Turtles + Peanut Butter = My Run

This morning, I ran with K... I know, it's been forever since I have posted about her. OK, it may have also been a while since I have blogged with any sort of regularity. Anyways, she and I ran/walked/waddled (well, I did the waddling), and it was like old times. The only exception was the part where our pace was miserably slow, so slow in fact that I would call it turtles stomping through peanut butter. I can't remember where I read that saying but I feel that it accurately describes the pace this morning. The best part was getting the miles in, and getting it done. We were able to go on about our days after our all too early wake up calls. I've missed our crazy chats.

Ok, so did I tell you that I started a Facebook page for the blog, you can go give it a like over here.....
https://www.facebook.com/runchunky.

What I Did On My Summer Vacation

Remember during that first week back to school when the teacher would make you write about your summer vacation? Well, it's happening right now.

Most of the summer was spent in school and chauffeuring B around from camp to camp. There were bouts of running and half assed attempts at being awesome. Then to make things worse, I was feeling very uninspired with my Zumba classes too. Part of the problem is that I did not take the time to plan properly and make time for all the things. I'll be honest, summer classes were tough but I could have made it all work a bit better, the lack of planning made me feel like I was barely keeping my head above water. The good thing is that I have a good idea as to what next summer's classes will look like so I can plan and prepare accordingly. On a good note, I did manage to get straight A's and oh yeah, did I mention that I made the Dean's List in the Spring/Winter semester?! What a difference being an adult and paying for school yourself will make. Then to add to it, we had some testing done for B and found out that she's extremely intelligent, I mean crazy smart y'all, but she is also dyslexic (which is not as cut and dry as one would think), she has dysgraphia (a writing related learning disorder) and ADHD (totally different in girls than boys). It was a lot to process, and something that was a bit difficult to talk to her about. She cried and was pretty upset at first but we explained it to her, let her read about it on the Yale Center For Creativity and Dyslexia site, and she felt much better after reading that. Then she saw some of the documentary called The Big Picture: Rethinking Dyslexia, she loved seeing some intelligent and successful people who also have similar diagnoses.

Ok, don't worry, it's not all doom and gloom. I did get to go to Disney World with the fam. Check us out...

The trip was pretty epic, B and Patrick have a way of making some pretty awesome things happen. Like seating right by the window when we had dinner in the castle so we could watch Wishes (the fireworks show) right from our table on B's birthday; it was MAGICAL. B had some issues with her car design when we went on Test Track, and when she told a cast member about it, the cast member took us in the back way, gave us as much time as we needed to design the car then we got to bypass the line to get back on the ride. There were some other cool things but I won't bore you guys with it. If you need to go to Disney, Patrick and B are the people to go with if you want to have some cool and magical stuff happen.

On the Disney trip, something pretty magical happened to me. I met a family at Downtown Disney that touched my heart and inspired me to do something worthwhile. I met a family who had recently lost one of their adopted daughter to a heart condition, and they were at Disney celebrating the life of their beloved daughter. They handed my husband and I a scroll, tied up with a pretty little ribbon and a tiny tiara attached to it. Patrick and I sat down to read their daughter's story and we were both moved to tears, I am tearing up just thinking about this family. When we got back, I read the families' blog and I read about their volunteer experience during their recent visit to Disney and their stay at Give Kids The World Village on their daughter's Make-A-Wish trip. This was the second time I had heard about this wonderful organization, and I started to have a nagging feeling that I had to do something for this organization.

Imagine my surprise and excitement when I found out that Give Kids The World has started a running team to raise funds, the teams will be running in the Disney Marathon Weekend and at the Disney Princess Half Marathon weekend. So, I joined the team, and I will be running the Glass Slipper Challenge at the Princess Half Marathon weekend for Team Give Kids The World. So, here we go again, I'm getting ready for another half and running for an important cause. If you have it within your budget to donate, I would greatly appreciate it. I am also working on a virtual race with some pretty awesome prizes, so stay tuned. http://www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/LucyMcCullough/disneyprincessweekend2014

http://www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/LucyMcCullough/disneyprincessweekend2014

A Funny Thing Happened...

I think I love running again, best of all it happened on National Running Day. B and I met the MRTT ladies for a kids and moms run in honor of the day. After the obligatory pictures of the group we were off, B made friends with one of the other kids and they were off. I waddled behind doing my intervals but it just felt so fantastic to be out there with a group and have a few people to actually run with. Maybe it was the group, and the camaraderie, or maybe because I came back from my recent trip to Toronto with a new found motivation, whatever it was, it was awesome to run/waddle. IT WAS SO MUCH FUN! It's going to be a weekly thing, at least over the summer, every Wednesday night we'll be meeting up for a group run with the kiddos, so there are no excuses for not getting it done.

