New York, New York

I don't really talk about work here on the blog because I'm fairly certain it would bore you all to tears. But apparently this has led a lot of you to think that all we do is travel the world and never go to work. Ha! I wish :) Unfortunately we still have not won the lottery and we are not aware of any trust funds (dare to dream!), so we most definitely have to work to be able to vacation the way we do! And we actually do quite a bit of traveling for work as well - which is how we are able to earn all the Delta Skymiles and Marriott points we need to be able to go on said vacations. Bo is still steadily traveling for his clients, and my work travel has especially picked up over the past six months since the company I work for recently bought the New York Stock Exchange (it still sounds crazy to say that!). I've gone up to New York City several times now and have certainly made the most of it.

My favorite part of being in the big apple was getting to see these ladies!!

When it was finally warm enough outside, Megan and I went for a run on a trail near my hotel that goes right along the Hudson and up to her neighborhood. It's now my regular route whenever I'm up there.

After our run, Megan took me through her neighborhood and we stopped by her apartment. West Village is such a cute area, and of course we had to stop by Magnolia Bakery and get a little dessert before dinner!

Thankfully I also have some really great co-workers to hang out with when we travel, so we did some exploring of our own. The Yankees were in town one week so the auditors took us all to a game one night - it sure is nice to be on the other side of that now! :)  And I will admit we accidentally caught ourselves cheering for the Yankees when one guy hit a homerun. Oops, sorry Braves. The new stadium was pretty nice, though I never went to the old one. Hoping to make it to a Mets game during a future trip, I've heard their stadium is even nicer.

Another night we had dinner at Bobby Van's, which is in the old JP Morgan antique bank vaults. The dining room is lined with bronze deposit boxes and we even got to open up the big vault which was so massive and heavy that it took 2-3 of us just to open the door.

Bobby Van's is right across the street from our office, and it is so pretty all lit up at night!

The office is actually a really old building and we're working on some major renovations - with the exception of the executive floor. The board room is enormous! I was in complete awe.  The ceiling is stained glass, all the trim is real gold, and the clock behind me in the picture below is over 200 years old. I've never seen another board room that comes close in comparison.

A few times I've been able to go down to the trading floor to watch the opening bell. There is a lot of energy on the floor - especially watching Cramer live - though I'm sure it's nothing like it was back in the day, since so much is electronic now. The most exciting day I've seen so far was when the owners and jockey for California Chrome rang the bell in honor of the Belmont Stakes the following weekend. They were all so excited! Sadly they ended up losing the Belmont, so no triple crown - better luck next year.

It sounds a lot more glamorous than it really is, but working on NYSE has definitely been one of the more exciting (and challenging) projects at work lately. I'll be going back next month so those of you in New York City, let me know if you want to hang out!! :)

Under 30, Before 30

For the past year and a half or so, I've been running one race a month. My main objective was to simply stay in shape and to challenge myself to improve on both distance and speed. I ran three longer races in the past year - the St. Pete Women's Half Marathon, the Peachtree Road Race (10k), and the Atlanta Marathon 10 Miler. The rest of my races have been 5k's, so about a year ago (after the half marathon), I set some goals for myself to get faster - first to get back to a 10-minute-mile pace, and then to run a 5k in under 30 minutes, before I turn 30 (which is exactly 30 days from today!).

I have a good group of friends here in Atlanta who have been running with me on and off during that time. It has been a great way to hold each other accountable, which is extremely motivating on days when I really don't want to run. It has also made it much more social and enjoyable when we have a delicious brunch planned after each race. We all run at a different pace, so even though we start together, we run by ourselves and meet up at the finish line.

That is, until a few months ago when Adrienne, one of my old college running buddies, moved to Atlanta. She and I started running together regularly again and I was back to my old pace pretty quickly. After our 10 miler where we nailed exactly a 10 minute mile, I knew if I trained a little bit harder I could reach my second goal. Adrienne unfortunately had really bad shin splints so I was back to running by myself. I mainly worked on speed, with interval training. I only found one race in Atlanta that fit my schedule, but it's not until January which was cutting it pretty close to my 30th birthday. So I convinced my mom and Leslie to run a Turkey Trot with me on Thanksgiving Day and I'm proud to say I achieved my goal - under 30, before 30! I officially finished the race in 26:32 which is drastically faster than my usual time. It was a great race and I was so excited!

It was freezing cold that morning, Leslie and I were a weeee bit hungover, and I was pretty sure she and my mom were going to kill me for making them run this race. But in the end it was probably the best race I ever could have picked to meet my goal, and we all really enjoyed it. So much so that we might make it a new tradition whenever we are in town for Thanksgiving.

