1. From the minute I got up until my head hit the pillow, I felt like I was on the go yesterday. I crammed in a run in the morning, was busy at work all day, and then spent 2.5 hours in the kitchen making dinner (recipe coming tomorrow) and whipping up a huge batch of apple crisp for the tailgate this weekend. Do you know how long it takes to peel and cut a 1/2 peck of apples? Or how hot it gets in the kitchen when you have the oven on for two hours? I was ready to collapse when the day was over. I'm hoping today I'll be able to catch my breath.

2. I voted yesterday. Maryland started offering early voting this year, and I'm pretty convinced it's the best idea ever. I could vote on my schedule, when it was convenient, and there was no line. In and out in under 10 minutes. Probably my best voting experience to date.

3. I am so excited for this weekend. It's going to be insanely busy, but very awesome. I have a house-warming party on Friday, homecoming on Saturday and Marine Corp spectating and a post-marathon party on Sunday. Oh and it's Halloween! Besides all the fun things going on, the weather is supposed to be absolutely gorgeous. Hurry up Friday night!

I had every intention last night of writing up a great post answering all the questions that you asked me as part of my blogiversary contest.

But then my Ikea bed broke.


Yup, the leg snapped off and the whole thing collapsed.

Site of the collapse

Maybe I should have known that this was coming. The headboard had cracked at the juncture where it meets the legs months ago from my leaning against it when I read at night. Really what can I expect from furniture that comes in a box?

So needless to say, writing up that great post was put on hold to clean up the bed debris.

I promise I'll get to the questions tomorrow, but I'm still going to announce the winner today.

Drum roll please....

The winner is.....

Jamie from Running and Some Sauce on Top!

Congrats Jamie. Please shoot me an email (jess@jessruns.com) so I can get you your shirt!

Thanks to everyone who entered!

Happy Hump Day!!!

Since I was sick yesterday (and still today) I have no fabulous work out to report on so I think it's the perfect time to do a meme that Stacy tagged me in last week.

MEME: Seven Personality Traits:
Basically I'm supposed to write about seven of my personality traits and then tag 7 of you to do the same. Let's get started shall we?

1. Type A. I guess that's the nice way of saying a little neurotic and anal when it comes to some things. I love to make plans and then have a plan to execute the plan and follow nice neat steps to get from point A to point B. I also like schedules. In fact, I love them. This is probably why I get so into creating my training plans.

2. Creative. While this may seemingly contradict number one, for me it really doesn't. There are still ways to be creative and think outside the box while being ridiculously type A. For example, one of my favorite parts of journalism was designing Web sites or laying out the paper. If that doesn't show a creative eye, I don't know what does.

3. Organized. I like everything to have a place and to keep it in its place. This is especially true in my bedroom, which I think in some strange ways mirrors my life. If my room is clean and everything is where it needs to be, things in my life are probably going well. I'm clear-headed, getting stuff accomplished, etc. When my room is a mess it usually means I'm frustrated or feeling stressed out. My room always has to be clean if I'm working from home or nothing will get done.

4. Morning person. I start work at 7 which means I'm up by 6 and out the door by 6:25ish. (The metro usually runs on time in the morning, going home...totally different story). I love the mornings although I do miss my morning runs. I've attempted to get up a few times before work but it's just too dark out and Jess loving to run with her iPod + the mean streets of D.C. in the predawn hours = potential disaster.

5. Love my sports. This is an obvious one if you've been reading the blog for any period of time. It's especially noticeable in the fall when baseball season is wrapping up and football and soccer are just getting under way. I love spending Saturdays at Maryland tailgates playing corn hole and BBQing.

6. Girl from suburbia living big city life. There are days when I absolutely love living and working in D.C. I mean there's tons to do. It's fun. And it's a far cry from suburbia where I grew up. But then there are times when all I want is to be back in suburbia away from the traffic, where a 20 minute drive really only takes 20 minutes and you don't have to build and extra 45 minutes into your commute to account for traffic.

7. Fun-loving. I love having fun, spending time with friends and family and experiencing all kinds of different things. The beach makes me happiest, but I believe you can have fun just about anywhere.

Ok, since I don't know who has done this one or not, if you haven't consider yourself tagged!

