The Color Run-Pittsburgh

Photo dump from the Color Run I ran in Pittsburgh last Saturday.

Over the summer Maggie and I would always snapchat each other pictures pre, during, and post running but this was our first time actually running together!!

Maggie's First 5K!!

Me before the race!!

Three angels waiting to start!!

Our Team

After the race.  Some rain caused a mess of colors. 

Three sisters post race.

"Therefore since we are surrounded so so great a cloud of witnesses let us lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us." Hebrews 12:1

7QT (Vol.20)

 

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There is nothing like communicable diseases to get your Monday started.

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I extened the make-up link up for another week so that people have more time to participate.  Hop on over and link-up about the make up you wear on a daily basis.

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On Wednesday I wrote a post about The Harmonium Project and Audrey Assad playing here in Steubenville.  Ahh I cannot say enough good stuff about it!!

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Don't you hate when you write 7 Quick Takes in advance and do not remember what you were going to write here.

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On Monday a friend and I threw a surprise going away party for another friend who had to withdraw from school for medical reasons.  The theme- fall mixed with hipster.  Read as pumpkin flavored everything, leaves strewn about, hot apple cider, PBR and all of us girls dressing like hipsters.  She was completely humbled that so many people wanted to be there for her.  Now I want to do a fall party every year but hopefully not combined with a going away party ever again.  

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Thursday was the Inauguration of the new president of the Univeristy, Fr. Sean Sheridan.  Going to the ceremony was exciting when you think that this is only the 6 president in the Univeristy's history and only the third, including Fr. Mike Scanlen, since the school became passionately Catholic.  And being president of this school is special.  It isn't just any school.  It is a Univeristy on the world radar (seriously the pope knows exactly who Franciscan Univeristy is just ask the bishop of Steubenville about meeting the Pope when he became the bishop of Steubenville) for trailblazing what it means to be a passionately Catholic Univeristy in the 21st century.  This Univeristy doesn't just turn out educated men and women, individuals leave here on the path to sainthood.  Fr. Sean reminded us of the importance this university places on adherence to the teaching of the Magesterium with a variety of departments and boards, importantly the department of Theology,  all taking oaths that they will never teach anything contradictory to the teachings of the Church.  After Fr. Sean officially became the president with the seal being placed around his neck and the crowd applauding he turned and lifted his hands to the San Damiano cross.  Yes, Lord thank you for constantly blessing this University.

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I am running The Color Run here in Pittsburgh tomorrow.  I have been planning on doing this since July so I am just a bit excited. It has been a little stressful these last few days due to people adding and dropping from our team but it will all be good on Saturday when we are actually there and just enjoying the fun of it all.  I will be sure to post pictures here and to the 'gram (so if you aren't already instagram friends with me you should be!).  Now I have to go make the T-shirts for our race-Hebrews 12:1.

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

WIWS (Vol. 28)

I just published a post containing 23 things about my 23rd birthday.  If you read that you will know that I have a summer cold that is hitting me hard so this post will not be wordy, thinking up words is a lot of work for this stuffed up head of mine.

Please breeze past the fully body shots because those are less than steller but I already changed into comfy lounge around clothes and am not about to take more.

I used the new Arbonne mascara "It's a Long Story" for the first time and I am super excited.  Finally a mascara that is more natural AND stays on for longer than a half hour!!

New earrings I bought at an adorable shop in Portsmouth, NH this past weekend.

Shoes and detail on the dress.

If you follow me on the gram than you already know this but I ran my first 5k yesterday so I feel pretty darn awesome!

The low down

Dress: Merona brand bought at Goodwill for about $9.99

Cardigan:  Old

Sandals: Target

Cami:  Hanes. Actually more like the shelf part of a cami with built in bra because they end at the bust line.    I really really like these. 

Earrings: Cute store in Portsmouth, NH

Body: "I run this body."

Running.

I run.

I have running shoes.

I have a way a prefer my hair to be when I run.

I have running clothes.

I have running apps.

I run.

All of this is still so weird.  About 7 weeks ago I decided I wanted to run, out of the blue.  I downloaded a Couch to 5k (C25k) app on my iphone and hopped on the treadmill (It was really hot outside and I decided I shouldn't push my luck by running for the first time in forever in the blazing heat).  I liked it, and I did it again, and again and again.  Now I run 2-5 times a week.  I didn't write about it on this blog for a long time because I didn't want it to be one of those things that I made a big deal about for a week or two and then stopped running.  So I am sure you want to hear all about the beginning of my running story, right?

I have never been an active person.  Yeah I was on swim team and soccer teams growing up, I played a year of soccer in high school and did four years of cheerleading,  I periodically do some Jillian Michaels and hiking but have never been consistent with physical activity.  Well learning about how important exercise is over and over again in nursing school eventually wore on me.  I know I want to be healthy.  Weirdly, I also didn't want my heart rate to be in upper normal.  I think what finally broke me was the fact that I had been eating so healthy so I had more energy and wanted to get moving.  Either way one day I just began.

Starting, I loved my Couch to 5k app, it pushed me and it was a program I followed.  I did four weeks of it, repeated the fourth week, took a week off from the app (though not running) and so far have done one day of week 5.  If you aren't familiar with the program the basic concept is that it is a running program for beginners and over the course of 8 weeks it increases the amount of time you run.  You can repeat weeks or skip weeks.   I repeated week 4 because I struggled through it the first time and then didn't follow the program the next week because I was out of town, didn't run alone and thus just followed the person who I was running with.

I will finish all 8 weeks mainly because I want to complete it but I trust myself more now to push myself and just get out and run.  Simultaneously to running with C25k I also run the Nike running app so that I can know my distance and such.  For example yesterday I really wanted to get out and run a nice long run.  I was at a friend's house and I started a loop knowing that once I got to a certain point I just had to finish because I was so far out.  I finished the 35 minutes of the C25k and then free styled it for the last 20 minutes.  I am so sore but it was so great.

So there you have it.  I really want to do some more posts about things I have learned about and while running but I also want to answer any questions you may have so please comment and ask me questions!  If you have any inkling to start running I encourage you to just do it, you will feel so great about yourself and I would also recommend the C25k program to get started.