Canadian Tire "Wheels" :60

I was feeling kind of down on Monday afternoon… about everything and nothing in particular all at the same time. Do you ever feel that way? I’m sure most of you know exactly what I’m talking about.

I try to keep up with the news, but the news is depressing so I unplug. Then I feel guilty for unplugging because isn’t it a privilege to not have to worry about what is going on in the world for a few days and know your life will be fine?

Off to Facebook I went, to scroll mindlessly through memes and news… And I came across this commercial that brought happy tears to my eyes! I thought maybe you would enjoy it.

Have a great Tuesday, y’all!

Weekend Wrap Up!

Happy Monday!

Yesterday, I wrote a post about how no one calls me "Meg", just blog friends because of my blog title. I did not mean to insinuate in my post that I don't like to be called Meg because that is NOT the case. I don't mind it at all! If I minded being called Meg, I would have called my blog Megan Go Run... although we can all agree that doesn't roll off the tongue as well as Meg Go Run does!

So for the record, Meg or Megan, I really do not care what you call me and I hope that post didn't offend anyone!

Here's what we were up to this weekend...

My morning 6 miler was done in shorts and a short sleeve! The forecast said it was going to get up to 74 by afternoon. WTF, February!?

I even decided to wear shorts to school.

I barely had a voice left by the time I left school. Singing and talking all day sometimes take a toll on me. It's weird. I sing/talk all day, every day. You would think my voice is trained right now. But sometimes, I lose it.

After work, it was so warm, so Paul and I sat on the back porch and chatted for quite awhile. He drank a beer and I drank a margarita. We forgot to take and outdoor picture, so we took an indoor one instead.

He grilled us burgers for dinner and we ate while watching our normal shows- Colbert and Seinfeld.

I went to bed really early because I was feeling a lot of pressure and some weird soreness in my butt/upper thigh, groin area. I think it was because I had my period. It was very uncomfortable!

Luckily the pain was gone when I woke up the next morning and I did something I hadn't done in a really long time... I lifted at Planet Fitness! I was pleased to see I have gotten stronger since the last time I was there.

Then we went out to get Paul some running shoes. He is starting to walk/run so he needed proper footwear. He chose the Brooks Adrenaline.

That evening, I started a 1,000 piece puzzle I got at the thrift store. This one took over three hours to sort but putting it together was really fun!

When I woke up, I could immediately tell I was sore from my workout the day before! Luckily my legs felt fine, so I went for a cold and windy 7 miler. February weather was back in full force.

That afternoon, we took Ellie and Clementine to Wildwood to walk and go to the nature center. We did not spend much time outside because we were all freezing. But we did have fun doing crafts and reading books in the warm nature center!

I got a couple compliments on my hat!

I had fun with our nieces, but was glad for some quiet, puzzle time when I got home!

A whole Weekend Wrap Up without kitty pics!? Let's remedy that!

Tell me something fun you did this weekend!
Do you have dinner watching shows?

No one calls me Meg!

My friend Ana wrote a really interesting post the other day all about her name. You should check it out! It prompted me to think about my name and tell you a little bit about it...

This may seem weird to tell you... but no one actually calls me Meg except my MIL. I don't even know why she started calling me Meg, but she does. (I don't care that she calls me Meg, for the record!)

Obviously my blog friends (many of whom I consider "real life friends!) call me Meg because they know me through my blog.

99.9999% of people call me Megan...

... except for Paul! I actually don't like when he calls me Megan. It sounds weird. Normally he calls me Baber or Doodlez. I don't know when we came up with "Doodlez", but that's what we call each other!

If he actually calls me Megan, then I know he is PISSED.

My middle name is Hillary. My mom got the name from a soap opera she used to watch. I never really thought much of my middle name growing up other than it's not a "normal" middle name... I always thought of middle names as things like Elizabeth, Marie, etc...

Obviously now I LOVE that my middle name is Hillary!

Where did your name come from?
What are your nicknames?
Tell me your middle name!

Weekly Workouts

I have either been resting or just going through the motions of my workouts for the past 2 weeks. Being sick really affected me physically and mentally. But FINALLY on Thursday I felt like I was BACK!

I ran 34 miles this week and hiked 7.4.

Saturday- 10 miles in Millersburg. I was very tired and not feeling that great, but I wanted to take advantage of the beautiful spring like weather. I ran up and down a mountain.

