Life Lately + A Winner!

I can't believe December is halfway over! 

This month has FLOWN by.

I guess that is what happens when your December is full of fun Christmas activities!

Here is what we have been up to this December!

Last weekend (the first weekend of December) Kevin and I ran the Bah Humbug 5k.

It is a 5k race & people wear Christmas themed outfits.

Our neighbors run it every year, so this year we decided to join in the fun!

We wore ridiculous ugly Christmas sweaters.

It was the first time I have gone running in a wool sweater dress and let me tell you....it that was sweaty. LOL!

 My sweater dress had jingle bells on it, so the entire time I ran I was jingling.

Such a fun race.

Then we had our annual court Christmas Party & White Elephant Exchange.
We brought this lamp:

Our neighbors who ended up the lamp put it in their front window the night of the party & they have it lit up 24/7. LOVE it!

We had cippiono for dinner...it was delicious. 

The white elephant gift exchange was epic....so many laughs.

 I know I talk about my neighbors a lot, but it's because I love them so much.

I made my Peppermint Cheesecake for one of the desserts, it was delicious! I will have to blog it!

On Sunday we surprised the kids and took them to the Train of Lights.

It is a train ride & the train is decorated with Christmas lights & decorations on the inside & outside.

 The pictures don't do it justice...it was so pretty!

This is the first year we have gone on the Train of Lights. It was fun!

This past weekend was my 1/2 Marathon that I ran with Team World Vision.

Friday night (the night before the race) I was really nervous.

It was the anticipation of running another 1/2 marathon. I was more nervous for this one than I was for the Nike Women's Half because I think this time I knew what to expect...and that running 13.1 miles is HARD. 

I laid out all my gear the night before!

 I was up at 5:15 (if you know me, you know I am NOT a morning person...at all!!!)
It was COLD when we got to the race....38 degrees out. That is cold for us wimpy Calfornians :)
Me & my older sister Elyse before the race. So glad she invited me to be a part of Team World Vision! She has been running with them for 3 or 4 years.

 My goal for this 1/2 Marathon was to run a faster time than I ran for the Nike Women's Half. For that race, my time was 1:59:11. I wanted to beat that time because for this race I was running for Team World Vision & I was running for kids in Africa. It is a fundraising race and I have been training really hard for it. I wanted to get a faster time because I wanted people to know that I took this seriously and I really was running for a cause.

Elyse and I stayed with the 1:50 pace group. I felt GREAT the entire race. It was so nice running at a consistent pace. I did not do that for the Nike Race...my splits were all over the place (plus, there were tons of hills for that race)

For this 1/2 marathon, there were only 2 big hills...which is better than the 15+ hills that the Nike race had.
Whenever I was getting tired during the race, I would look down at my wrist at the orange World Vision bracelet I was wearing...

 It says Water. Hope. Life.
That is why I was running! For clean water for villages in Africa so that kids don't have to walk 15-20 miles a day for dirty water.

Here are some race photos they sent us...this was at mile 12:



 And, I had to laugh....here is a side by side comparison of me at mile 12 for the Nike run & this run:

 For the Nike run I was in so much pain at mile 12...those hills kicked my butt. For this race, I ran smarter and trained smarter and I was smiling at mile 12!

Crossing the finish line!

 My official finish time was 1:50:30. I couldn't believe I ran it 9 minutes faster than the Nike 1/2 marathon. I felt SO much better after this race. For the Nike Race, I messed my knee up on the mile 11 hill and walked with a limp for 2 weeks. For this race, my legs were sore for 2 days post race, but I don't have any injuries which I am SO happy about.
 
I thought this was so cool....at the end of the race, my total miles since I started my running journey back in July hit 300 miles on the dot!

I am a total numbers nerd, so that was so cool to hit exactly that at the end of the race. 

In July, I hadn't gone running in 10 years.....exactly 5 months later I have done 2 Half Marathons & have run 300 miles! You can do hard things!

 Love this sticker that they gave us. Don't worry, I'm not putting it on my car ;)
 

 It was a really great experience running with Team World Vision.
My favorite part was running the race with my sister.

I am so glad she invited me to be a part of this awesome event and raising money for villages in Africa to have clean water wells. I loved that before the race began, all 20+ of us from Team World Vision prayed for the villages in Africa that would be getting clean water because of our fundraising. It made me cry before the race!

I loved having my parents, Kevin & the girls there cheering us on. They had signs for us, it was so cute! My girls want to run the 5k next year & raise money as well!
I will definitely run another race with Team World Vision. It was a great experience!

 I am still a little short on my goal of raising $1,310 ($100 for every mile I ran)
If you would like to donate (you have until December 31st!)
Any amount helps..$5, $10, $25, etc...it's 100% tax deductible!
Thank you so much for your support!

 ++++++++++++
And, the winner of the $250 Target Gift Card is:
VICTORIA
Congrats!!! Leave a comment or send me an email to claim your prize!