November was a pretty low-producing month when it came to reading (as has been my life all semester if we're being honest), but the good news is that I still read more books than I acquired, which is the overall goal! I know I had been thinking about trying to get into the double digits for my TBR by the end of this year, but unless I go on a TEAR during the month of December, that's not going to happen. 😂 Ether way I'm proud of the progress I've made this year, and I'm thinking that I'll be making a double-digit TBR a goal of mine for 2022.
I feel like November went by in a blink! Really not surprised with the amount I read, but I am kinda bummed I didn't get through the whole year without a 1-star read. That's right - November was the month I found my first 1-star book of 2021! Hopefully it's the only one I have to read, and the good news is that I was able to find a 5-star book to balance it out a bit! Here's what I read during the month of November:
Disclaimer: I received an entry to the Friendsgiving Virtual Run to review as part of being a BibRave Pro. Learn more about becoming aBibRave Pro (ambassador), and check outBibRave.com to review, find, and write race reviews!
One of my absolute favorite traditions each year is running a Thanksgiving morning Turkey Trot. It's a great way to start a busy day of cooking and visiting family and friends with something small for myself, and a reminder of how thankful I am to be able to run! This year I was presented with the opportunity to run a super fun virtual run for my annual Turkey Trot - the Friendsgiving Virtual Run, themed after one of my favorite comfort shows, Friends!
We all know that the Friends Thanksgiving episodes are second to none, so when the option to run this race presented itself I had to jump on it! The Virtual Run gave you the option to run a 10K, 5K, or 1-Mile distance for your race. I opted to go for a 5K, which felt like the perfect distance to run on Thanksgiving morning. I love when there's multiple distance options for virtual runs, so you can make it work for whichever training program you might be working through!
I was pleasantly surprised at how stinkin' adorable all of the race swag was, and the positive is that every distance got the same swag! For registering, you received an adorable crew neck sweatshirts (I LOVE a crew neck!), a bib, and a finisher's medal with the iconic turkey with sunglasses! Unfortunately, due to supply chain issues, we haven't yet received the finisher's medal. However, the organizers of the virtual run were super apologetic and up front about the situation which I appreciated so much, and we'll get our medals eventually which is fine by me!
I was fortunate enough to have a beautiful day to run my Friendsgiving Virtual 5K, and I was able to bring Snowy with me! We did our normal 5K route and had a wonderful time. I even made a lil TikTok to document the fun!
If you're a big fan of Friends like me, this is a fun way to motivate yourself to get outside and run! There are multiple distances to choose from, and you get awesome swag. I had a great time participating in this run, and would definitely recommend you giving this one a try!
Not as much of a successful month of getting my TBR down in October, mostly due to acquiring my first Book of the Month box in months as well as getting in a preorder that I forgot about 😅 BUT I still read more of my TBR than I added so I think we can call that a win. Now that we're in November I don't think I'll be getting my TBR down to the double digits by the end of the year (unless I somehow have an INSANE two months of reading?), but I think that's a great goal for me to achieve as we head into the winter season. Here are my stats for October!
It's a new month, so it's time for another reading wrap up! October was bonkers with how stinking busy it was, so I'm really surprised with how many books I managed to finish. I actually finished my Magical Readathon TBR (only took me 2 months lol) and I also was able to fit in one more cute-yet-spooky read as well. I hope things will slow down a bit in November as the weather is getting colder. I'm hoping to finish the year strong when it comes to my reading!
Disclaimer: I received an entry to the 2021 IMT Des Moines Marathon to review as part of being a BibRave Pro. Learn more about becoming a BibRave Pro(ambassador), and check outBibRave.comto review find and write race reviews!
If you haven't read my Kansas City Marathon race review yet, do that first! This review will cover Day 2 of the I-35 Challenge at the 2021 IMT Des Moines Marathon!