Sickness update: I feel a little better than yesterday, but still not great. The boss gave me the option to telework today, but I had a few meetings I didn't want to miss so I schlepped into the office. If I'm still feeling bleeeeh tomorrow though, I'll work from home again. The work cafe doesn't sell POM juice, but I did find a V8-fusion that was called Pomegrante Blueberry so I gave that a go, per Dr. CJ's suggestion.

(Why do I just know Glaven will come up with some horribly inappropriate comment about that title?)

So the BF is in the midst of packing because he's hoping to move soon and last night his mom came over to drop some boxes and things off. Unfortunately when she got out of the car, her iPhone slipped out and fell right down the storm drain.

His mom is understandably kind of bummed out, but the BF was like oh I can just crawl down there and get it out. His mom and I look at each other a little confused thinking oh really?

And BF goes on to tell us you just have to take the manhole cover off, climb down the ladder in there and grabbed the phone. (Should I be concerned the BF knows so much about the inner workings of a storm drain?) So we grab a flashlight and the BF finds something in the garage to yanked the cover off with. Those suckers are heavy.

Then he climbs down the ladder, hops down, grabs the phone and climbs back up. Like you know, it's an every day thing for him to climb down into storm drains.

Oh the best part of the story is that his mom iPhone works perfectly, even after the 10 footish drop and landing in a little puddle of water. She had it in this rubber case, which I'm betting is what saved it.

So BF saved the day and his mom didn't have to buy a new phone!

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In workout news, I've got a long run schedule for this weekend. It's something between 8 and 10 and I'm just going to play it by ear depending on how I feel!

It's Friday and my brain is all mush and I feel like I can't string together a cohesive blog post. So here's some quick bullet points for you. Enjoy!

• I bagged last night's workout because 1) it was pouring rain so no running and 2) my legs were still killing me from the Shred so no Jillian. So I took it easy last night and chilled with a friend.

• I'm hoping to get some Jillian in tonight before some friends and I head out for dinner and drinks (for them not me) in D.C.

• Tomorrow morning I'm hitting up the local farmer's market for some delicious fruits and veggies. If you guys have any great recipes that use lots of produce let me know because I'm going to be excited to try new stuff.

• After Tuesday's horrible day full of exhaustion I tried to get more sleep the rest of this week. I was pretty successful and it made me feel a lot better. I may be adopting a 10 p.m. bedtime.

• The weather's got me bumming. It's rainy and in the 60's and it's June. What gives?

• I'm loving the new Runner's World. I soooo wish I could do the Marathon Challenge. How cool would it to be trained by Bart Yasso and run with the editors? Unfortunately, the day of the Richmond Marathon is also the day of the Maryland vs. Virginia Tech football game, a grudge match of sorts for the BF and I because he went to Tech. So we've already got big game day plans. Major bummer.

Ok that's it for me. I can't stand to make you read any more random babble. Happy Friday and hope you all have awesome weeeknd!

Got my hair cut last night, but skipped my run because my hair appointment was at 6:30 and with D.C. rush hour traffic I was almost late getting to the salon even though I left work at 4:30.

Didn't finish at the salon until 7:45. Stopped to pick up some things at the grocery store after and then got home at like 8:30.

The rest of the night went like this. Make dinner, sit down and relax, go to bed.

I'm so looking forward to the weekend. I came in to the office obnoxiously early this morning so I could bolt out of here around 3:30.

I've got a cookout tonight with the BF's fam for his grandfather and stepdad's birthdays and then another one on Sunday with friends. I've got a schedule eight miler on Saturday and I might also be trying to catch a baseball game Saturday. It's going to be a busy weekend, but it's shaping up to be a lot of fun!

First a quick thanks to all of you for your really kind comments about the new look and feel around Run Girl Run.

Well I've mostly finished re-doing my blog format. I'm really happy with the new look. It's a little brighter, a little more colorful and just in general looks more engaging.

My roommate from college sent me this because as she said, "here, you like fitness."

Some intern from Teen Vogue "worked out" with the girl who plays Little J in Gossip Girl.

This might be my favorite quote: "My thing about going to the gym is that I leave my bracelets on, and I put on my makeup the way I would do it in real life..."

Go read and go laugh. The pics are hilarious. Looks like she really broke a sweat.

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The Biggest Loser last night was pretty good. That Laura chick annoyed the crap out of me though. Glad she's gone for now. I also pretty much loved Jerry and Estella. They are so cute, and come on who wasn't pulling for them to win the weigh in.

