Here's to New Beginnings!

Last Tuesday, I put in my two weeks notice at work. After two meetings with another company, I was offered a position. It's going to be a step up for me, but I am excited about the opportunity. For the past 6 1/2 years, I have been working with Philadelphia Insurance Companies as an Account Executive. I came to the company with less than a years worth of experience at an agency and very limited knowledge of insurance in general. I have worked hard, learned so much, and have come into contact with some pretty amazing people. I am so thankful that this company took a chance on me with such little knowledge and knowing how far I have come, I am confident in my abilities to do well in my next position. I am going to be an insurance broker and will now be responsible for making contact with the agents and bringing business in. I am really excited about this and can't wait to see what this new start will bring!

Last weekend I completed my 8th Half Marathon at the Austin Livestrong Marathon/Half Marathon. I went in with no expectations as I was just getting over the flu and had not eaten much in about a week. I was so nervous about having enough energy to actually getting through the race. A couple of months ago, I had a friend from high school that had told me that she would register if I'd hang out with her. Since I've been hurt for the past few months, I knew that I'd just be running to finish this one and wasn't at all going to be concerned with my time, not that I ever really do anyway! We ended up having a pretty great race and finished in 3:13. Not my best time, but not my worst either! I also reminded myself that I could pull this off since I had done a half marathon 11 weeks after I had Reagan. That race was definitely the hardest for me to get through and my longest race ever!

I didn't run all week this week so that I could let my legs and knees recover. Yesterday morning, Darrell, Reagan, and I headed out to Bastrop for Run for the Bluebonnets 5K. He and I both ran this one last year with my friend Amanda's husband, Max. It was his first 5K ever. This year, I ran it with Amanda. It was her first 5K to RUN ever! I stayed with her the whole time and we ran 2 minute and walked a minute almost the entire way. Amanda did GREAT and I am SO proud of her. Amanda had the lap band surgery back at the beginning of September and has been working very hard to live a more healthy and active lifestyle. Alot of people will say that having surgery is an "easy" way out, but having seen Amanda go through the journey that she has, I'm here to tell you, it's not at as easy as people think. Yes, this has provided her a tool in which to help her, but she is still responsible for her food choices and how active she is. The weight is still slowly coming off, but I am so confident that she will get to where she wants to be. Seeing her hard work and motivation is very inspiring to me!

Snow Day 2011

For the second year in a row, Austin has gotten snow! The weather forecast kept saying we were going to get some snow, but we pretty much shrugged it off and didn't think it would really happen. We woke up Friday morning to a pretty dusting of snow. Reagan was really excited and kept yelling, "Snowman! Snowman!" I could hardly get him dressed fast enough to go outside! We finally made it out a little before 7 am and he ran and played in it until his hands started getting too cold from touching the snow.

I was able to log in and work half day from home and Darrell ended up being off of work the whole day. It warmed up to around 40 yesterday, but even this morning, there was still quite a bit of snow and ice out in the shady areas. I went down to the trail and ran 5 miles (ran 2, walked 3, knee was not cooperating!) and the snow and ice was beautiful! I usually take my phone with me when I run and I hadn't this morning, but so wished for it when I saw how pretty it was.

I did my 7th half marathon last weekend. Given that I've only run about 4 or 5 times in the past couple of months since my knees have been bothering me, I did better than I had expected. It only took me 11 minutes more this year to do the same course last year. It was a pretty fun race and I was super excited to talk one of my college roommates, Elisa, into hanging with me during the race. I called her Tuesday before the race and asked if she would do it with me. She did her first half marathon last year at the Austin Half Marathon and she had not run more than 5 miles since then. We ended up beating her time from last year by 13 minutes. I was proud of us!