately we all got chocolate in the end!

In other news... brrr it's getting so cold out now! Here are my runs since I last posted:

And then, it really started to get cold.

46 Degrees

At least it was beautiful, too!

43 Degrees

40 Degrees... eep!

Though it's been getting steadily colder in the mornings and not getting much warmer in the afternoons, when the sun is shining (contrary to popular belief, it's out a lot!) it's BEAUTIFUL.

Running in the cold is hard, but I kind of like it! It starts to feel nice and refreshing after about a mile.

Do you like mild weather or cold weather runs?

What I've Been Up To Lately

Man, I've really fallen off the wagon with this blog. I mean, considering this is a running blog and not much running has been going on..

So, what have I been up to? Well, I'm still trying to keep up my mileage by increasing it by percentage.

October 20:

October 23:

October 25 (in Austin, in 80 degree weather! Woof!):

We were there for the weekend to witness one of my best friends from high school get married!

Back in Bellevue, I used Mapmyrun because Nike+ kept crashing (and I kind of love how it shows splits!):

On Halloween, I ran my last run of October:

I went to a Halloween party, as Wednesday Addams (JW was Ace Ventura!):

I even made little witches' brooms (pretzels with string cheese) and "pumpkins" (oranges with celery sticks)!

Basically I've been cruising along and have really been surprised by how quickly time is passing. I mean, November? Hi. Long time no see. But still, wow. Can't believe you're here now. It's definitely fall now.

November also brings NaNoWriMo, the 50,000 word novel-in-a-month challenge of which I've made multiple attempts and always failed. It started yesterday and I realized within the first hour of working on my novel idea that it just wasn't going to work. Haha! I'll spend the next few days thinking of something else, but if nothing sticks, then I'll just try again next year. I'll crank out a novel one of these days. :)

October Recap