Can't Stop Won't Stop

I think it is official that I am addicted to running.
I love running.
I can't ( well I can) but don't want to live without it.

So the last few months that I have been suffering with all of these random health issues has been HARD...because I've cut back my running.

But I'm BACK!

The other part of my trip to St. Louis was to run a half marathon there.
Shanna has also become dare I say addicted to running also.
When I reached out to her last year to try and convince her to train and run it with me, she was less than pumped.

Now our entire trip together she was like, "Let's do New York! Wanna do New York?" or "We are still doing that midnight marathon in Nevada in August right?"

She's ALL about it.
So I'm putting the 50 States, 50 Marathons goal out there for myself. You will notice it on the right hand side of this lovely blog!

Halves count. Fulls count. Either or. If it's a Marathon, and it's in a state I haven't run before it goes on the list.

I am very excited at this idea as I also LOVE traveling. And I am eager to combine these two loves to see this great nation of ours.

So there is that!

St. Louis Half Marathon was like the rest of our trip - Interesting!
There was pouring rain...there were quite a few hills.....and for the most part not many spectators, which made it tough running up wet hills.

BUT NOT US! We were fortunate enough to have the amazing MISSOURI EKERN CHEERING SQUAD. Led by the amazing Meghan, Randy and Marna came out early and stayed the whole race, cheering us on at mile 1, 5 and 12. Their bright umbrellas, bright pink TOUGH AS SKULLS sign and Marna's homemade SKULL FLAGS really kept our spirits up. Better yet were their warm smiles and words of encouragement.

From mile 1 - 5 all was good, the knee that has been bothering me started to loosen up a bit and we were wet but happy. Miles 6-10 were AWFUL. No one cheering, we are tired of being wet, and there were 4 or 5 LONG LONG inclines. At one point during this period Shanna looked over at me and was like, "THIS IS SUCKING' and I nodded wholeheartedly in agreement. When she checked her watch it said we were running near a 9 min mile pace! We started with an 8:30 min mile pace! No WONDER we were sucking wind.

Well with only 3 more miles to go at that point we thought, "What do we have to lose!" so we RACED the thing!!! It helped that we were tired, soaked and cold....but I think we were so surprised by our time we wanted to keep it up.

We finished in 2 hours and 6 minutes. A new personal best time for me in the half marathon. My last two times being 2:15 and 2:20! So that is quite a difference. It made me happy :)

Now I am a month out from my NEXT FULL Marathon! That will be Memorial Day Weekend in MADISON!

Meghan will be running her first half! She's going to do awesome. Friends Shanna and Lauren are doing the full. Friends Emily and Megan Fitz are doing the half. It should be a FUN weekend!!

Here are some photos of Shanna and I pre and post race. I don't have too many photos from the race....maybe I will see if Meghan has some.

Here we are still dry and ready to go:

And after! Happy and Soaked.

My Days and Nights

If I seem a little bit more frantic these days it's because of work.
I honestly think if I survive this next year of my life it will be a miracle.
I am trying REALLY hard to take it one day, week at a time.
But with 6 events in as many weeks, with the BIG SHOW topping it all off, the bookstore on the horizon, it is enough to make my head spin, clean the house at 6 am, and feel the need to run for days.

Printers Row Lit Fest is the biggest event I work on all year.
It's amazing. Amazing to work on, amazing for our organization.
It's like the Super Bowl of Open Books events.

Thought I would share with you the Cause Marketing video I helped work on to spread awareness about Printers Row and Open Books!

It's a great reminder of why I work my ass off. Why I care so much about what I do, even if it tends to make me crazy some times. The price you pay to help people :-) I'll take crazy.

Shanna and St. Louis

Hello! Hello!
I am back after a long weekend in St. Louis with my dear friend Shanna.


