Peace Out!

Most of you know that last weekend was my last in Dallas. It was a crazy weekend of spending time with friends and family before Trevor and I made the LONG drive to Denver this past Sunday. My last night of work at Baylor was last Monday night. I was eating my lunch when my friends Jennifer and Allison walked into the break room with some tasty snacks and this cake as a going away party for me! I enjoyed my time at Baylor. I made some great friends and I definitely learned a lot that I will carry with me for the rest of my career!


I had movers come to my apartment last Thursday to load up my furniture and unload it into storage. It was a stressful day, but Friday rolled around and it was time to party! Trevor flew in Friday afternoon and we went to Top Golf in Dallas for a going away party with several friends. If you have not been to Top Golf, I would highly recommend it! We all had such a great time.

Kristin, Natalie, and I

Trevor and I (me being silly!)

Courtney and I ran the marathon in San Diego together! I was so glad she came to hang out.

Audra and I have been friends since the NICU in Lubbock! She's already staked out some plane tickets for a visit to Denver!

It was much colder that night than any of us expected, so after awhile, we all went back to my friends, Nicole and Forrest's house to hang out. Thank you all SO much for coming! I had a great time! (Kelly, do you have that picture of us on your camera? I thought I got one, but I guess I didn't on my camera!)

Saturday morning, Trevor, his grandparents, and I went to tour the new Cowboy's Stadium. That place is absolutely unreal! Here are a few of the pictures I took on the tour.

All of you also know that I am completely wrapped around the sweet, tiny fingers of my nephew, Cohen! He turned 2 years old on October 15. His 2nd birthday party was Saturday evening. He had lots of his friends and family there to celebrate with him. Here he is enjoying his cake! For more pictures of the cutest little man you have ever seen, go to www.melanieross.net. This is my sister's blog and I promise you won't be able to get enough of this perfect kiddo!

Sunday morning we got up EARLY to begin the trip to Denver. It actually went by faster than we expected, but it still took a solid 13 hours to get here. We hit a few hours of some icy and rainy weather, but it cleared up for the last hour or so.

In light of the scary icy weather, we decided that we should start looking for a more weather appropriate car for me. After lots of research, and some incredible good luck, I traded my Mustang in today for a new (well, new to me!) car! Post to look for: My New Ride!

Moving...

...to DENVER! As most of you know, I have been dating Trevor for a little over a year (a year and 2 months, to be exact!). He lives in Denver, and we have had a blast this past year! It is also pretty hard dating several states apart! As we've grown closer, we decided we were ready to make things easier on us by living closer together. So over the last few weeks, everything has fallen into place for me to take a travel nursing assignment at The Children's Hospital in Denver, starting October 12! When I got the job offer, I had exactly 3 weeks to pack up and ship out! Yikes! But, as you all also know, I'm pretty organized (and by that I mean completely Type A, left brained, slightly OCD, etc...) so I made my list, got to work, and now I'm almost completely ready to go. I just have a few things left to pack and a handful of last minute phone calls to make and errands to run. Fortunately, the travel nursing industry is awesome. The agency provides a fully furnished apartment for me, so I didn't have to worry about finding a place to live. I should find out my address by the end of this week. My recruiter also takes care of all the details with starting a new job and that is very helpful!


We are really excited that this opportunity has opened up! We feel that everything has happened just like it was supposed to, which means there is a much bigger hand involved! It's amazing what can happen when you just sit back and let God take control of your life. I feel so incredibly blessed to have Trevor in my life. For those of you who haven't met him, he's pretty great! He is so good to me and we laugh constantly! I could go on, but I'll spare you the cheesy details! Unless, of course, you want to know more, and I'll be glad to tell you all about him. :)

And for fun, a few more pictures from this past year! I love you very much, Trevor! I can't wait to start this adventure with you!

ALL DONE...for now!

Yea! Here is a picture of my framed diploma! Definitely the most expensive piece of paper I've ever owned. Anyone have any get rich quick schemes? I've got to pay for it now! Wreck 'Em Tech!!!

Crossing the Line!!

