wedding

Hello 2015 [& training season]

Miscellaneous

Well the holidays came and went. December was filled with bridal events for my best friend’s wedding, endless Christmas parties and an awesome New Year’s Eve Celebration to top off the year.

The fiancé got me a Garmin Forerunner 15 for Christmas and I was thrilled! I’ve used it a couple of times and let me tell you how much I love it! It is SO much easier to just glance down at your wrist to check your distance rather than fumble around with an app on your phone (and your armband).

forerunner

The end of one year and the start of another always means looking back at the year you’ve had and what you hope to accomplish in the next.

I did 16 races in 2014, adding up to 142.8 miles. I know those numbers don’t mean much to non-runners, but to those who understand what it’s like to look back and remember every mile, every early morning, every sore aching body part – you know the feeling of accomplishment and also the feeling of wanting to crush that number in the next year ahead of you.

Races-2014Looking back on 2014 my favorite race is a tie between the Akron Marathon (if you know anything about me you know I LOVE this race) and my first triathlon at West Branch State Park. The triathlon stands out to me because it was a goal of mine and I was petrified beyond belief to do the swim. I had no idea what I was doing. In fact, I still know very little about triathlons in general, but that’s what made the race so special to me. I went after something that scared the living daylights out of me and came out afterwards with a smile on my face. That’s living.

This past weekend was the Lifetime Indoor Tri. This was my second time doing the race so I kind of knew what to expect. I did so much better than I did last year, which makes me hopeful for the race season. I was not in very good shape either considering I haven’t swam since September.

Indoor-TriThis week marked the first week back to training since the holidays. I’ve got a big race schedule coming up and my training decreased in December (like it always does) with the holidays, parties and the wedding. It’s time to stay focused and become dedicated again, which makes me excited because half the fun of racing is training.

Here’s an overview of my 2015 races:

Jan-March – Training and finding another indoor tri to compete in
April 12 – 20 Mile Drop
May 3 – Fly Pig Half Marathon
May 31 – Twinsburg Duathlon
June 7 – West Branch Triathlon (sprint)
June 10 (tentative date) – Mentor Flag Day 5K
July 12 – Johnny Cake Jog (5 miler)
July 19 – Fairport Harbor Triathlon (sprint)
July 26 – Cleveland Triathlon (aiming for the Olympic distance)
August 23 (tentative date) – Shaker Heights Biathlon
September – Akron Marathon
Oct/Nov – I’d like to find a fall half marathon that isn’t too cold!

The weather in Cleveland has been cold and miserable, so unfortunately a lot of my training will have to be done indoors. Luckily I got a spin bike on Black Friday which is super handy on cold, winter mornings in Northeast Ohio, plus in training for the Olympic distance in July.

bikeI’ve also held myself to two of my resolutions for 2015 so far – join Northeast Running Club and The Cleveland Triathlon Club. Done and done. I’m looking forward to group training sessions come spring!

For now I need to focus on hitting all my training goals and working on my diet. Because eating cookies and drinking wine every day is only acceptable behavior in December 😉

I’m looking forward to 2015, especially because I get to marry my favorite person in the entire world in August!

Happy New Year!

NYE-Kiss

Prequel to the Wedding – Our Engagement Party

Wedding

This weekend was the first weekend in three weeks that I didn’t have a race planned. It was weird not to be racing on the weekend, but that doesn’t mean I was sitting around relaxing! Instead we threw our annual wine tasting party on Saturday night and added our engagement party onto it. We had around 30 people show up to toast to us and enjoy the good food and wine.


wine-decor
Of course I had to add my touch of Pinterest inspiration to the party décor.

We had cut-outs of the bridal parties faces, which were a hit.
We had cut-outs of the bridal party, which were a hit.
The date is set!
The date is set!

these-2-kids
Now the fiancé and I are having two maids of honor and two best men in the wedding. One of the maids of honor and one of the best men live out of state, while the other two basically live right down the road from us. To our incredible surprise the two that lived out of state both flew up to Ohio for the party! We were absolutely thrilled and so grateful that both of them would do that for us – and it wasn’t even planned between them! After that initial surprise, we spent the rest of the evening drinking (a lot) of wine. When the house party died down around 10PM, we took the party to downtown Cleveland where we hung out at Shooters in the flats. I’ve never been there before, but it was packed shoulder to shoulder and a lot of fun. Plus the weather was gorgeous. After more wine at the bar, we finally made it home around 3:30AM. The entire night was spent laughing and reminiscing about everything that had happened to us in the past 20 years. It felt like old times.  It was so wonderful and we’re so glad that the bridal party had a chance to meet and start joking around with one another.