Alright, so Toronto.... it was great to see my family and a friend who I hadn't seen in a LONG time but it was an awful trip at the same time, I'll explain in just a second. You know sometimes life is sending you all kinds of signs to get your sh*t together, and you only half listen/pay attention, so you get another sign, and yet you still don't listen so then life gives you a swift kick in the ass in the hopes that you finally freaking get it together. I've written about all of these signs before, all year in fact, if you go back and look at all of my posts this year, you can see them all. It's been sign after sign but being stupid and lazy is much easier than getting my mess together, so I sort of pretended to get it all together, and sometimes made some half assed efforts to get it together. See, half assing it was not going to cut it, and life wanted to make sure that I knew it. So, here's the story... B and I were heading to Toronto to see my family for a week when it happened. The airline had us seated apart from one another, which wouldn't be an issue if she wasn't only eight years old. Long story short, we managed to get seats together right before we boarded the plane, again, normally not a problem, except I needed a seat where the middle armrest can be raised to accommodate my ample behind and we did not get those seats. So, I had to sit in an awkward, sideways, really embarrassing and uncomfortable position. Of course, this did not go unnoticed, the flight attendant came over and made a HUGE scene, and all I wanted to do at that particular moment was to crawl in a hole and hide from the staring eyes. I talked to the flight attendant and we were on our way. I escorted B to the restroom during the flight and as I walked by two passengers started talking about me, and the whole seat thing. I proceeded to tell them that I could hear them, and that perhaps they should speak in quieter voices or mind their own business. I WAS MORTIFIED! The thing is, that this wasn't enough, my bag never made it to Toronto, so I had to go buy some clothes so that I'd have something while I waited for the airline to get my bags to me. Going clothes shopping was the final nail in the coffin, I am so unhappy with what I have done to my body...completely unacceptable. The whole thing just SUCKED, I mean really and truly sucked! What's worse, the reason for the trip was to get away for a little while and have a little break from the insanity that was May (that's for another blog post). So life's finally managed to tell me that that there's been enough bullsh*t and messing around, it's time to get really and truly serious about my health.

LAX Mom...because I enjoy being Captain Crazy Pants!

So, in case you missed it, B is playing lacrosse and it has sort of taken over our life but in a good way. I even manage to squeeze in some miles during practice. Who knew that B would finally find a sport where she would dominate and kick some serious behind?! This upcoming weekend is the culmination of the spring season, she has a tournament and it's her first time experiencing tournament play. I know she'll be fine but someone is going to have to have some sedatives for me, I have some special mom moments when her team is playing. The only thing that tempers the crazy is having the camera in my hand. Saw this and thought it was appropriate....

Look at B in beast mode, she is like a brick wall when it comes to defense. 

Well, that was terrifying...

I battled with talking about this here, but I think that being open and honest is what this whole blogging thing is about. First things first, I want to let you all know that I am ok and I am not dying, I have seen a doctor and have been checked out. On Saturday, I thought I was dying or at least having a heart attack. Yes, you read that right, I thought that I was having a heart attack. Let me break it down for you, I had my finals last week, and had been wound pretty tight all week, and it really wore me down physically. I thought that come Friday after the exams were finished that I could finally breath a sigh of relief and relax for a bit before my May and summer classes start. Saturday morning B had an away lacrosse game and we were running a bit behind schedule and had some hiccups that morning, then on the way, there was an accident on the road and the road was blocked for a bit as tow truck was taking one of the cars off the road. This irrationally brought me to tears, I just couldn't bare being late and I think that the stress building up in the days leading up all just came to a head on Saturday. On the road, I started feeling feeling a tightness in my chest that was very alarming, then I started freaking out and I thought I was having a heart attack or something. We got to the lacrosse fields and I calmed down and started feeling better, but needless to say the feeling gave me a HORRIBLE FRIGHT. When we got home, I took and aspirin and started doing some research. Dr. Google and I aren't friends, because all it did was scare me and ramp me up all over again. I didn't have the same feeling but my mind was racing. Come Sunday, I was feeling fine but of course this is still lingering in my head. When I went to the grocery store I once again freaked myself out, and I am not even sure what triggered the feeling.

First thing Monday morning, I was on the phone with my doctor's office making an appointment. I saw my doctor and told her what happened. She examined me and told me that I wasn't having a heart attack, and that what I was experiencing was a panic attack and some complications of my asthma brought on by it. She did recommend a heart scan thing if I was really that worried about my heart, which I agreed to and scheduled, but she said she thinks it will be more to put my mind at ease. It's not covered by insurance but I am going to pay for it just so I can have the peace of mind. So, I'm not dying, but my asthma is really bothering so I am on a new inhaler and another treatment. I am also now to keep track of any times when I have these panicky feelings.

I also went to Weight Watchers yesterday, and was down 2.5 after an abysmal showing the few weeks in that I didn't go to meetings and generally wasn't being more awesome. More importantly and embarrassingly,  the meeting yesterday brought me to tears. I am not sure what exactly it was about the meeting, but I was a mess. I was welling up in the meeting, then had a good cry in the car afterwards. I guess that I feel a renewed sense of purpose and a renewed motivation to be more awesome and less fat and unhealthy.

Holy smokes that was a lot to type, I am not even going to proofread it so I apologize to the grammar police.

Running For Boston

Yesterday morning, I ran with another member of my local Moms Run This Town chapter. We ran in honor of the victims of the horrendous events that occurred at the Boston Marathon on Monday. I put aside my anxieties about running with other people and put aside my anxieties about my pace and focused on honoring those affected by the tragic events. It wasn't about me, it wasn't about yesterday morning's running partner, it was about honoring, remembering and not letting the evil, mean hearted, person or people responsible win. There not much else to say other than my thoughts and prayers are with Boston and those affected.

The Color Run Race Report 3/6/13 (A photo report)

First and foremost, there was no racing in this one. It was purely for very colorful fun with B and my mom, yup, my mom was visiting and joined in for the fun. We got to Atlanta Motor Speedway, we were ready to go, we even snuck into an earlier wave so we could get going. I know, I know, don't judge.

We got going, but there would be no running, we would have been killing ourselves zig zagging because of the shear number of people but this one was about having fun and not killing ourselves. I was surprised at how non irritating the color powder was, I guess I was expecting something a little more harsh. The other thing was that some of the color throwers were awesome, they weren't shy about dousing you with the stuff, others you had to practically beg to have them throw it at you. We wanted finish as dirty and colorful as possible. 

We chatted, laughed, danced all the way to the finish.

We waited around to be part of one of the color throws that happened every 15 minutes, and B decided to throw her packet of blue right in my face, I looked like a smurf. It was all just so much fun! We'll be doing it again in September and B has now told me that she wants to do the Electric Run too.