Sunday- Hiking 7.4 miles @ Swatara State Park w/ Paul. More spring like weather! Hiking/walking really takes it out of me! I was exhausted after this beautiful hike.

Monday- 6 neighborhood miles before work... in SHORTS! It looks like this whole week is going to be nice.

Tuesday- Light upper body lifting @ home. My lifting really suffered last week due to being sick. I didn't want to jump back in with heavy weights so I did a combo of back/chest/shoulder stuff, dropped the weights and added some reps.

Wednesday- 6 miles. This run felt a little creaky. You know what I mean by creaky!?

Thursday- 6 WONDERFUL MILES. This run felt GREAT! It was my first awesome run in like two weeks. Being sick suuuuucked the life and love of running out of me!

Friday- 6 miles. I ventured over to a business park I sometimes run in on the weekends. Normally I don't go over there before work because it's dark but now it's light in the morning for most of my runs! It was a shorts and short sleeve shirt kind of morning!

How were your workouts this week?
Anyone in the North running in shorts?

Friday 5 - CRAZY DREAMS!

Before we get started, I wanted to tell you to pop over to Kristina Running because she interviewed me about qualifying for Boston and she is posting my answers today! Note: I AM NOT AN EXPERT!!!! I did qualify for Boston twice but I don't really feel qualified to give too much advice about it. At any rate, check it out anyway. Kristina is my friend and I love her blog! And if you like my blog, you will probably like her's too. Running + Cats = A GOOD TIME!

Hey all! I am linking up with Running on Happy and Fairytales and Fitness for Friday 5 2.0!

I had a hard time figuring out what to share with you this Friday, mainly because it was a very up and down week for me. Some great things happened and some bad things happened. But I'm having trouble focusing on the positive!

So instead of telling you about my week in general, I'm going to share with you some of the CRAZY dreams I had! It seems like every night I had very vivid dreams that I actually remembered.

Are you read to dive into my sick brain? Of course you are. Why else would you come to Meg Go Run!?

1. I dreamed Anderson Cooper was giving me recorder lessons. The lessons only cost $4. What a bargain!

Ummm... of course you can teach me to play the recorder!

2. I dreamed I met Hillary Clinton. She was VERY tall, as if she was on stilts, and she wore a trench coat. Since I already planned what I would say to Hillary Clinton if I ever met her in "real life" (who knows, maybe I will run across her in the woods someday!?), I knew exactly what to say to her in my dream. She smiled but didn't say anything back.

3. I dreamed our friend Bob sneaked into our house while we were sleeping. He redecorated our front room, which I call our music room. He got us new furniture and everything. When we woke up and saw what Bob did, we told him we didn't like his decorating. Bob stormed out because he was mad at our reaction to his hard work.

That's Bob on the right.

4. I dreamed I witnessed an airplane crash. I was walking on a street near the house I grew up in and I saw a plane going in for a landing at a nearby airport. (There isn't actually an airport in my hometown.) The plane landed but skidded off the runway and burst into flames. Suddenly, people from the plane were falling out of the sky all around me. They had blood coming out of their nose, ears, and mouth. I kept trying to comfort them but they all looked like they were in a lot of pain and couldn't talk. I had this dream two nights after I booked our flights for California. Just BOOKING the freaking flights gave me nightmares!

5. I dreamed we moved back to my old apartment. I remember instantly feeling really sad in the dream. Paul and I love our house. I never ever want to move. In my dream, I remember thinking, "Why did we move!!??" and I had a horrible feeling in my stomach. Even if someone gave us a really, really, REALLY nice house, I don't think I would want to move. I would miss this house too much...

Oh, that's not the end of the dream! I had a housewarming party for my "new" place and some of my coworkers came. My friend Peggy was sitting on our sectional sofa and I apologized to her because it smelled like cat pee.

That's not the end of my dream either. Suddenly, my dream CHANGED. I was laying on my belly on a stability ball on Route 11/15 in front of the Camp Hill Mall. I was at a red light. When it turned green, I slid down the wet streets on my stability ball, kind of like it was on a water slide. I slid fast past the mall... 

Suddenly, in the middle of the road were the administrators from my school district. They had silk flags (like in a marching band) and were doing a routine for me as I slid by. "How nice!" I thought. Then, I slid off the exit to get to my house, and the same coworkers that were at my housewarming party (including Peggy) had silk flags and were doing their very own routine for me.