If our engagement party is any indication of the fun and celebration that is to come for our actual wedding then we are in for quite a night! What a blast!

Acting super adult-like and grown up.
Acting super adult-like and grown up
The maids with our moms minus 2
The bridesmaids with our moms [minus 2]

The One Where We Got Engaged.

Wedding

Yep! It happened. Even as I write this  I still don’t think it has officially sunk in yet. I feel so grown up when I look down at my ring — then I laugh because I know it’s me and I feel like I’m the farthest thing from being grown up. I’ve drank more champagne these past two days then I have in my entire life, but I’m not complaining.

Lots Of Champagne!
Lots Of Champagne!

Let’s rewind a little. The boyfriend — or excuse me — the fiance (weird) popped the question on Christmas Eve. This was pretty brave considering it was in front of 20+ family members all in town for the holidays. It was perfect though and exactly what I wanted. I remember being six years old and seeing my uncle propose to my aunt in front of all of us and I always liked that. I also always wanted to say “I got a diamond for Christmas” so this was one of the main reasons for the Christmas time engagement.

Apparently everyone knew about the proposal except for me. When I walked into my Grandma’s house that night (which was the scene of the crime), my uncle told me “We’re going to have a toast to the December birthdays tonight since we tend to get overlooked this time of year.” (My birthday was the 16th, his the 23rd.)

OK I thought, I’m all for a champagne toast so count me in!

After dinner, by uncle started rounding everyone up in front of the Christmas tree for this “toast”. I sat on the couch with one of my little cousins in my lap. My uncle toasted to the December birthdays, made a few quick jokes and then rather weirdly at the end asked “Does anyone else have anything they’d like to add?” Right then the boyfriend (at the time) came walking around from behind me and said “I’d like to add something…” As I turned to face him I saw him pull out a little box and then get down on one knee right in front of me.  By this time everyone in the room was cheering loudly. I heard him say “Will you marry me?” as everyone screamed and whistled all around us. By the time I got a good look at the ring, I had tears in my eyes and was sweating from having so many eyes on me.  I was nervous and shaking! I guess I didn’t say anything at first (I don’t really remember) and later on in the video you can hear my mom scream “SHE SAID YES!” for me since apparently I wasn’t  able to speak for myself at the moment! He put the ring on my finger and I remember flipping out since I’d obviously never seen it before. Then I jumped up and hugged and kissed him while everyone continued to cheer.  It was absolutely perfect.

Proposal play-by-pay.
Proposal play-by-pay.

After that came tons of hugs and well wishes from aunts and uncles and grandparents. A tribe of little cousins admired my ring while hanging from my arm asking “What will your new last name be?”. The fiance and I snuck a kiss or two while we hugged and cheers’ed everybody. One of my brothers gave us a bottle of champagne (since of course he was in on it too). Then I called and sent out pictures to all my best friends. The fiance sent out a text to his friends and family that said “The deed is done”.

It was absolutely perfect — the proposal, the family setting, the ring, the celebration. I am stunned. I’m not sure how much happier I can get! My fiance and I are on cloud nine and absolutely thrilled. The ring has a diamond in it that has been in my family for over 200 years. The diamond itself is part of an original set of  earrings that was worn in the 1800s. My middle name is Beatrice, which was my Great Grandmother’s name. The diamond was worn by Beatrice herself, but at that time it was still a pair of earrings. The diamond is one of the earrings and has now been reset into a beautiful platinum silver band. Just knowing that this diamond has been in the hands of so many great relative females is so special to me. (I hope I do them proud!)

Now everyone is asking us when the wedding is going to be. Pre-engagement we had talked about it being summer of 2015 and that’s still the plan. No official date yet, but we have plenty of time for planning. Right now we are just trying to live in the moment and celebrate this time in our lives. On Christmas Day the fiance and I were alone in the kitchen refilling some champagne glasses (of course). One of my brothers walked in as the fiance and I kissed between sipping our drinks.  “HEY!” My brother said to us as we looked up from kissing. “It’s not like you two have anything to celebrate or be happy about right!?” We all laughed and the fiance and I both took a sip while we grinned from ear to ear at each other…

Here’s to the best Christmas ever.

Engaged!
Engaged!