What a whirlwind of a weekend! I'm currently sitting in the Kansas City Airport about to head home after finishing my FIRST DOUBLE MARATHON WEEKEND. I've been training for the I-35 Challenge since June and this weekend I officially ran and completed both the Kansas City Marathon in Kansas City, Missouri and the Des Moines Marathon in Des Moines, Iowa. Instead of waiting 4 months to post my reviews (lol), I thought I'd get my thoughts down on digital paper before I forget too many details of the experience. I'm going to break up my review of the weekend into two parts, so stay tuned for part 2. For now we'll kick things off with the 2021 Garmin Kansas City Marathon!
Slowly but surely making progress on getting my TBR down! The last two months were not the best for finishing books or finding time to read, but despite that I still managed to read more than I acquired which is what we want to aim for. I unhauled an additional book as well, as the author had recently released a book with some serious biphobic themes throughout. As the book is more of a self-help novel, taking advice from someone who is publishing and profiting off of biophobic rhetoric is not exactly the kind of person I want to be taking advice from if I'm being honest!
Hello, folks! Happy October 😊 I feel like I start every post these days with "it's been a while..." but it certainly has been! The last two months were not great reading wise because they've been oh so busy with work and marathon training. I only managed to finish 9 books in August and September, which is so wild to think that I was reading about that much in one month not too long ago! On the bright side, life feels much more balanced than it has in months past and for that I am so happy. Anywho, here's what I've been reading over the last two months -- lots of 4 star reads so things have been enjoyable, but it's been a while since I've found a 5 star in the wild. I'm craving something fantastic!!!
Y'all.... please forgive me 😅 The Carmel Marathon was literally 4 MONTHS AGO and I still haven't posted (or.. ya know... WRITTEN) my race review.
I KNOW! I'M SORRY! Better late then never I guess?
I'm not really sure what happened there. I could probably give you a list of excuses, but let's just skip that part and dive into the review instead. That's why you're here, right? If you'd like to see a vlog of my experience, I *did* actually post that within a reasonable timeframe and you can find it here or at the bottom of this post (if you don't want to open a new tab 😂).
You may or may not know this, but the Carmel Marathon was a relatively last-minute decision on my end. I was originally supposed to run the Milwaukee Marathon on April 10th but that was cancelled due to COVID. It's been really tough to find marathons that were running in person over the last year and a half (for obvious reasons) and I had been itching to run another 26.2 and continue my quest for 50 marathons in 50 states, so the Milwaukee Marathon announcing its cancellation half way through my training cycle had me quite devastated. (Btw... Milwaukee still has not been officially rescheduled... 👀🤷) So after a search through the internet for a marathon that would be guaranteed to be live AND in a state I had not completed before, I came across the Carmel Marathon in Carmel, Indiana, happening the weekend before I was scheduled to head out to Wisconsin. It was going to be in-person, it was in a state I hadn't run in before, AND it aligned well with the training I was already doing, so I registered, booked my travel, took time off work, and prepped myself to head out to the Hoosier State! ✈️
I have been to Indiana and the Indianapolis area in the past, so I was perfectly okay with this being a business trip. I was still on the quest to running a sub-5 marathon and that was my sole focus on this trip. If I could spend time exploring, great! But all I really wanted was to see the 4 at the beginning of my finish time for the very first time. In my mind this was not primarily intended to be a runcation, so I was perfectly happy to venture to the midwest solo, and the day before the race I did exactly that! Brett dropped me off and I was on my way to Indy.
Indy cars at the airport!
I arrived to Indianapolis in the mid-morning, rented a car, and made my way to Carmel which is about 30 minutes north of the city. I had some time to kill before the expo started so I went and grabbed an early lunch nearby and got my bearings of the area. Carmel is such a cute little city and I absolutely loved walking around with my coffee and taking in the sights of the city center.