I did it! I finished the San Diego Rock 'n' Roll Marathon in just under 5 hours! I am SO sorry for the delayed post and for all the pictures! Let me explain...I returned home last Wednesday and had to work the next 3 nights. Thursday, I had to get up for a bathroom break and when I stood up, I realized I was standing in water...not normal for my bedroom! Yes, there was a massive storm sometime between 7am when I went to bed and 10am when I woke up, which caused my bedroom and bathroom to flood. Ugh! Long story short, the maintenence people were in and out of my apartment for the next 3 days to replace the carpet. Therefore, I had very little sleep and had to catch up this last week! And to top it off, when I hit my car on the gate at my complex (completely different story!) it apparently broke the seal enough around the door that caused my car to flood as well. Double UGH!!! Thus, the late post about the race! Here goes...

Sunny San Diego!!! Or not. It was cloudy and chilly the entire time we were there! The next two are views from right outside our hotel...

And by request...a goofy face picture!!!

On Saturday before the race, we traveled out to Coronado and walked along the beach. It was very chilly, and I hadn't packed any warm clothes! We were going to be in sunny San Diego, after all! So I gave up on fashion for the day and borrowed one of Trevor's long sleeve shirts. The beach was still beautiful and it was great watching the waves!

We took a tour of the USS Midway, one of the oldest Naval aircraft carriers! It was very interesting....

The night before the race, Team in Training puts on the Inspiration Dinner, also known as the pasta party. This was such an amazing night! All the chapters of Team in Training from around the country gathered to carb load on spaghetti and hear inspiring stories of survivors and others currently battling leukemia or lymphoma.

This is the North Texas chapter of Team in Training! GO TEAM!!!

Then we come to race morning! This is my adorable nephew, sporting a Team in Training T-shirt and showing his muscles in support of my race! My sister put this picture in one of those musical cards. The song..."I've got the POWER!!" Haha, it doesn't quite have the same effect here, but trust me, it's greatness! Thanks for your support, Cohen! I love you!


Courtney and I the morning of the race! If our eyes look a bit puffy, it's because they are...it was about 4:15am in this picture!

We had to get up so early to be able to catch the shuttle on time to the starting line. Since this is a Rock 'n' Roll Marathon, here I am with a few of The Running Elvi! This group of people have Elvis tracksuits specifically made to run the Rock 'n' Roll races! They were fantastic!

The gun went off and it took us a good 10 minutes to even cross the starting line! There were over 13,000 people who crossed the finish line! Luckily, we had chips on our shoes that didn't actually start counting our official time until we crossed the starting line. There were SO many people all along the entire course offering support and words of encouragement! The first half of the race went by fairly quickly for me just because of all the distractions and the new course. I never did "hit the wall" that many runners talk about. I feel this is because I knew I was physically prepared since I had been training for this, and because we paced ourselves well at the beginning so we wouldn't be struggling so much at the end. When I hit 20 miles, I did have to start playing mind games with myself, telling myself, "okay, 6 miles left, this is less than one lap around the lake," etc. Finally, I hit the 26 mile marker and I could hear the announcer at the finish line shouting,"Sprint it in, you just have 0.2 left, you're there!!!" The adrenaline started flowing, I gave it all the juice I had left, and finished strong at 4:59:56...about 20-30 minutes faster than I had anticipated!!! I apologize for the gap in websites here. Click on this link to see photos of me throughout the race, as well as my finish line photo! I haven't decided which pictures I want to purchase just yet.

http://www.asiorders.com/go.asp?54279274

Meeting up with Trevor at the end was so great! He had flowers for me and we were SO excited to be officially on vacation! Thank you SO much for being there to support me, Trevor!

Courtney, Amanda, and I at the finish line! GO TEAM!!!

We went back to the hotel, and I sat in an ice bath (thanks, Melanie, for talking to me through that!). I was tired, but the adrenaline kept pumping for awhile afterwards. I was excited. No...I was ECSTATIC!! I did it! Running a marathon has been one of the top things on my list of things I want to do before I die for a very long time. And I did it. Not only did I accomplish a personal goal, but I was able to do it with an amazing team of people all with the same goal...raising money for leukemia/lymphoma research. A great big THANK YOU to all of you who supported me!