Another person in my life that I am so fortunate to have such an easy friendship with, she may just be the best thing to come out of my military career. We became close Battle Buddies and although she is no longer in my unit, her friendship remains a necessary element in my life. We certainly struggle to find any glimmer of difference between the two of us....cut from the same cloth doesn't even really come close to explaining it. I absolutely cherished every moment we spent together.

This weekend included:
Amtrack Trip!
Shopping
Bubbletea
More shopping
Browsing Left Bank Books
Lots of eating breakfast
Shopping
Photo taking
Cupcakes
1/2 Marathon!
Massage
Nap
Sushi
Reading The Lazarus Project (which is amazing)
Sleeping In
Shopping

Things I learned about St. Louis:
The Metro train is an interesting way to get around. You must VALIDATE that ticket, and there is absolutely no eating or drinking on the train.

That this pizza joint, was highly praised by one of my neighbors, My President and yours, Mr. Obama.....supposedly when he was in town for the debates he was heard to say it was the best pizza he's ever had in his LIFE, and the owners recently flew to D.C. with some for him. I am not sure how all of the CHICAGO pizza people feel about that....but their salads sure were good!

Riding the Amtrack is pretty fun. I got a lot of working and reading done and has some lively interactions with an EXTREMELY intoxicated woman.

My uncle Randy might as well be my father's TWIN brother. Randy and Marna and Meghan came out in the pouring rain to cheer Shanna and I on. More on that tomorrow...but as I sat and listened to Randy's stories, and watched Randy's looks and mannerisms I just couldn't get over how much he reminds me of my dad.

You really do feel cooler in expensive clothes. So another amazing thing about Shanna is that she works for an Italian Fashion Designer - ETRO. And while there is not much else I would rather do with my life for work than what I do know....Shanna's job might be the exception. So the long and short of it is, this girl has some GORGEOUS clothes. Always conjuring up dramatic OOHS AND AAAHS from me....her new leather jacket which retails for $3,000 was NO exception. I slipped it on and felt cool. Instantly. Instant fashionable cool. And I felt more like Shanna....which is something I've always aspired to be more like ;)

I have to get the photos off my camera from Race Day...so I will blog that tomorrow. I will also post an update on Nick's latest competition which was ALSO this weekend in Orlando, FL!

Here are few more photos of my dear friend.....and check the Flickr page for some other St. Louis shots.

Easter Bunnies

Before the Easter Holiday is completely gone from all of our minds I thought I would share a few fun photos I took of some bunnies this weekend.

Greta Bunny

Finny Bunny


Weezer! Bunny

Grandma and Grandpa Bunny

Wind-up Bunny

Here are a couple of my other favorite photos from the holiday weekend!



This has been a very busy week and a very BIZARRE week. I have been taking advantage of my extra free time to even work MORE than normal - as Finnegan has been in WI with Mom and Dad for a long visit as Nick and I both prepare to leave the state of IL this weekend, each for our own athletic endeavors.

It is just unbelievably strange having him gone. The complete rhythm of life is just slightly skewed. It is so QUIET.

When we went for tacos tonight, a small boy cracked his head on a chair and was just howling, in so much pain, that he made that cry...you know the one where it seems like they are going to hold their breath, mid-cry for EVER....until it cracks and the screaming begins again.

It brought me to tears. Because I miss even THOSE moments.

I am so looking forward to spending time with one of my dearest friends, going out of town, running another race, relaxing, hopefully eating lots of food, shopping, massage all of the good girl stuff.

I am so looking forward to Nick's successes in Florida at his big BIG competition. He has been training SO hard, and deserves this win more than anyone I could imagine.

But I MOST look forward to having Finnegan back home. I know he is having a GREAT time with my parents, and that is wonderful, but I'm eager to have him back ;)

I will blog tomorrow about some of his favorite Viroqua activities, to give you all a glimpse of what I am sure they are busy doing during his stay!

Come on now...

I know it seems that everyone is up in arms about the Obama Bow...