I could not get over the fact that there was a Pawnee Road near the city center 👱♀️🐴
The expo was completely outdoors which I really appreciated. At this point in time, COVID vaccines weren't yet that widely accessible and so attending this event was inherently quite risky, so I really appreciate that the organizers of this event were taking steps to make the event as safe as possible, having an outdoor expo being one of those steps. The expo itself was super easy to navigate as it was all on one green space, and a couple dozen vendors, and of course an area to pick up your bib and shirt. My only complaint about the set up of this expo was that all of the booths were facing inward in a circle (that wasn't that large), so everyone who was attending the expo had to all be in the same area in really close proximity. I think it would have made things a bit safer if the booths were facing outward and lines could have spread out a bit more.
After picking up my bib, shirt, and purchasing a souvenir race shirt that had all the participants names on it (so cool!), I headed back to my car. Unfortunately upon arriving to my car I noticed that they gave me a half marathon shirt instead of the full marathon shirt. Luckily I noticed it before I drove to my AirBnB, wasn't that far from the expo, and was able to go right back to the booth to exchange it. They were super kind and apologetic and exchanged it right away for me! I know things get crazy for the volunteers of these events so no harm no foul there, and I appreciate them exchanging the shirt for me!
After the expo I headed back to my AirBnB for the evening as I wanted to get a solid night of rest before the big day. I did a quick 2 mile shakeout run, ordered in some fish tacos, and got to bed relatively early. Traveling solo for these trips does have some perks in the sense that you're 100% on your own schedule, which is nice! All I wanted to do was get my mind right for the morning and get some much needed sleep after a long day of travel. (But of course, not before laying out my #flatrunner!)
2 mile shake out after a long day of travel!
Official flat runner for marathon & state #15!
Race morning came quickly, as it always does. After getting up, getting dressed, and making myself some breakfast to go, I got in the car and headed up to Carmel. I had my usual pre-race butterflies (I swear marathons will never not be scary), and I think I was extra nervous because of my ultimate goal of running sub-5. This would be my third attempt at this goal and I had worked so hard over the last year to improve my running. I know I had grown as a runner during the pandemic, but I really had no idea how that would translate to the race. I was NERVOUS, y'all. When the time approached I headed down to the start area and did a bit of a warm up and stretch before heading to the start line.
Waiting in the start area was another part of the event I was rather uncomfortable. While the race guidelines clearly said to wear masks when waiting for the start, there was a lot of crowding, and not a lot of methods in place to help mitigate that issue. I did my best to stay far away from everyone else, but YIKES. That was nerve-wracking. I know that it's hard to enforce rules on a large crowd, but if you're hosting this event during the pandemic when you know that it's risky, at least put forth more of an effort to spread the runners and spectators out. I was a little disappointed by how the start line operated in terms of COVID safety.
The morning was beautiful (though a little chilly) and it was looking like a perfect day for a long run. Before I knew it we were off and I was running marathon #15!
This race honestly could not have gone any better. The weather was perfect (sunny and cool, some headwinds here and there but nothing too terrible), the course was relatively flat, the support from volunteers and spectators was so great, and I was just feeling so good through the entire run. For the first half of the race I had to really remind myself constantly to sloooooooooow dooooooown. I was aiming to land around 10:30-11:00 paces for the first portion of the race to give myself a little bit of a cushion for the sub-5 for when I was tired in the later miles. However, every time I looked down at my watch I was moving a bit on the fast side. I think I was excited to be racing a marathon for the first time in over a year!
I really enjoyed the course, even though it had the feature of marathon courses that is my least favorite - it loops back to the finish line at the half way mark and marathoners continue on while half marathoners get to finish 😭 I've run several races where this is the course makeup and I'm always so jealous of the half marathoners when I run by 😂 The funny thing about this day is that I was crossing the half way point the person who won the entire marathon was crossing the finish line. The guy was literally twice as fast as me! 😂
Other than that feature, I really enjoyed the course. The first half took you through one part of Carmel and then second half took you through the other side, always meeting in the city center. There was plenty of course support in terms of water stops which I appreciated, although I opted to hydrate with my hydration pack for the majority of the race (COVID and whatnot, y'know). There was also quite a few spectators out and about -- not massive crowds but enough folks to make it feel like we were somewhat back to normal!
