Rock N' Rock St. Louis Half Marathon

Number 7 Half Marathon Complete!! And I did it! I wasn't feeling too good about this one, but I finished and my time was even better than I expected. Sarah and I adopted the saying, "Forward is our pace" Ha!

Sarah and I decided that we wanted to run a half marathon this fall so we decided on the Rock N' Rock Series in St. Louis on October 19th. We signed up back in June (I believe) and it came up really fast. I started training back in July, but I wouldn't say I was serious with my training this time. I did get up to running 10 miles and longer runs on the weekend with 2-3 other runs during the week. It was tough training in the heat of summer, but helped once the cooler temps came around. 

We drove over Saturday afternoon, went to the expo to pick up our packet, ate dinner, and then went to bed early. We had a convenient location, within walking distance of the start and finish line. Our wake-up call was at 5:30 am. 

My definition of carb-loading= cheese, spinach and mushroom calzone 

Hello Arch!

Start Line

Before race. Looking pretty good for 7 am.

Let's just say this wasn't an easy course! Lots of hills. It was a different kind of hilly compared to Iroquois Park. There were hills throughout the race and they were long steady inclines. I felt pretty good the first 6-7 miles and stayed with Sarah. Around mile 8, I was not feeling too hot. I started to get cramps and felt nauseous. At that point Sarah and I parted ways. I pushed myself the last few miles and I felt my body was giving out on me, with my hips, and especially my right knee killing. I actually took a short potty break, so considering my time, I did pretty well. I was quite relieved to cross that finish line with the official time of 2:04:54 (pace 9:30). 

My Splits:
Mile 1: 9:22
Mile 2: 9:22
Mile 3: 9:17
Mile 4: 9:07 
Mile 5: 9:08
Mile 6: 8:57
Mile 7: 9:11
Mile 8: 9:33
Mile 9: 9:43
Mile 10: 9:29
Mile 11: 10:27
Mile 12: 10:12
Mile 13: 9:45

As you can see, I was struggling the last few miles, but I made it!

WE FINISHED!!

Yep, beers after the race 

New Medal :) 

Next Half-Marathon: Derby Festival on April 25, 2015! 

Music Monday: Hillsong UNITED Oceans (Where Feet May Fail)

It's been awhile...

Hello out there! It's been way too long since I have blogged. Summer and school (and fun!) have gotten in the way with my blogging. I plan on doing a lot of updating soon. I will probably back date a lot of posts (*cough*) since there have been lots going on this past month that I didn't blog about.

My summer has been going well- practicum and class is chugging along as usual and I've had a lot of fun enjoying the summer as well.

This post I would like to share a picture of my family that I was able to see last week. Which made me very happy! Keep checking up on the blog because I will start posting more, I promise.

Strawberry Pickin'

This weekend I made a trip to Huber's Farm. Brings back the memories from when I was a little kid. I went with Katelynn and Brian. I'd never picked strawberries before so it was an adventure. It was a beautiful day outside too, couldn't have asked for better weather.

We rode the tractor and picked (and ate!) around 3 pounds of strawberries. They were quite delicious. After, we enjoyed some Sangria and listened to live music. I would say it was an overall good afternoon :) Plus when I got back home my Mom was in town visiting me. Hooray!

Here are some pictures from the day

Encounter 2014: Catholic Conference

Hello all! Life has been quite full of school things lately. When they say grad school is demanding, they are right! I've just about completed my May term and going to start my summer practicum full time soon. 

Hello from Sister Erin! Ha! Joking...

Aside from school this past weekend I went to St. Louis for Encounter 2014 which a is young adult Catholic conference. I almost didn't go because of my big exam that Monday, but I was convinced to go and so happy that I went. It was perfect timing to recharge and focus on my spiritual life. 

I arrived in St. Louis on Friday night and caught the last session of the night which was called "Post College Life." What happens after college and how to deal with the unknown is what was discussed. Jeremy Rivera led the talk and he had a lot of past experiences that he shared. There was also an open mic so others in the crowd were able to ask questions. The talk was ok, but not great. I thought it needed more substance. It was a good start to the conference though. 

Saturday was the best day! It was full of big group and smaller talks. In the morning we had mass and Ike Ndolo was the singer/band the entire conference. Let me tell you, he was awesome!! I'm not used to upbeat music during mass and church events but I loved the energy in the room and singing worship songs. Mass was led by Father Chris Martin who is a young priest in St. Louis and the vocations director in that archdiocese. It is great to have a young face on the altar. The homily, prayer, and music made a good and prayerful mass. 

Later that morning I went to a talk by Fr. Chris Martin called "Discerning God's Will." I gave this talk two thumbs us. Father shared a lot his past experiences with figuring out his plan by in and out of seminary. One analogy that I would like to share about what he said is this:
Discernment means choosing between multiple (or two) good things. It's not like choosing in general in which there is likely a good vs. bad choice. Discernment is like going to a restaurant when you are starving. You have to choose between ALL the good things on the menu. You can't go wrong. But...if you don't choose in a timely manner then you continue to starve and suffer. Like discernment, it may take some time to choose and be led by God, but you can't take you whole life to pick the best. Take time with God and make that choice and be serious about your discernment. 