And I just recently enjoyed this video about the Chia Obama:



Sometimes I really resent the media for being so obnoxious and focusing on the dumbest shit. There just HAS to be more important things to cover.

Really? Seriously?

We need a slow motion view of hand placement blow by blow to see if he bowed!
I get the symbolism of what a bow could 'mean' but I am pretty sure that is not what was going through his head when he did it, I am thinking he was just trying to be respectful.

And why are we even using the energy to MAKE a CHIA PET Obama!

I just don't know.

Best Buds

I was so thrilled to have Greta fly in for a visit this past weekend.
It is always so so nice to have her HERE.
To be near her anywhere is wonderful....and as she mentions in HER post from the weekend....it is not hard to daydream what it would be like if she moved here :)

But what is nice for MYSELF....is even nicer for Finn.
As he gets older, it is easy to see a special bond forming between the two of them.
There are always laughs, new tricks taught and learned, and candy shared.
And this time, when seeing Greta off to the airport, some sad tears as she had to leave.

Here are just a few of my favorite photos of the dynamic duo that I took this weekend.

Skulls

What started as me going out on a limb on a post 'Pirates of the Caribbean' fashion trend....has turned into something so much more.

I knew it had become something when my dad turned to me one day and asked, "What's with you and the skulls?"

I realize that as a 30 year old, mother, wife, non profit marketing director, etc...that is kind of weird thing to latch on to, but latch I have.

Currently my collection of skull items include, I am sure I may miss some:
a skull ring (one of my faves)
a skull umbrella
skull boxer shorts
skull socks
purple skull pajama pants
a skull coffee mug
a cool orange and black skull plate
a skull and plaid pattern winter hat (a fave)
a skull t-shirt
a skull scarf (a new fave)
an amazing pink army cammo patterned skull pillow case! (score points for Nancy)
FINN even has awesome skull clothes
AND my latest addition - a teeny tiny diamond skull necklace

The skull!?
What does it mean to me?

To me the skull is a symbol. A reminder of sorts.
That one day.
We are going to die.

It's also a symbol that people a lot tougher than me usually don.
Like Bikers and Satan Worshipers and stuff.
THOSE people... :)

I wear skulls when I run. They make me look tougher than I am.
Once when I was running a race with Shanna and Megan, we all had black skull scarves on our heads...and a guy yells, "GO MERCHANTS OF DEATH!!!" and I was like, "Hey you guys! That's us!!"
We must have looked really tough!
It reminds me that running sometimes, (like the marathon) is really tough...but it won't kill me....it just makes me stronger.

The above mentioned skull necklace with the diamond eyes was my gift to myself for completing the marathon. I plan to hopefully add to the collection with each 26.2 I run.







So when I see one of my skull things, it reminds me.
You better enjoy life, appreciate life, live and love your life, because one day you'll just be another skull in the ground.

Morbid? Maybe.
Weird, oh certainly. But it's my thing.

Bad Habits

Habits are hard to break.
I should know. I always say you can tell how stressed out I am by looking at my fingers. I have been a nail biter for a LONG time. And right now they are nasty, chewed up stubs. Gross. So there you have it.

Right now Finn's bad habits all surround one thing:
HIS MOUTH.

His SHIRT in his mouth.

THINGS in his mouth.
(In this photo it just happens to be an Irish Flag, but it could be anything really.)

And then there is the PACI - pacifier. I feel like Mr. Paci's days are numbered. I sort of think that if Finn can ask for it....then it might be time to say goodbye.

But when he's sad....and you give him one, and he looks at you with THESE eyes. And you can just tell that it is an immediate sense of comfort.....it is sooooo hard to want to say no.

LT - Our Future

So those of you logging in last night or today searching for the entertaining and dramatic
"hiring an intern" post, never fear, I would still love to share.

Email me, beccakeaty@gmail.com.
And I will forward you the transcripts, skanky photo and link to the MySpace page.

Thank you for your support ;)