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Ran 7 miles on the dreadmill yesterday....ew for the dreadmill. But 7 miles is the farthest I've run since I caught Black Death, so whooo.

Again more apologies for being so absent of late. I hate letting the blog slide this much, but I should be getting back to my normal routine soon.

These past few weeks have been absolutely nuts and I haven't gotten a single run in since two Fridays ago I think. Not good for marathon training.

I don't think I've ever explained really about the whole new job-moving thing-trying to find places to run, but here's a quick rundown of what I've been dealing with the past three weeks.

I moved out of York Nov. 14th and went to stay at the BF's place. He and his roommates very graciously offered to let me stay until I found a place to live. I had a week off in between my old job and my new job and I used that time to kick off marathon training and spend most of my days on Craigslist looking for houses and most of my nights visiting those places.

It was crazy and stressful and I hated that I was homeless and bumming off the BF and his friends.

By the middle of that week I had found a nice townhouse with reasonable rent and two nice roommates so I at least had that ironed out. Only problem was, I couldn't move in until Nov. 30 and my job started Nov. 24.

My new job is in D.C. a couple of blocks from the White House. The easiest way to get there is by the metro. My new place is two blocks from a metro station, unfortunately BF lives much closer to Annapolis than D.C. and is about a 30 minute drive from the closest metro station.

So that means last week I had to wake up crazy early, drive to the metro, then ride the metro for like 45 minutes before I even got to work. And then do it all again on the way home. I was leaving the house a little before 7 a.m. and getting back after 7 p.m. Long, long days.

All I wanted to do when I got home was curl up and go to sleep, which is basically what I did.

Unfortunately I had to work the Friday after Thanksgiving so I didn't get to go home and spend Turkey Day with my family. It's the first Thanksgiving in my 22 years that I wasn't with them so that was a little weird. I spent the day with the BF and part of his fam though and we had a great time.

Last weekend I was so glad to sleep in on Saturday before going to watch Maryland soccer in the Sweet 16 in the NCAA Tournament (they won 2-1 and play again this weekend). Sunday was moving day and then collapsing on the sofa and watching football.

Now that I'm in my new place my commute is slashed in half, which is so nice. I still haven't had a chance to run in part because I haven't found a place where I won't get run over and in part because I'm still settling in.

I have no furniture yet (that's this weekend's goal) so I'm living out of boxes and sleeping on an air mattress. I feel like a squatter.

Last night was BF's birthday so I took him to dinner after work and then we walked around downtown and got back kind of late. Tonight I'm going to watch his volleyball game, so more no running for me, but I'm OK with it because I know I'm still settling in and trying to figure out my schedule.

I'll be back to running soon and I'm still fairly confident that I'll be ready for this marathon. I've still got plenty of time.

Just wanted to give you all a quick update on where I've been. I think I've finally caught up on most of your blogs (although I definitely didn't have time to comment on all of them, so my apologies.) I'm so looking forward to getting my furniture and having my parents drop off the last of my stuff this weekend so that I can be moved in for real and settle into a routine. It will be awesome.

First off, I have to apologize that I haven't read a single blog since last week. I'm so far behind and I'm a little afraid to look at the damage in my Google Reader. I will catch up soon though, just as soon as my life starts to settle down a bit.

Man I feel like I haven't had a second to catch my breath since this weekend. I've been filling in for one of my co-workers at work who's out for a family emergency and I've been trying to finish up all of my work that I need to finish by my last day on Friday.

I decided to scrap the gym last night and get my run in outside after work. It was starting to get dark when I got home, but it was still decent, plus my neighbors have all kinds of lights and stuff. By the time I got to mile two though it was pretty much pitch black and it was hard to see the road in front of me. I was worried I was going to trip and fall. (Maybe that's why my time was so crappy...32: something for 3.2 miles...way slower than I have been going lately.)

But I got it in and I didn't sprain an ankle. It's probably a good thing my iPod died in the NOT cold again because I could hear cars coming and such. Seriously maybe it is time for a new iPod or something. It dying every time the weather is not 70 degrees is getting a bit old.

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My Big News:

Well I've been sitting on this news for a long, long time because nothing was official until this week. But it's official now.

I got a new job! In Washington, D.C.!!!!

