Thankfully giddy and giddily thankful

A week before Thanksgiving (and a lil' half-marathon that I'm racing), I have plenty to be thankful for.  Sometimes I gripe and complain about this and that--I am human after all--but I pretty pleased with the turn of events this week.

1. Running: 10 miles at a sub 8:00 pace felt surprisingly easy on Tuesday.  I did an easy 3 on the treadmill yesterday morning where I forced myself into 9:00 pace.  The 5 easy miles today on the Greenway? I felt super relaxed and virtually no extra effort on this progressive run.  The only time I was panting a bit was on the final half mile where I just cut myself loose.  8:08, 8:04, 8:01, 7:52, 7:33.  There was a runner ahead of me for the first 2.2 miles and he held a beautiful 8:00 cadence.  I totally cheesed off of his pacing skills and gave him about 1/10th mile worth of room so I didn't seem like a creepster.  So I feel good about the race next week.  If if I don't feel 100% on race day, I still know I have it in me to run a decent race.  Plus, the lack of pressure I'm attempting to keep off of the race might actually make it really, really fun!!

2. Work: I started my new gig in September and so far, it's been everything I wanted it to be.  Aside from the annoying part of being the newbie and not knowing everything like I did at WS, I am actually getting to enjoy my life!  I work a 40ish hour workweek.  I get to see my husband for dinner nearly every single night.  I have a few more pennies in my pocket.  My boss's boss actually believes in me and my success.  And I received more good news this week when I discovered that we will not be doing anything super crazy for Black Friday or the holiday hours in general.  I won't be getting up at 4:30am to get to work by 6am.  I won't be working 12 hour days sandwiched in between a 1 1/2-2 hour commute.  This quality of life thing rocks!!!!!

3. 2013: I love, love, love the anticipation of things to come.  I have marathon #5 scheduled for March. We have our cruise to look forward to in April with friends and my siblings.  We are tentatively planning a special trip for our 5 year anniversary (Hawaii??!) with a possible layover in Vegas to have Elvis renew our vows.  It's a little ridiculous and may not happen, but a girl's gotta dream, right?  As for the rest of 2013, I think there might be some other awesome stuff thrown in there...just not quite sure what else.  I'll just keep dreaming big for now!