The second half of the race is where things began to get challenging (as it does with the marathon). I actually didn't turn on my music until mile 14 which really helped me continue pushing through the later miles. I think the most difficult miles for me during this race were 16-19ish. For whatever reason, I was able to find another burst of energy as I entered into mile 20 and beyond. I think keeping an eye on the time and realizing that with every passing mile I was getting closer and closer to achieving a sub-5! I was actually dancing to my music around miles 21 & 22... fairly certain the other runners around me thought I was nuts 😅
When I got to mile 23 I had the realization that I was so far ahead of my pace that I knew -- barring disaster -- I was going to hit my sub-5 goal. The question was by how much was I going to reach my goal? I still wanted to push to see how much of a PR I could achieve - I didn't want let off the gas! Mile 24 and 25 I was definitely pushing but alternating between walking and running quite a bit (my legs were quite sore at this point). Once you hit the mile 26 marker you have a bit of an uphill then a fast downhill finish and as soon as I turned the corner to go down hill I gave it everything I had across the finish line and...
SUB-5 ACHIEVED 4:39:48!!!!!!
A nearly 25 minute marathon PR and a huge goal that I had been chasing for a year and a half finally achieved. There was 100% some happy tears at the finish line of this race. I had worked so hard to improve my running, and all I could think of was the many months of showing up for myself that went into this. I was reflecting on how I felt at the Newport Marathon in October 2019 when I had that "I'm never feeling like this at a finish line ever again" moment that launched my quest for a sub-5 marathon, and wondering what that version of myself could have said if she saw me in that moment. I was so so so so SO stinking proud of myself in that moment, and it's a feeling I will truly never forget. I am so thankful that I had a race like that, and knowing that my hard work paid off. It was an unreal feeling.
Once I was able to gather myself and find a place to sit nearby the finish line, I called Brett and my parents to share the news (they were all following along on my Garmin LiveTrack and cheering me on via text throughout the race!) and just bask in my accomplishment. I rested my legs for a bit and then treated myself to a lunch of beer and mac n' cheese at a local brewery which honestly hit the spot SO HARD. If you ever to the Carmel Marathon in the future, I definitely recommend giving the Upland Brewing Co. a try at the end of your race! SO DELICIOUS! 🤤🍺
Overall, I had a really wonderful experience at the Carmel Marathon. There were some places that I think they could have improved when it came to COVID safety, but hopefully in future years COVID won't be a factor for them to have to worry about. That aside, the course was beautiful and easy to race, the race staff and volunteers were all so lovely, and the overall experience from expo to finish line was top notch. Oh, and did I mention the medal? Because it is HUGE.
I definitely recommend the Carmel Marathon if you're looking for an Indiana race! I would definitely run this race again if given the opportunity, so definitely check it out when you're planning your race calendar!
Click play below to see my vlog of the entire race experience!
One really great thing that has happened this summer is that I've basically stopped buying books 😂 I'm not sure what it is, but the itch to buy new books just isn't there at the moment. I've skipped the last 3 months of Book of the Month picks which is the most I've ever done since becoming a member. I don't think it's because I'm not interested in the books that they're offering, but maybe it's that I'm just more interested in the books that I have on my shelf at the minute? A MIRACLE! Really the only books that have come in over the last two months are pre-orders or books for my at work book club. I've definitely read WAY MORE than I've purchased, and I'm actually really proud of that. I'm getting close to under 120 books on my TBR and I'm wondering if I can try to challenge myself to get down into the double digits by the end of 2021. That would be INCREDIBLE! I'm not sure if it will be possible (who knows when the book buying bug will return!) but I'd love to try! Anywho, here's my TBR In & Out for June & July 2021:
