Life Update

Truth be told, I have been slacking A LOT on my website and blog. I'll try to do a quick recap of the fall/winter to bring you all up to speed...
1. Ran Marine Corps Marathon in October 2013 in Washington, DC area. That was the best marathon I have ever run and the most fun and support I have ever received running a race! The crowd support was AMAZING! I couldn't go 1/4 mile without seeing a crowd of people cheering us on! This race was a major PR attempt. I have shooting for a 3:59:59, I wanted that sub 4! (Previous PR was at Erie - 4:10).  By God's grace my official race time was 3:59:59! It was a very overwhelming race, I cannot wait to go back to race it again. Below is a pic of the race medal - which is awesome!

2. Ran Richmond Marathon 2 weeks after Marine Corps Marathon in (you guessed it) Richmond, Virginia. This was a great road trip with a large group of SCRR (Steel City Road Runners). This was to be "The Peoples Marathon". It turned out to be a rainy Saturday morning.  The first couple miles it rained, therefore my shoes were already soaked.  It was a course mostly through neighborhoods of Richmond, kinda boring. It had some hills that I definitely was not accounting for. As a stupid person runner does, I went out too fast. I was doing 8:30 miles, it was one of those races where you feel like you aren't going that fast and keep doing it just in case your Garmin is broke. Well by mile 20 I was fading, fading quickly. Pain was set in heavily by mile 18. It was just mile for mile at that point. I wanted to cry, I wanted to stop. Every mile I was slowing down and recalculating in my head what I needed to do in order to still get a PR. In my favor, all those fast miles early on, gave me minutes of time banked. The last few miles I slowed down to almost a 10:30, it sucked! The last mile, as always, I puled myself together and booked in, especially once I saw the finish line close. The last sprint was all downhill, just praying my legs didn't give out from under me, because a face plant could happen if they did. I finished with a 3:57:??

3. New job! I now work at UPMC East in Monroeville, PA as a PC Consultant, Intermediate. It is a promotion from my previous position with UPMC in Physician Services as a contracted employee working on IT project. My typical shift is 1-11:30 3 days a week and work every other weekend 7-5:30.

4. Personal Trainer Certification - I have been studying this for the past few months. But most recently I have been putting in more hours than usual with the days off here and there. 1 book is completely read, the other is about 75% done. Lots of studying ahead! I hope to take my test in mid/late March. CPR/AED cert already done at work!