Now there are a few caveats - I've been training in Atlanta's humidity and hills, so it played in my favor BIG time to run a race in Florida in late November when there was a lovely ocean breeze, no humidity, and definitely no hills ;) After the incredibly hilly 10 miler I ran the month before, it was a nice relief when a spectator warned me about the "hill" up ahead, which was a meager speed bump :)  The other caveat is that it was only a 3 mile race, so it wasn't technically a 5k. But I am totally counting it. So thank you to all of my running buddies for helping me get there!! Looking forward to another year of racing ahead of us!

Fall Festivities

In the midst of all the gator games we attended, we still kept ourselves pretty busy during the little time we spent here in Atlanta this fall. The weather usually makes this the prettiest season but it was actually pretty miserable when we were here, either rainy or cold or both. Not that it held us back at all - you know we can't sit still for very long anyway.

First up, the Decatur Craft Beer Festival - our favorite! Lots of beer and lots of friends, it was such a great day. The setup was a little better this year, though some of the beers we most looked forward to were not there. Plus, the rain. Better luck next year.

sporting our gator gear during the Missouri loss...

The very next day we went to the Stone Mountain Highland Games with Josh's family and a few more friends each year. A full day of beer followed by a full day of scotch required a full week of recovery...

Bo's tent!

The weekend after that, I ran the Atlanta 10 Miler road race with Adrienne and Katie. We had been training for a few months and did better than expected considering there were TEN hills - one every mile! Good thing we didn't know that in advance or we might have psyched ourselves out. Katie is a little faster than us, so Adrienne and I ran the whole thing together, just like we did for our first half marathon (also here in Atlanta) back in 2007. And we even ran about the same pace as back then, finishing in 1:41 (pace of almost exactly a 10 minute mile, which was our goal). We considered it a total success! And then we rewarded ourselves with brunch and drinks at Carroll Street Cafe and a foot massage at Treat Your Feet - highly recommend both of these! Stole a few of these pics from the website...oops

it was freeeezing that morning!

we did it!!

Love having my running buddy back :)

And last but not least, Halloween! We carved our pumpkins a few days in advance while roasting pumpkin seeds and watching not-so scary movies (I am such a wuss). The puppies were not-so good little helpers.

check out Molly's crazy eyes. going in for the kill while both parents are occupied

guess whose is whose?!

And on that note, I'm off to start decorating for Christmas! Hopefully I'll get through all my Thanksgiving pics sooner rather than later since I've already lapped myself in holidays ;) 

13.1

Five years ago, Adrienne and I ran our first half marathon - and what I thought was surely my last. After that race, I was miserable and sore and never wanted to run again, much less run another half marathon! In my mind, it was a one-and-done deal, checked off the life bucket list never to be repeated. I think it took me close to a year before I really got back into running again, but only enough to maintain my weight (aka justify eating and drinking!).

Fast forward to last fall, when my foot started killing me and I had to stop running entirely. I eventually had surgery, earlier this year back in January. I think being forced to sit inside and be as inactive as I could, made me want to get back out there as soon as possible. One of my best friends, Kelly, ran the Disney half marathon about a week after my surgery and I was actually jealous of her. Crazy! Once I had my doctor's clearance, I started signing up for 5k races and eventually Kelly talked me, Dani, Susan, and Amy into running a half marathon together.

After months of training and virtually cheering each other on, it was finally race weekend! We got into Tampa Friday night and stayed up way too late catching up with each other. Saturday was a pretty low-key day making our way over to St. Pete, and taking it easy before the race on Sunday. We all joked that it was the longest period of time we've hung out with each other and not had a drink ;)

lunch in Tampa with Corie & Ashley

Our team, the Hootie Hoo Half Marathoners - Dani, Susan, me, Kelly, and Amy. Carb-loading dinner Saturday night!

all ready for the race - Gator themed, obviously! :)

Sunday morning we got up bright and early for the St. Pete Women's Half Marathon. We had great weather - sunny and overcast but not hot, although a little less windy would have been nice. It was an extremely flat course which was such a nice change from the hills in Atlanta.

before the race!

Amy and I ran the whole thing together! Well, almost the whole thing - I was fighting a bad sinus infection, which made it pretty difficult to breathe. Kinda important when you're running ;)  I made it up until the last few miles when I literally couldn't get any air into my lungs and stopped to walk a few times. Amy was such a trooper - she definitely could have left me in the dust, but she stayed with me and there is no way I would have made it without her!

Amy and I finished in 2:27, which is an 11:13 pace. I was hoping to finish a little faster, but realistically my goal was less than 2:30 - which we just barely beat. At that point, I was just glad to cross the finish line alive.  It was worth it, the medals we got are awesome!

We all finished within a few minutes of each other. Loved seeing these lovely ladies at the finish line! So proud of us!!

finishers!!

after!

My favorite part about running is definitely the post-race celebratory drinks :) 

cheers!!

Thankfully, my recovery after the race was a million times better than the last one. So much so, that we are already thinking about running another half together sometime next year. Who wants to join us?!