I can't put into words how happy I am to be getting back to the D.C./Md. area. You guys know I've been going back there almost every weekend since the end of July because I love it and miss it so much.

So yea, new job working for the government starting Nov. 24. I'm super excited.

I'm currently in the midst of trying to find places to live. It's not easy let me tell you. I saw two places last weekend. Neither was great. I'm going to see a place tonight (yup driving down three hours in rush hour traffic after work, looking out a house, and then driving another two hours back home so I can be at work tomorrow...ick) and then I'm going to see another place next Tuesday and I'm sure a few more this weekend.

It's stressful to say the least, but it's got to be done. I've been a hobo on my friends couches on the weekends for long enough. I don't want to further impose by not having my own place to live!

I have high hopes for the place I'm seeing tonight. The girls living there now seem really friendly so I'm hoping they'd be good roommates. Cross your fingers for me!

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Also a few of you commented on the "cute blind ref" from the Halloween pics. Man, I can't slip anything past you guys! He's the BF. He's a real nice guy that I met...where else...at a Maryland tailgate.

Nothing too exciting to report in the way of running. My calves were really really tight after Friday's 8 miler so I took the rest of the weekend off. It was darker than I realized when I got home from work tonight so poor planning on my part led to no run. I might try to hit the gym after work tomorrow. I'd go before but I'm going to be busy waiting in line to vote. (I think the running gods will forgive me for missing my morning work out to vote.)

Here are a handful of pictures from my cousin's wedding, this weekend's 5K and me in a Redskin's jersey because that was the deal if the Redskin's beat the Eagles.

Read this. It pretty much sums up how I feel about life. I know I wrote something similar a while back (but I don't feel like finding it in the archives) but man Frayed Laces really got it right.

Sometimes it's exactly the way I feel. (Don't worry non-running friends who read this, I don't love you any less...sometimes I just need my running to be a priority.)

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Anyway, this weekend pretty much was awesome. My cousin's wedding was beautiful. (I have pictures to post later). The weather was amazing and Sarah (my cousin's new wife) looked gorgeous in her dress.

My sports massage on Friday was great, but definitely painful. I still have some bruises, but it's way better today than it was Saturday. My IT Bands are still really tender because she worked them out well.

Unfortunately because the massage was so good, I was too sore to run this weekend. I danced plenty at the reception though, so that definitely counts for something.

Yesterday, I was down in Maryland to hang out with some friends and watch football. The highlight of my day was watching the Redskins and Cowboys lose and the Eagles win. All I need for a truly awesome football weekend is for the Giants to lose too (but if Toomer could score like five touchdowns and the Giants still lose that'd be great for my fantasy team haha!)

I'm hitting spin class tonight with Michele.

My 5K is this Sunday. I'm nervous but excited to get back to racing. I've assured some people (well really only one person who's worried I might re-injure myself) that I won't race this race, that I'll just run it for fun. But last night my competitive edge got the best of me and I looked up my Shave Your 5K stubble time and now I really want to beat that.

We'll see what this week holds as far as training and I'll probably make a game day decision about how I'm going to run the race.

Soccer last night was a good time. Our team played a great game. Personally, I only did so so because my legs were still sluggish from Monday's six miler and I started the game at midfield before moving to forward and then finally back to my normal defense.

We were tied with one of the best teams in the league 3-3 and our defense was shutting down a lot of their attacks. They managed to send in a slow dribbler that slipped past our goalie making the score 4-3 with plenty of time for us to come back. But literally as soon as the ball went in, the official called the game for darkness. Grrr. Talk about majorly frustrating.

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In other news, I was tagged by teacherwoman yesterday.

I'll tag these 10 (I'm trying to not repeat too many of those of you who have already been tagged...it's not that I don't love you because honestly I do!)

