Life lately [brain + photo dump]

Hello loves!

I keep telling myself I'll keep up with blogging better once my comprehensive exam is done, once classes are done, once I graduate... but the fact is, life is BUSY. I finished my comprehensive exam over FOUR weeks ago, and classes ended Monday...

So, I hope you'll just be happy to see me when I'm here and not miss me too much when I'm gone. Like your favorite flaky friend who is oh-so-hard to make plans with but whom you love dearly. :)

Here's a glimpse at my life lately. (that is, the part of my life that wasn't work + papers + presentations + job applications...)

I attempted for a while to walk or run a mile a day in May. That fell apart pretty quickly (#postmarathonslump), but I did manage to convince Pat to take a walk with me on campus one evening!

He took this sneaky picture of me while I was taking the first picture. (#bloggerproblems)

I celebrated my last Capstone class on a patio with my lovely friend Ashley.

 I ran a 5k that was 19 seconds away from my best time ever. (I'll take it!)

My wonderful friend Sam visited, and we went disc golfing! (aka the boys golfed and I walked around and talked at them :)

 This is what a disc-golf walk ends up looking like:

And finally, I had my last college class this Monday. These lovely ladies and I started together and now we're finishing together. (also, you can see in this picture that I chopped my hair off :)

Upcoming in my life: Me and Pat are both graduating this weekend!! Which means -- The Meeting Of The Families. My little sister, Anna, has met Pat's dad and aunt, but they're the only ones who have met. So my parents will be meeting his dad and aunt and everyone will be meeting Pat's sister. It should be exciting!

We also each have three ceremonies!! Luckily, two of them overlap for both of us. Pat and I will each miss one of the others' ceremonies (does that make sense? his business ceremony is at the same time as my hooding ceremony. booo).

And we're also having a graduation party Saturday! SO MANY THINGS.

And then next week, we're taking offffff on a trip to Oregon and Washington. I'm SO excited. We're going to hike Mt. St. Helens, meet Shauna and Tim and see my friend Jacque and do lots of cool things.

I am not sure when I'll be posting again. :( If you want to keep up with me, I'll be on Twitter and Instagram -- find me there!!!

Lots of love,

The Dr. Bob Run, take two

Hey friends!

So it's already been a month since I ran this race, but I really wanted to post about it, so here I am.

First of all, a recap: I ran the Dr. Bob Run in 2012 as my second race/second 5k ever and it kicked my ass. I ran it with the bf, Pat, and was so so disappointed in myself -- because he'd done no training at all and could have been faster than me and because it was so difficult for me -- I was breathing really hard and had to stop and walk a few times, which I hadn't done in my first 5k.

To be fair, the course is super tough. The Dr. Bob Run is held at Rim Rock Farm, which is where KU's cross country team trains and competes. Loose dirt and grass trails, big hills -- but GORGEOUS scenery.

Anyway. This year.

This year the race was just a week after my second half marathon. The weather was PERFECT and I felt pretty good going into it -- wasn't really sore anymore and was excited to run a shorter race. Pat ran again with me this year, but now I've run enough races with others that I wasn't really nervous about running with him.

I brought my phone on the course but didn't listen to music -- I just used it to keep track of the distance. Me and Pat kept a great pace for the first few miles and then split up with just about a mile left.

I finished up solo and was SO HAPPY with my race overall. I had a 10:23 pace throughout, which is good for me anyway, but crazy good when you add in all the hills.

I finished in 32:15, a full FOUR MINUTES better than my time on the course last year. Huzzah! Pat beat his time from last year by a few minutes as well, but I didn't write down his times, just mine. :)

Finishing the race that much faster than the year before and having a great race after such a difficult one the week before was seriously the best feeling! I am no longer enemies with the Dr. Bob Run. :)

What's one of your shining moments of work-out or running victory? I'd love to hear!