Lunch and study break followed for me. After, there was a big group gathering and the talk was about "hunger and desires." Basically that bottom line was God can only fulfill our greatest desires, it may be tempting to gain desires from earthly things, but God is the answer. The breakout talk after that was from a Sister that was awesome as well (awesome was a theme here is you couldn't tell ;) ). A quote that I loved from this talk: "The entire life of good Christians is the exercise of holy desire"- St. Augustine. Falling to God and being completely open to him will make your life more holy and God can complete your deepest desires. Very powerful! 

That night after dinner was adoration. BEST ADORATION EVER. I've only been to Eucharistic Adoration a few other times but this one was amazing and I could tell the Holy Spirit was truly there. The priest and servers walked around the entire room with the Eucharist in the Monstrance. People were crying with arms in the air, I've never seen anything like that before. It was like God was only a few feet away. Music with the entire group singing made the moment beautiful and an experience. Confession was offered as well and that just topped off the night. Much needed and I appreciated the multiple priests that volunteered their time. I was able to hang out with a lot of new people in my church group that I didn't know well. It's always great to make new friends :)

I would say it was one of the best weekends I've had in awhile. It helped me to reconnect to the true purpose of life. If you ever have the opportunity to attend, I highly recommend it :) 

Whole Group Picture

Music Monday: Hosanna - Hillsong

After attending Encounter Conference 2014 for Young Adult Catholics in St. Louis this past weekend, I grew to love this song! More to come on the conference :)

Her Name is Mae!

The new puppy dog at the house is named Mae!

She is such a sweet girl and very friendly. Here are some more pictures of her:

FIRST DAIRY KASTLE!!

New Dog!

Welcome Home Dog!

My roommate adopted a dog yesterday and I'm excited to have furry friend in the house! We haven't decided on the name yet, but I will let you all know. 

So far she has been a very well-behaved dog! She is a 2 year old Lab/Spaniel Mix. More to come!

The Fray Concert 2014

The moment that I heard that The Fray was coming to Louisville for the KY Derby Festival I knew I had to go! 

They are my favorite band! (In case you didn't know ;) )

This was the first time that I got to hear some of their latest songs from the newest album Helios live. They were awesome as usual. It was a chilly night and we had to stand the whole time but it was totally worth it! My two fave songs from the album "Break Your Plans" and "Our Last Days" were both sung, which made me happy! 

I went along with Katelynn, Brie, and Maura. 

Happy Derby!

I finally can say that I've been to the Derby! It was a blast and a beautiful day. 

Nick and his friends came in town from Boston and we had a great time. I didn't pick the winning horse but I still enjoyed the day mingling and enjoying the sunshine. We set up camp in the in-field.

Louisville Skyline at Pinot's Palette

While my parents and Chris were in town for a few days, my Mom and I went to Pinot's Palette to test out our artistic side! 

KDF Mini-Marathon Official Photos 2014

ENJOY!!! 

MMT 2014 Week 15

Week leading up to the race...and of course my hip hurt. So not much running this week, but the race went well!! And I PRed!! Check out the post here. 

Week 15: 
4-13-14: Bike ride 11 miles 
4-14-14:  Elliptical 15 min, 30 min weight lifted
4-15-14: Yoga Class 50 min.Ran 4 miles 45:00
4-16-14: Elliptical 25 minutes, Weight lifted 25 minutes
4-17-14:Yoga Class 50 min. 
4-18-14: OFF
4-19-14: Mini Marathon 13.1 miles 1:58:17

Total Mileage: 17.1 miles 

KDF Mini-Marathon 2014

I DID IT!!!!! AND I PRed!!!! I'm very happy with my result. My goal was to run in under 2 hours and I did! I don't think I could have done it without my Mom because she definitely made my pace steady. We averaged around a 9 minute mile which is awesome for me. Sarah finished before us by 2 or so minutes. Go Sarah!


The course is flat and I think training with the hills and doing the Triple Crown really helped me complete the best half marathon so far. That was my 6th one, can you believe that?! I felt pretty good the entire race until we hit the last 2-3 miles. My leg was killing me. I felt like I needed to stretch, but I pushed myself and didn't. The weather was PERFECT. Mid 50s and sunny!

Dad and Chris cheered us on twice around UofL's campus. Plus I saw a few other people I knew cheering which made the race more bearable. Below are come pictures that Dad took of us (around mile 9). 

 

According to my GPS it was a total of 13.14 miles.
Total time: 1:58:22. The official time was 1:58:17...I'll take that :) Before this race my fastest half-marathon was 2:06:40, so I beat my time by over 8 minutes! 
125/729 in my age group. Not too shabby

Here is the breakdown:

Mile 1: 9:07

Mile 2: 9:02

Mile 3: 8:59

Mile 4:9:06

Mile 5: 9:00

Mile 6: 8:57

Mile 7: 8:46

Mile 8: 8:49

Mile 9: 9:13

Mile 10: 9:01

Mile 11: 9:06

Mile 12: 9:11

Mile 13:9:10

Last 0.14: 56  

Average Pace: 9:01

Sarah and I after the race

Mom and I after the race