Boy did I feel special that so many people from my school district decided to perform for me as I slide down 11/15 on my stability ball!

HAPPY FRIDAY, FRIENDS!!!!!!!!!!!

This was my hair when I woke up Thursday morning:

BWAHAHAHAA!

Tell me about one of your crazy dreams!

Do you dream about plane crashes?

Would you move if someone gave you a house a lot bigger and nicer than the one you live in now?

Did you ever have a dream you would never ever tell a SOUL? I have!

We planned our summer vaycay!

We planned our summer vay cay! Flights are booked. Hotels are booked. Cat sitter is booked. Race entry is paid (YES THAT'S RIGHT I'M RUNNING A RACE ON OUR VACATION!). The only thing I have to do yet is reserve our rental car, and as soon as the Alamo website is done being wonky, I will get right on that!

The short story is we are visiting Northern California to see the Redwoods! We'll be in Arcata for a night and Garberville for a night. Then we will drive down the famous Route 1 to Stinson Beach and stay there for three nights.

We have visited Stinson Beach before and figured it would be the best place to hunker down as it is close to some awesome trails, the cute town of Sausalito, Muir Woods, Mt. Tamalpais, and of course, San Francisco.

I will be running the Table Rock Trail Race 30k which takes you through Muir Woods and down one of the most beautiful trails I have even been on- the Dipsea Trail. I ran on this trail for a couple miles when Paul and I took a trip to San Francisco several years ago. I remember running up the trail, turning around, and seeing the Pacific Ocean behind me. It was MAGICAL and I'm so glad we get to go back and spend more than just a couple hours there.

Eventually, I'll write more about the race, why I chose it, and why I'm not “racing” it. Of course I will also give you lots more info about what we have planned a far as our itinerary. It will include a lot of driving, a lot of hiking, and not a lot of sleep! I will hopefully get to meet up with Rachel for a run while we are in Arcata. I'm always jealous of how beautiful it is where Rachel runs... well now I get to run there too!

I already miss the kitties...

Here are some pics from our first CA trip!

Biking across the Golden Gate Bridge

That was not a moving trolley.

Hiking just outside Muir Woods. I think I will be running this trail at the race!

One of the most gorgeous drives, though I am not sure it's as good as CO!

Maybe it is, it's just apples and oranges!

Have you ever been to NoCal?

Any suggestions on “Must dos” while we are there?

Do you have summer vacation plans yet?

The Websites I Visit Most

Last week, Kristina wrote a fun post about the websites she visits most. I was really excited to read about that, mostly because I am a very nosy person in regards to the personal lives of bloggers I follow. (Sorry if you find that creepy but it's the TRUTH!)

Kristina's post inspired me to do one in a very similar style! Here I will list the websites I go to every day as well as some that I visit a couple times a week.

~ Websites I Visit Every Day ~

1. Meg Go Run. Since I post every day and like to respond to all comments, I log into Meg Go Run a couple times a day. Meranda told me blogging would be so much easier once I had a smartphone, and she was correct! While I'd never dream of writing a whole post on my phone, I do comment via my phone.

2. Other Blogs! If you ever wondered what blogs I read regularly, check out my blog roll! I recently updated it because I realized it was a little outdated.

3. Facebook. Facebook is a great place for me to keep updated on the news. I follow The Washington Post, The New York Times, CNN, and NPR. I currently have 90% of my Facebook friends hidden just because it was getting to be too much “noise”. I was at the point where I either was going to quit Facebook or just hide a lot of people...

4. Solving JonBenet. This is my favorite JonBenet blog to read, and it's basically for the comments. It's more like a forum these days than a blog. While I don't agree with the host's theory of who killed JonBenet (he thinks it was her father with no help in the crime OR cover up from the mother), I do like to read all the discussions in the comments. I have only commented on the blog a couple times but I want to comment more because I have finally solidified some of my opinions on the case! Some of the comments and the host can be very condescending to those who don't agree with their theory, which I find annoying. But it's like a train wreck and I can't look away! This is what I read before I go to bed at night!

