For any weirdo that just likes to read about running, feel free to skip to the end where I have diligently included my running stats.
When you grow up with a sister relatively close in age (she's 3 years younger than me), it's like having a built in best friend all the time.
Even though we were lucky that there were other girls in our neighborhood to play with, we spent many, many, many hours playing Barbies, Cabbage Patch Dolls, "flower shop" (sorry mom), riding bikes, playing in the pool, etc.
The teen years separated us a bit, but by college, we started to appreciate each other a bit more. She studied abroad for a semester in France and my now-husband Adam and I met her for a 10 day tour of France, England, Belgium, and the Netherlands. We lucked out and got some fabulous snowy pictures of pictures in Paris:
The summer after she graduated, I started to get really worried that she was going to find a job somewhere far away from Atlanta. I had big dreams that our kids would grown up knowing their cousins and we'd have a fun little lake house to bring our families to on weekends and holidays. We took a trip with mom across America that summer of 2007, stopping in New Orleans:
And eventually making our way to the Grand Canyon:
It was (one of) many fantastic adventures we've been lucky to share and I couldn't imagine seeing her for only a few brief periods each year.
Fortunately, she found a job in Atlanta! Yippee!
That fall, I got engaged and over the course of the next year, she performed all the maid of honor duties without any bellyaching. She diligently kept notes of all the gifts at all the showers:
And was the person I spent the night with at a hotel room on the eve of my wedding day. We giggled like we were kids again and if I had any nerves, they were long forgotten by the all the fun we were having.
We have continued to share our love of travel together and even continued our brother in the fun too! The 3 of us took mom to Alaska for her 60th birthday a few years ago.
Taking a pit stop at Safeco Field in Seattle before the boarding the cruise ship:
The past 2 years, we've taken Caribbean cruises together along with a small group of friends. We share a love of mojitos and striking up conversation with strangers:
But the best part about a sister is that hanging out means that we can just be ourselves. There is no pretense, no obligations, and I know that we are there for each other no matter what. I'm not sure we've grown up too much over the years:
But I do know that we always have a good time!
And oh yeah, that guy she's engaged to? He's pretty awesome as well. I've truly never been happier for her--I think this is the flood of emotion my parents felt when I told them I was getting married?? He definitely makes her happy and is sweet without being sappy.
We will be going wedding dress shopping in the couple of weeks and I just cannot wait to see what my favorite shopping partner happens to choose as 'the dress'. Because I'm sure there will be some pretty terrible duds in the mix which I'm already laughing about now....
Congrats Tasha and Tim!!!
And if you just care about the running, I'll throw you a bone::
After 6 miles last Monday and 10 on Wednesday, I just did 4 milers on Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday. It had been awhile since I'd had a 5-a-day week, but it was very manageable. The 4 milers take just over 30 minutes so it's easy to squeeze that in after work and not feel too beat down when I get home.
Thursday was short and sweet with all my splits under 8:00mm. I was exhausted from an extra long and sweaty day at work, but somehow I pulled out a good run. 7:59, 7:56, 7:56, 7:17
Saturday went okay. I had a significant amount of foot pain all day and eased into my run. Running made the pain go away briefly, but I knew something wasn't quite right. 8:06, 8:15, 8:15, 7:52
Sunday was strange. I had a princess shift at work (4.5 hours, yippee!) and went running at 4pm. In July. In Georgia. It actually wasn't too bad with the shade cover from the Greenway, but it was still hot. I tend to have Garmin issues when I'm sweating all over the place and I ran 4.2-4.3 miles, but Garmin logged me at exactly 4. So I am pretty sure that the average and splits are a little off.... but my splits were 8:19, 8:58, 7:49, 7:46
Today I started out feeling as though I had cement blocks taped to my legs. For about 2 miles, I was doing the short-step shuffle and telling myself to just not look at my Garmin because it wasn't about speed in the 91* real feel. Once I got to the turnaround point at 3.85 miles, I looked and was shocked that I was close to 8:00mm! I took water at 4.65 miles and peeked and stayed away from looking at my pace until the last 2 miles. I pushed it at the end, but somehow, I was feeling really, really good and strong. 8:10, 8:03, 7:55, 7:57, 7:55, 7:44, 7:43, 7:30.
Okay August, I'm ready for you!!!
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