Another Day, Another A

We did it!!  Joann and I are officially finished with grad school -- YIPPEEEEE!!!!

Over two years of sweat and tears went into this journey, starting the day that Joann approached me with this crazy idea.  My first thought was that this girl was nuts, but quickly realized how many crazy things Joann had agreed to -- buying a bike and riding a metric century, half marathons, travelling to Oklahoma to sherpa my first 70.3 -- yeah, I owed her one.  We didn't start out with the plan to attend the same school, and in fact, we both were going back and forth between George Mason and Marymount, but in the end, Marymount's programs seemed to be the best fit for both of us, Joann getting her Masters of Business Administration and me a Masters of Information Technology.

It's almost hard to recall all those late nights of staring at blank pages on the computer screen, researching term papers, studying for exams, navigating the Blackboard system and waiting impatiently for each and every grade.  From Systems Engineering and Computer Security to Program Management, IT Governance and Policy and Human Computer Interaction (for me.... Finance, Accounting and such for Joann), we made our way, 3 credits at a time, toward this moment.

It was a surreal feeling turning in that final assignment.  During this final month, if something could have gone wrong, it did, starting with my computer crapping out on me about 36 pages into my final paper for my masters project.  AWESOME.  Thankfully, James helped me recover the file and I was able to use Jon's secondary laptop to finish it.  (and yes, I back up, but not every second, usually only when I'm done for the day.  In this case, I'd have lost about 4 hours worth of work).  Oy.  But all that is over now, papers turned in, presentation completed and grades are posted (4.0 GPA!!).  Time for GRADUATION PARTY!!!

Our graduation party could be considered the event of the decade.  We rented out Union Street Public House in Old Town, Alexandria, and arranged for speakers, games and shenanigans with our close friends and family.  Following the ceremony, the group moved to Pat Troy's Irish Pub and then Rocket Bar before crashing a the local Sheraton where several continued to party well into the wee hours of the morning.

Baltimore Half Marathon

Yeah, so..... you know it's a bad sign when you pre-arrange a bail out from the race, which is exactly what I did when I called Jeremy and asked for a pick-up around Lake Montebello, around the 7.5 mile marker.  I was signed up for this race, but with school and everything, really hadn't done much running since the summer run challenge.  Paula was in a similar situation, being so busy with wedding planning, and we mutually agreed that we'd do what we can and then grab a ride back to the race festival.

Ingrid and I spent the previous evening and night with my dad, and got to the race start pretty early to see Dad off on the marathon.  We stopped at Subway to keep warm and use the bathroom, and then headed over to our race start where we met up with Paula and Tommy.  Paula and I sent the faster two off as we hung back and settled into a nice walk pace with sporadic runs.  Truthfully, I could have been picked up a little sooner than we were, but Jeremy wasn't keen on the idea of us veering off the course in earlier neighborhoods.

As we entered the lake, we knew we just had a little more to go, and the timing worked out perfectly as Jeremy was just pulling up as we approached the meeting spot.  We went to Jeremy's house to pick up Jessi and Jayce and then started on what turned into the worst commute ever to the Light Rail and then to Ravens stadium (really, it would have been faster to just have continued the race).  We met up with Ingrid and Tommy and then hung around to see Dad finish -- under the time limit, mind you, except they had already started tearing down the festival and they didn't call out his name, the one thing he was looking forward to.  It made us all really mad, and we probably will skip this race next year.... but Dad finished a great race and got a ride home to his chocolate cake, saved from the previous night's dinner, as Ingrid and I set back to Virginia.

All in all, not a terrible day.... 7 miles is still better than sitting on the couch, which is exactly what would have happened had we not gone though with the event.  A shower and a nap were nice before enjoying several pitchers of sangria that evening with Joann and James, followed by an inadvertent late night on the town (at Town) with Dan, Cori and Amanda (oops!).

100 *Miles* in 100 Days

My summer of running!

I've never been a good runner.  I'm a solid back-of-the-packer and I'm comfortable in that spot.  That said, I know I can become a *better* runner.  How do I do that?  Run more!  And that's what I set out to do, along with several members of ARRC and the Mamma's Fools.  100 runs in 100 days.  The rules are simple:

• A run must be 1 mile and 15 minutes long
• Multiple runs per day are allowed as long as they are 1 hour apart

Got it, Ok, let's roll.

"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit." 

-- Aristotle

Well, 100 runs didn't actually happen.  I was on a good track until about July when my back really started hurting.  But.. I got back on track and realized at some point that while 100 runs was out of reach, I was on track to hit 100 *miles* for the summer..... with the new goal now in reach, I really set out and had a great experience with running towards the end of the summer.  I had a trip to Montana planned with Mom and Heidi T, and so I knew I had a few less days than in the plan, and picked up my runs toward the end...

5/21	94 days
Jen
53 runs	100.1 miles

And I DID IT!!!! Reached 100.1 miles after my 53rd run of 2.3 miles on August 23!!!! Sure, most of my runs were only about a mile, but 1 miles > 0 miles, right?? Anyway, I'm psyched... WOO HOO!!!!