Thursday, Dec. 15

As most people who know me are aware, a few months ago I began a new adventure in life when I decided to take up running. I've tried running a few times on and off over the past few years, but have always struggled to make it beyond a week or two. This time though, my friend Heather was training for a marathon, so she was very into running and a huge motivator for me. Throughout the summer I ran with my sister, but then I was just running for 30 minutes and not really paying attention to my distance. When I moved back to KU Heather got me fired up and started teaching me tips and tricks. Her motivation and my determination found me running my very first organized race in the beginning of October. A 5K fundraiser in Lawrence. It was tons of fun and the whole race and atmosphere made me proud to be a runner. I've continued on with my running (although an injury in mid October slowed me down for awhile, booo) and yesterday received a wonderful gift to encourage me some more. Two good friends of mine got me a gift certificate to Lululemon (http://shop.lululemon.com/home.jsp) which is an amazing running and yoga store in Kansas City. We adventured out to Kansas City and to Lululemon where I was immediately overwhelmed by all of the running gear they have. Legggings, pants, shorts, tank tops, t-shirts, long sleeve shirts, hats, gloves, socks, sports bras, so much good stuff!! After hours (ok, maybe only 45 minutes) of debating I got an awesome bright red sports bra and with the money left on the gift card I'm going to get light-weight, yet warm, gloves designed for winter running (they were currently out of stock, bummer). I realized while driving back to Lawrence just how lucky I am to have such good friends, who know me well enough to find a way to go that extra step to support me. I'm really pretty lucky. :)