1. Jamie
2. Viv
3. Frayed Laces
4. Amy & Tom
5. J- Mom
6. M*J*C*
7. Aron
8. P.O.M.
9. Bill
10. This is me totally cheating and having a three-way tie for those who crack me up daily (Marcy you'd be here too, but you've already been tagged) Vanilla, Nitmos, RazzDoodle

And now for my six random facts:
1. I have an unhealthy love of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Or maybe it's just the peanut butter. I eat it straight from the jar.
2. I'm a closet tech/Web nerd. I love playing with HTML and CSS.
3. The beach is my favorite place in the entire world. It's also one of my favorite places to run because there is some much great stuff to look at. When I'm old and retired that's where I want to be.
4. I love this time of year when the weather starts to change. It's perfect for running, and I love just being able to pull on a hoodie and a pair of jeans and being comfortable.
5. My cousin is getting married this weekend and I'm doing one the readings at the Mass. I'm hoping I don't trip walking up to the altar. That would be embarrassing.
6. My College Park friends are my second family. They know me better than anyone and I love them more than life. It's the reason I waste so much gas/money to drive to Maryland every weekend.

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Today is my last day of the week because I took vacation tomorrow to get home for the wedding. I've got a sports massage planned for tomorrow morning with my lady back home. It should be good to get the muscles worked out. I'm also hoping on getting one or two runs in while I'm home, but I'll just have to see how the legs feel after the massage.

Good luck to everyone racing this weekend!

Yesterday was busy, busy so I'm just getting to my weekend update now. Apologies.

Overall it was another fabulous weekend in Maryland.

Quick highlights:

Soccer beat B.C. (more at terpsoccer.com)

The alums came back so we got to catch up with some of the guys who know play for D.C. United and FC Dallas and some other alums we haven't seen in a while.

Football beat Cal...whooop whooop!

I got wicked sunburn...with some unfortunate sunglass tan lines...here's a pic for your amusement...have a good laugh...everyone else has haha!



Didn't manage to fit any running in this weekend (or yesterday or today....crap...that's not the kind of streak I want)

My Robbie Rogers national team jersey finally came today!! I am sooo pumped! I love it!

Sorry for the lag time between posts. I haven't had much free time lately or well I guess I have, I've just been using it to get my life together. (i.e. working on completing the switch from the old computer to the new computer, trying to figure out why half my music disappeared in said switch, etc., etc.)

I'll do a quick update bullet point style:

• Wednesday night my soccer leauge started back up. Because we had a ton of defenders, I saw a little action at forward in the first half. That was an interesting experience to be sure. I haven't played forward since I was in like 6th grade. I was able to switch back to my normal defensive position half way through the first half though. Unfortunately we lost 3-0. I guess that will happen when you play a high school team that just joined the league to keep in shape in the off season.
• My doctor has me taking melatonin to help me sleep better and maybe figure out the cause to some of this fatigue stuff. I should mention that melatonin is a supplement that helps your body sync to natural circadian rhythm and isn't one of those addictive sleeping pill dealies. I've been taking it for three days so far, and I definitely feel like I've been getting more quality sleep. So score one for the doc!
• I'm meeting a co-worker for tennis during my hour and half lunch break today. I think it will be the first time in the eight or nine months since I started working here that I will actually use the full hour and a half. Usually I only take an hour at most.
• I'm heading to Maryland again this weekend. My soccer boys play Boston College in their ACC opener. It should be a good and close game. Tomorrow Terps football plays Cal. That unfortunately, has every potential to be a blow out in the wrong way. Tailgating tonight for the soccer game at 5:30 p.m. Tailgating tomorrow morning for football at 6 a.m. Oof! I hate noon kick-offs.
• Maybe getting free tickets to Saturday's D.C. United game. A guy my friend knows apparently has two he might not be using! That would make for an awesome, sports-filled weekend.
  

Hope everyone has a fabulous weekend! I'm taking my running stuff with me to Maryland again, we'll see if I have time to cram in a run at some point.

I didn't get any runs in this week, which is frustrating, but I've just been so run down. I get home from work and literally collapse. I had every intention of running on Tuesday and Wednesday, but I just feel dead tired.

I'm looking forward to getting the results of my blood work re-test back on Monday so I can finally figure out what's going on with everything.

I'm spending another weekend as a hobo living out of my duffel bag in MD/D.C/VA, but this time I packed running stuff because I'd like to try to get a run in sometime.

Two soccer games this weekend. Tonight against Hartford and Sunday night against Davidson. I'm super excited.

P.S. If you've got two seconds, check out www.terpsoccer.com. My soccer buddies and I finally decided we were sick of not being able to find a quality Maryland soccer blog/site so I built one for us. It's still a work in progress, but I'm happy with the way it looks so far.

Happy weekend to everyone. Good luck to everyone racing! Can't wait to read your reports!