~ Websites I Visit A Couple Times A Week ~

1. Internet Movie Database. I like to check out the discussion forums for The View, Survivor, and Big Brother. Unfortunately, on February 20^th, imdb disabled all of their message boards! I have been a member there for fourteen years, so it truly is the end of an era...

2. Google. Does Google even count? I am always asking Google stuff! Mostly I ask how old people are or if they are married. And by people, I mean my favorite hosts and political correspondents on CNN. Do you have favorite correspondents? I love...

 

Jim Acosta              David Axelrod

  

David Gergen         Gloria Borger

 

Jim Sciutto

Kirsten Powers

3. Amazon. We buy a lot of every day things on Amazon because we have Prime and it's so easy! I recently got a 10 pack of cat treats for the kitties. Now I don't have to buy cat treats for like a year!

What websites do you visit daily or weekly?

Do you have favorite news hosts/correspondents?

Utah Valley Marathon & Half Marathon (GIVEAWAY!)

Last week, the Utah Valley Marathon reached out to me and offered me a couple free race entries and discount codes for my lucky readers!

Utah is definitely on me and Paul's “to visit” list, but we already made summer vacation plans. But my loss is your gain! Hopefully you can take advantage of one of the free race entries or discount codes!

**Note: I do get a very small kickback if you use the discount code, but that is not my motivation for sharing this deal with you. I am just hoping that there are people who plan to run this race that can get one of the free entries or a bit of a discount**

As I searched the race website, I realized this race has something for everyone! Not only is there a marathon distance, but also a half and 10k.

The race starts in Provo Canyon. Google Image Provo Canyon. I dare you! It's just an hour from Salt Lake City.

The Utah Valley Marathon was named a TOP 10 race in America by Runner’s World Magazine in 2014. Because this is the 10 year anniversary, they are giving out a nice race jacket instead of a shirt. The course is a super fast downhill, which could be perfect for a BQ. And if you're into bling, the race medals are very large.

Since I am not techno savvy at all, this is how I will do the giveaway... The first TWO people to comment on THIS POST who express interest in the free entry will receive one free entry. I will simply email you the code.

As for the 15%, I am able to give that code to all of my readers! When registering, use the code MGR15 for 15% off!

Don't forget to comment if you want one of the free entries!

Also, feel free to share this info with anyone you know who lives in Utah and may want to run this race!

Have you ever been to Utah?

Are you running Utah Valley?

Weekend Wrap Up!

Happy Monday!

Here's what we were up to this weekend...

I woke up Friday morning not feeling too much worse than the day before. I decided to go for a 6 miler. While my legs felt fresh from several days of rest, my motor was just so lethargic. I finished my run feeling completely exhausted, although my legs felt like they could keep going. It was a weird feeling.

It was tough to make it through the school day, but I did it. I warned every class that "I look angry, but I'm not angry, I'm just tired." It's always nice to get some sympathy. For the record, I find 2-3^rd graders the most sympathetic. K and 1^st grade are still very just into themselves.

I wore some jewelry my SIL designed for me. I'm an elementary school teacher, so it is completely acceptable for me to wear earrings and a necklace with my cats' pictures on them. 

Since we're trying to save money for vacation and I was so tired, we decided to stay in on Friday night. I went to bed early...

... and slept for a grand total of 13 hours! I was sick of being sick and decided I would have a great day no matter what.

Look at my boy!

I drove to my hometown and did a 10 miler which included going up and down a mountain. I was so tired.

Then I went back to my parents house and hung out with my family. It was Grandma Michael's birthday and she was 88 years young!

Ellie and Grandma had Snap Chat time...

On my way home, I stopped by my Grandma & Pappy's house to visit them. We had a nice chat!

I was feeling so tired and crappy. When I got home, I chatted with Paul, ate dinner, wrote a blog post, and went to bed. I had a fever again...

Despite 11 hours of sleep, I woke up tired. Paul and I decided we'd still do what we had planned- have breakfast at Funck's Diner and then hike at Swatara State Park.

 Carbing up on French toast and bacon!

The hike was beautiful. We even ran a little bit at the end. Our total mileage came to 7.4 miles. We were so tired!

Dinner was a hot dog, bbq chips, corn, and a piece of chicken. Yum!

I did a puzzle while we watched Seinfeld.

Then I went to bed early. I haven't been able to stay up for longer than 12 hours at a time this weekend. Do I have the flu!?

Tell me something fun you did this weekend!