running

The Sunday Salon [5.8.2011]

Michelle4 Comments

The Sunday Salon.com
This is going to be an odds and ends kind of Sunday Salon today.

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Happy Mother’s Day to all of the moms out there. You all impress me every day. I will be seeing my mom next weekend in Las Vegas for her wedding, which is the start of my crazy few months of traveling. Two weeks after Vegas, I am taking a 48-hour trip to St. Louis to visit my best friend from law school who needs some cheering up (I’m hoping my company + Buffy + chocolate helps). And a month from today we leave for Europe. Still deciding what to do with the blog while I am away, so stay tuned. I guess I’ll sleep in July?

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My new reading plan was going well until I hit a snag. Review copies. I kind of forgot about them and I apparently did not plan well. So I’m taking a little break from The Plan to read a few books I feel like I HAVE to read (or SHOULD read at least). Oh well.

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So what am I reading? Well I just finished Tiny Sunbirds, Far Away by Christie Watson, which I will be reviewing tomorrow. And now I am starting The Ninth Wife by Amy Stolls.

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You can still enter to win a copy of The Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott by Kelly O’Connor McNees. Two copies are up for grabs until Friday. I will announce the winner in next week’s Sunday Salon.

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And finally, I want to brag a little. I ran my third 5k this morning at the I Love Mother’s Day Race in Palm Harbor. I set a personal record by more than 4+ minutes by finishing with a time of 28:50. This was the first race Ben and I ran together and I stayed with him the whole way. It was a beautiful, cool morning here and a lovely day for a race.

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So that’s it from me. What are you doing/reading today?

The Sunday Salon: Post-Readathon and Post-Race [4.10.11]

Michelle6 Comments

The Sunday Salon.comGood morning! I hope everyone had a great readathon. This is my fourth time and it never gets old.  I ended up reading for 12 hours. I finished Purple Daze by Sherry Shahan, Betsy and Joe by Maud Hart Lovelace, and Ben and I read Our Town by Thornton Wilder together. At that point, I knew I would want to stay up to finish a book if I started a new one so I just relaxed for a few hours before going to sleep.

This morning I woke up at 5am and made my way to Clearwater Beach for the Iron Girl 5k. My friend, Erin, was running a bit late, but she made it about 15 minutes before the race started. We lost each other in the crowd for awhile though we ended up finishing together, which was really nice. My goal was to run under 30 minutes, but this race was SO crowded that it was impossible. For the first mile, I was trying to weave in and out of walkers and slower runners. Even at the end it was hard to keep a pace for any length of time because there were just so many runners. I finished in 33:11 (13 seconds faster than my first 5k). I know I could have been close to 30 minutes but for the crowd so I feel pretty good. You can see my race stats here if you’re curious.

Erin and Me after the race

Here is the hourly breakdown from the readathon:

  • Hour 1: 84 pages read
  • Hour 2: 70 pages read
  • Hour 3: 59 pages read; Book 1 finished
  • Hour 4: 18 pages read; ran out for packet pickup
  • Hour 5: 30 pages read; returned from packet pickup
  • Hour 6: 52 pages read
  • Hour 7: 36 pagers read
  • Hour 8: 49 pagers read
  • Hour 9: 87 pagers read; Book 2 finished
  • Hour 10: 43 pagers read
  • Hour 11: 43 pagers read
  • Hour 12: 58 pagers read; Book 3 finished
  • Hours 13-15: TV/Relax
  • Hours 15-21: Sleep
  • Hours 22-24: Back up and running my race!

Top Fives: 2010 Discoveries

Michelle5 Comments


It’s time for the final Top Fives post. I hope you’ve enjoyed them. Today is my top five 2010 discoveries. As you will see, it’s a rather eclectic list.

1. Asheville

I visited a number of new cities this year but none of them compare to Asheville. Ben spent the summer there and while I only visited for four days, I would drop everything and move there if we could. It is a lot like Ann Arbor (which you know I adore and miss like crazy) but with southern charm (credit goes to Ben for that comparison) and milder weather.. Mountains to hike on the weekends, vegetarian restaurants galore, and indie bookstores to peruse. Living in Asheville is kind of my new goal in life.

2. Vegetarianism

After years of slowly moving in this direction, I finally committed to being a vegetarian. It’s been almost an entire year now since I’ve had meat of any kind. And I love it (although my mom was cooking bacon this morning and that really tested my resolve). I feel healthier but, more importantly, I feel like I’ve correctly made the moral decision that I’ve struggled with for a long time. I appreciate that not everyone can do this but I’m so happy with my choice to give up meat.

3. Running

As I mentioned a little yesterday, I started running in 2010. Only a few months ago I thought I could never be a runner. I had tried in the past and failed. But after a few people encouraged me to try the Couch to 5k podcasts, I decided to give it a shot. Now I’m only two weeks away from my first 5k race. I’ve been plagued with a few injuries but for the most part it just feels so good to finish a run. Also, [see photo to the right] is one of the places I get to run. Hard to hate that.

4. The Avett Brothers

I couldn’t include them in my Top Fives: 2010 Albums post because they didn’t release an album this year, but I only discovered The Avett Bothers in 2010. And I LOVE them. Please go listen to I and Love and You if you haven’t already. I also wish January Wedding had existed when I got married (in January 2005).

5. Butterbeer

This one is just on here for kicks. The Wizarding World of Harry Potter opened this year in Orlando and thanks to some Annual passes, it’s relative proximity to my home, and the wishes of many visitors, I went three times in the first few months it was open. You can read my post on it here. But I really do love the Butterbeer. Cheers!

What did you discover in 2010?