Happy Valentine's Day to me...

I've never been a fan of Valentine's Day, really....at least not for the past seven.  But yesterday wasn't all that bad, I suppose, as far as my history of Valentine's Days in recent years go.  I was supposed to run three miles, but that didn't happen....instead, Emilee and I got much-needed (at least for me) and much-deserved (at least we think so!) pedicures.  I went with my signature color of late, OPI's "William Tell Me About OPI", which you'll see here in a little bit.

After our pedicures, I had somewhere to be (NOT Valentine's Day-related, mind you), and didn't get home until late.  But when I did, look what had arrived in the mail - Happy Valentine's Day to me! (I bet you can't tell I like pink :-) )

These are the items I had ordered off of Road ID that I mentioned in my February 9th post.  If you look closely at my ID bracelet, you may be able to see the last line has one of my "mottos", which is also the title of this blog - Rise Up and Run.  Along with my order, I received a coupon code I can pass along which is good for up to 20 (or some ridiculous number like that) uses.  The coupon is good for $1 off any Road ID order placed by 03/13/2011.  If you'd like to use it (and please do take advantage of it), the coupon number is: ThanksJulie4193882 -at the on-line checkout there is a place you can enter it.

Tonight I used all of my new products on my chilly night run in the dark.  I'm pretty sure the Firefly Supernova can be spotted from FAR, FAR away because cars gave me quite a wide berth.  My house key fit nicely in my new shoe pouch, and I'm looking forward to keeping my hotel room card in it while running 26.2 miles in San Diego (although in reality I'm sure there will be a bag drop there so I probably won't actually keep my room card in it, but you never know....it is too small to fit my BB in, though.  Oh well.). 

I had a pretty good 4 mile run.  I actually ran it at one of my fastest paces lately - 10:14min/mi (despite having to stop and tie my right shoe THREE TIMES, with gloves on, no less).  I contribute that to the playlist I was listening to - the BEPs (Black-Eyed Peas) "Imma Be" always makes me run faster :-) ....at least I was listening to some good music for running until my iPod battery ran out around mile 3 because it has been getting quite the workout lately as well, and I forgot to charge it.  Here is tonight's run from MapMyRun, which I still think is pretty cool and I'm a little too obsessed with it, I think.  I ran in an area that is a bit special to me, and at one point I just enjoyed the cool night air and looked up at the winter night sky and saw the constellation Orion, especially his belt (I couldn't see all of him through the trees), and as I was running looking up into the sky, an airplane flew right through his belt, leaving its trail behind it...remined me of another song on my running playlist - "Airplanes" by B.o.B. feat. Hayley Williams (which is actually the song that was playing when my iPod battery ran out - coincidence?)..."can we pretend that airplanes in the night sky are like shooting stars 'cause I could really use a wish right now"...

So, here is one of my exciting revelations that I mentioned in a previous post - well, at least I think it is exciting.  The last couple of years or so I've wanted a tattoo, and particularly on my foot...I won't go into details as to why I haven't gotten one until now, but, three and a half weeks ago on January 20th, I finally did.  The saying is very personal to me...in more ways than one.  Please do not judge it, or me, unless you know the entire story and reasons behind it (and few do)...and even then, this story is not complete.  However, I will share that it partly does have to do with running, obviously.  In October 2009 while reading Redbook, I saw an ad for the annual Disney Princess Half-Marathon to be held in March 2010; when I mentioned that a dream of mine was to run that race, I was told that I "couldn't even run a 5K"....well, guess what?  I have since run THREE 5K's and a mini-tri (sort of), and am on my way to running another 5K, a half-marathon, and a full marathon within the next four months...and I'm not going to stop there - my next feat will either be a full triathalon or a trail run of some sort.  I may get "26.2" and "6.5.11" (the date of the Rock-n-Roll San Diego marathon) added to the "wisps" after I complete my first marathon.  You can also see my Valentine's Day pedicure in this picture...and my dark polish for this "dark time in my life", as I was once told :-)

And, my post wouldn't be complete without thanking Malinda for her on-line contribution to my LLS Team in Training fundraising efforts - which was actually her second donation as she first donated while I was training for the Disney Marathon with TNT this past fall.  Malinda is a TNT alumnus (and Disney Princess Half-Marathon completer) herself!  As always, thank you all for considering joining with me in support of the works of The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.