September Villains Weekend--Grand 1 Yacht

Saturday night we had another special event planned--a cruise on the Grand 1 Yacht to watch the Wishes fireworks!  I was so excited!  I never thought I'd have a chance to go and here we were!

I had called earlier in the week to verify times.  But when we showed up, there was no one else around and no one in the booth.  I was a little panicky and was walking back up the front desk when my friends called and told me they had shown up.  I was given the wrong time.  Oh well!

Melissa had ordered us these cute glowing bows and necklaces--love it!

Oh and swords for the boys that made clinking sounds.  The boys had way too much fun with them.

 It was Jennifer and Charley's 2 year Anniversary so we had some surprises in store for them.

Some views inside the yacht.

 

And then up top...

We had a special cake for Jennifer and Charley.

 Sailing away from the Grand Floridian

 And past the Magic Kingdom

 We motored around for a bit and enjoyed our specialty drinks that we had ordered. I couldn't for the life of me remember what I had ordered but I loved it!

Silly Paul

The water parade...we had a discussion about our enjoyment (or in my case, non-enjoyment) of it

 

Then we parked and watched the fireworks.  The boat had the music coming from the speakers and it was a fantastic viewing location.

 SO much fun!

Then it was sadly time to return to the Grand Floridian.  But we had such a blast.  It was definitely worth it and I could see it being a great event for just a couple to do by themselves too!

Best Damn Race Ambassador!!!

I'm so excited to announce that I am lucky enough to have been chosen to be an ambassador for the Best Damn Race!

The Best Damn Race has two races: Safety Harbor and Orlando.  This is the first year for the Orlando race and I can't wait!

The Safety Harbor race is on February 1, 2014 and the Orlando race is on March 1st, 2014.  You can participate in either a 5k, 10k, Half Marathon or 5k + 10k Challenge.

I will be running in the Half Marathon in Orlando and I hope to see you there!

Interested in running the race?  Enter code AHOWELL to get  $5 OFF any Orlando or Safety Harbor Race!!!

Weekly Recap- November 11-17, 2013

I had an absolute horrible week running wise.  On Wednesday, my whole run was just tough.  And it was only 6 miles!!!  I'm not sure if it was because I had 2 days of softball tourneys before, plus it was cold and super windy, plus I was wearing more clothes than normal.  The whole time I was running I was thinking how hard it was.  Then I got home, took a shower, and was sick for the next 24 hours.  I'm not sure if I caught a stomach virus from one of my kids or if it was the run but it was no fun.

But I know that not all runs are good so I shook it off and was confident going into today's 17 miler.  But it was horrible.  My pace was about a minute slower right from the beginning.  I was done at about mile 7.  My legs hurt.  I normally run the first mile straight then do 2:1s.  But today at mile 13, I dropped down to 1:1s.  Then I luckily had a friend meet me at mile 14 where I proceeded to drop to 1:2s.  By mile 15, I just straight walked the last 2 miles.  I'm so frustrated and mad at myself.  I was in so much pain in my knee and heel and my calf and thigh muscles were just tired and done.  My foot was hurting too.  It hurt to even walk. 

I just don't know how I'm supposed to go another 9 miles.  I really don't.  Gah

(okay, on a positive note, I hit my goal of 500 miles for the year on Wednesday.  I have now upped it to 600)

Wednesday--6 miles in 1:03:46 (Mile 1: 9:43, Mile 2: 11:16, Mile 3: 10:41, Mile 4: 10:39, Mile 5: 11:00, Mile 6: 10:30, average pace: 10:38)

Sunday--17 miles in 3:36:58 (Mile 1: 10:24, Mile 2: 11:46, Mile 3: 11:57, Mile 4: 12:04, Mile 5: 11:48, Mile 6: 11:47, Mile 7: 11:45, Mile 8: 12:05, Mile 9: 12:26, Mile 10: 12:11, Mile 11: 12:05, Mile 12: 12:21, Mile 13: 12:12, Mile 14: 13:25, Mile 15: 13:53, Mile 16: 17:11, Mile 17: 17:38, average pace: 12:46)

Total miles this week: 23
Total miles in 2013: 525.62
Total miles: 951.11

September Villains Weekend-- Photoshoot Part 3 and Tea!

So we headed into the Grand Floridian to take some pictures.

 

I jumped in this one as a joke.  All weekend long, I had been photobombing Melissa's pictures.  So I had to do I again here!!

Then we headed outside to the front lawn...

 

Then we headed back inside for tea at Grand Floridian Tea Room.

Here are some of my photos from the tea---they look so sad compared to Regina's amazing work!

I got the Mad Hatter's Tea. (Thank you Deena for suggesting it the first time!)  I'm not a huge tea fan but this one is so flavorful!

Kory was a good sport.  I didn't think I'd ever get him into the Tea Room!

We had a joke about these teapot covers..

 Then we hung around a bit, went over to the Wave and the lounge there is so neat!  But it's also dark and several of us were dozing off.  So we decided to split ways for a bit and meet back up later that night for one of the big events!

Weekly Recap- November 3-10, 2013

Well, the knee doctor said the MRI came back negative.  Yay!  He said that I am starting to show a little arthritis behind the kneecap but that had nothing to do with my pain and nothing to worry about.  My knee is feeling lots better.  It only hurt a little bit last night during the half.  And my heel wasn't too horrible either.  It starting hurting at mile 9 but no limping afterwards!  I think its the way the KT tape people wrapped it at the expo!

I went to the Wine & Dine Half Meetup at on Thursday night.  It was SO. MUCH. FUN!!  I was really so lucky to be able to go!

Thursday-- Wine & Dine Half Meetup- 1.64 miles in 16:48 (Mile 1: 10:17, Mile 1-1.64: 10:14, average pace: 10:16)

Saturday-- Wine & Dine Half Marathon- 13.31 miles in 2:37:17 (Mile 1: 10:43, Mile 2: 11:37, Mile 3: 11:43, Mile 4: 11:44, Mile 5: 12:04, Mile 6: 11:41, Mile 7: 11:45, Mile 8: 11:59, Mile 9: 12:13, Mile 10: 12:27, Mile 11: 12:37, Mile 12: 11:50, Mile 13: 11:48, Mile 13-13.31: 9:45, average pace: 11:49)

Total miles this week: 14.95
Total miles in 2013: 502.62
Total miles: 928.11