“Even when you have gone as far as you can, and everything hurts, and you are staring at the specter of self-doubt, you can find a bit more strength deep inside you, if you look closely enough.” — Hal Higdon

After four years off last fall I decided that I would start running again. I had it in my head that I should do another half marathon but just let that thought sit for awhile. Then on February 29 last year the Mankato Half-Marathon had a leap day deal if you signed up that day it was super cheap. So I took the leap and signed myself up. Of course as soon as I did I thought to myself, what have I done.

I had been power walking for the last year so I knew getting back running would not be to hard. So slowly I went about training. I really did not run more the once a week until the end of the summer. Then I would run twice a week maybe every other week. The end of September came and I got the cold from hell. I was starting to get pretty worried since I could not even breath.... I did not run or hardly even walk for 3 weeks. Finally I started to feel better with one week to go. I had not run longer then 7 miles all summer. So the Sunday before the race while we were camping I decided that I needed to run 10 miles. I managed to do it so I felt much better about the race.  What is 3 more miles...

October 16 came and it was race day! I was very excited. Amy, Jese and my boss Wayne were also going to run the race. It was a perfect day. The weather could not have been nicer with little to no wind and in the low 60's by the end of the race.

                   
                                         Jese, Amy and I are all smiles before the start of the race.

Amy and I have a long history of running races together and we always have to take a picture.

Wayne my boss told me it was on his bucket list to run a half marathon so I told him he should sign up for it. Well he did and had been cursing my name every since. He did great and ending up beating me by 6 minutes.

                                           This Jese around mile 6, he was still running strong

Rick and Christa did not see me at mile 6 until I was right next to them so they did not get any pictures of me. The picture above is right before the finish line. I guess I was just running to fast for them :)

Amy was all smile for the whole race.  She even got a good luck hand slap from Oliver on the way.

I managed to finish the race in 2 hours 11 minutes. It is only 4 minutes slower then my last half marathon four years ago and 6 minutes slower then my best half marathon in 2008. I was very happy with that considering most of my training was power walking and not running.  So now I am wondering what would happen if I really trained...I would like to get under that 2 hour mark...once I do that I can stop running...well maybe

Amy and I after the race. She came in at 2 hours 37 minutes. She had a goal of 3 hours so she was happy. And since she did not train at all only running 4 times in all of 2016 I would say that is really good! Just goes to show you running is all a mind game. If you tell yourself you are going to do it you can! I am proud of her for running it.

Jese after the race. It was his very first half marathon. In fact it was the first time he had run a race longer then a 5K. He was training hard this summer but then slacked off the last month or so. He was going to back out of the race be decided that he would do it a few days before hand. I am super glad he did. He did a great job finishing in 2 hours 21 minutes. A great time for his first big race. He will be back to run another one since he is determined to beat me next time.

The Pleasant Grove Pizza Farm was having their Fall Festival so we all headed out to it after the race.  It is so fun to go out there and eat pizza and listen to some good music. It is just relaxing.

 
Oliver enjoyed himself. Jese got him a slingshot and he had lots of fun walking on the trails with Grandpa Rick hunting deer and trying to shoot them with peanuts :)

He also got to do a little pumpkin carving.

Christa decided she needed to bring a little work out with her to the pizza farm.

It really was a perfect day. I got to do something that I love doing and am proud of myself, Amy and Jese. I was happy that Rick, Christa and Oliver spent the morning cheering us on.  Spending the afternoon and evening just relaxing with the people I love was a perfect way to end the day.

Remember to give someone a hug today and live for the day.
Sharon

“There's no way around grief and loss: you can dodge all you want, but sooner or later you just have to go into it, through it, and, hopefully, come out the other side. The world you find there will never be the same as the world you left.” ― Johnny Cash

I have used the above Johnny Cash quote before as a title of my blog but I thought it fitting to use it again today for a couple reasons. My coworker and my friend Noel Williams who was a big Johnny Cash fan died unexpectedly this week. All of us in the Security department are devastated.

Noel was the anchor of the department. If ever there was a call that I needed or wanted help with I was always happy when I knew that Noel was by my side. He knew his job and was great at it. He kept us all in line and made sure we did our jobs like we should. He was not only valued in our department but by the students, staff and faculty. You knew when he was on duty that everything would be alright.

I have worked with Noel for 17 years. I can count on one had the number of times I saw him outside of work yet I think of him as the brother I never had. We spent hours and hours together at work and that adds up to a lot of downtime with nothing to do but talk. We talked about everything from world issues to ours dogs. When I was going though my divorce and I was a huge mess Noel was always there for me to talk to. He was a safe person to talk to and I knew he would not judge me or betray my trust. Like all people we would get mad at each other over some little thing  but we alway got over it. Once you were a friend of Noels you stayed his friend.

Noel loved to hunt and fish so he was always full of stories about his latest adventure. Just last week he was out turkey hunting when he had a coyote come by and he managed to call it in and it ran right to his turkey decoy knocking it over. Noel shot at it and missed and then managed to get another shot off and got it.

He was so proud of that coyote kill.  We laughed about his hunting stories because they would take him an hour to tell what really only needed 5 minutes. But that was Noel, he had passion about hunting and fishing and he loved to talk about it. And of course I made him look at all my family and trip pictures and I am sure he was bored to tears with them.

Just days after getting the coyote Noel got himself a nice turkey. Fall was his favorite season and he was looking forward to deer hunting in November.

Lately a lot of our talks have been about retirement and what we were going to do. Noel and I both have a love of the outdoors and both have a lot of hobbies that we know would keep us busy. We both planed on retirement within a few years of each other and were looking forward to it. I never thought I would work here without Noel. Today he was suppose to work with me. It was so hard at noon when he did not come walking in the door carrying his lunch box. The office is empty.....

Noel was a hardworking, honest and loyal friend. He loved his family more then anything they brought him great joy. He also loved his dog Jigs who was beside him when he died.

Life will go on, the world will keep moving and down the road Noels position will be filled but it will never be the same working at Carleton again.....

I am sure he is looking down at us now saying will you stop all that crying....he was fond of saying everyone dies sometime so you better enjoy life now.

So I am trying but it is hard. I will miss you my friend. I hope wherever you are the hunting and fishing is always good.  Every time I eat a peanut M & M I am going to think of you....

Sharon

“The best way to find out what we really need is to get rid of what we don't.” ― Marie Kondō

I hate clutter! When Christa and Jese moved to town she said she was going to have a garage sale to get rid of all of the baby stuff they no longer needed and asked if I had anything to get rid of. I try to not keep a lot of stuff I don't use around. What I don't use I donate.  But we have one storage closet that we had stuff in that we have not seen since we moved in six years ago.  I decided that it was time for it to go! I picked a day and told Rick we each get one memory tote and the rest is going!

Otis did not go out with the junk :) 

I could not believe how much crap we had shoved into that one small closet!  So much stuff that we never use. It all had to go. Why do we keep all this stuff....I even went though the memory tote that I had and got rid of almost all of it. Why was I hanging on to a bracelets a old boyfriend gave me in high school?!? Most of the stuff I was keeping had no meaning to me anymore so why keep it.
After getting though the storage closet I kept going. I went though all the kitchen cabinets and the office. It all had to go.

We ended up taking a whole truck load to the garage sale and I came home when it was done with three things. Everything else that was left either was donated or went to the dump.

I don't know why we need or want all that "stuff".  Because that is exactly what it is, meaningless stuff that just clutters our lives.

Sharon