Needless to say, I slept like a baby that night! However, when I woke up on Monday morning and attempted to roll over...I felt like I had aged about 40 years! It took a few days for the soreness to work itself out. I also had a blister on my right heel, a blister on one of my toes, and I am pretty sure I'm going to lose a toenail sometime in the next month. Even so, I wouldn't trade that experience for the world!

NOW...it was officially time for vacation. Trevor and I went on a cruise that left San Diego the same day as the race. This is Catalina Island...where is the sun!?!?! We went on an hour long snorkeling excursion. The water was VERY cold! If it had been warmer, I would have loved it. At least now we know that snorkeling may not be our first line hobby!

This is a view of our ship, the Carnival Elation, from Catalina Island! It amazes me how huge these ships are!

These are a few pictures from our dinners. The food was fabulous!

There's the sun!!! We had about 3-4 hours of total sun time throughout the entire 4 days!

I'm pretty sure these putts are Tiger-worthy!!!

This is the final night of our cruise! :( If any of you have never been on one, I would highly recommend it! We had a great time!

Once again, thank you, thank you, and thank you, to all of you for your support throughout this training process! Team in Training raised $8.2 million for this race alone!!! Know that you made a difference in so many lives with your support! If anyone wants to train for a race now, let me know! I'm game to do it again!

Four weeks out!!!

So, the "blog once a week" goal of the marathon training process didn't happen. Oops! Looks like it is once a month so far! Training is going very well! Four weeks from now, I will be in San Diego at the pasta party, carb loading, and getting ready to run my first full marathon! (Sidenote: since I have begun training for a marathon, many people have asked, "how far is that?" So for future reference, ALL marathons are 26.2 miles.)

Today, Team in Training put on a mock half marathon. There was a starting line, a finish line, and lots of fun and food afterwards. All participants invited family and friends out to support us as we ran 13.1 miles this morning. I am SO happy that Melanie, Christian, and Cohen came out to meet me at the finish line. Cohen reached for me after I finished the race, and once he felt how sweaty I was, he had this discusted look on his face and quickly went back to dad. Haha, he had fun running and playing at the beautiful White Rock Lake while they waited on me to finish. THANKS, guys, for coming out!

Last week we ran 18 miles, and next week we will tackle a 20 mile run. This will be the longest distance we run before the actual race. Part of me feels like I just started training, and I can't believe it's getting so close! Another part of me feels like I have been training forever, and I'm happy the race is almost here. All in all, I have really enjoyed working with Team in Training, raising money for leukemia and lymphoma, and meeting lots of new people. The San Diego Rock 'n' Roll Marathon is on May 31, 2009. Keep this date in mind and think about me from time to time on that morning!

So far, I have raised right at $2000! Thank you SO much to all of you for your support! I really appreciate it! Please feel free to pass my link on to anyone you know! Any amount is appreciated! I'll try to be better about posting this month before the race, but I make no promises!

http://pages.teamintraining.org/ntx/rnr09/mflenniken

Halfway!!!

I've done it! We have made it to the halfway point in training! Today we were supposed to have a 13 miles run with hills. Somehow, we got off course a bit and ended up running 14! I felt pretty good afterwards, so learning that I had actually run more than expected made me feel even better. And finally, we had a Saturday morning that wasn't 30 degrees! It was perfect.

I am really enjoying this training process so far. This just about sums up my life...sleep, eat, run, eat, work, eat, etc. I feel like I am eating all the time, but I guess I have to keep my body fueled for the increasing mileage. The recommittment meeting for the San Diego Rock 'n' Roll marathon was a few weeks ago. This is where we fully commit to completing our event. So it's official now...save injuries, I WILL run a marathon on May 31, 2009! I'm very excited about it, and really happy to be doing this for such a great cause.

Please consider helping me reach my fundraising goal. I'm not quite halfway there! There are 2 ways to help out. First, I'm selling raffle tickets! The winner will receive a whole pot of gift cards to various places. The collection of the gift cards is still in the works. I'm selling them for $5 each, or I'll cut you a deal and give you 5 tickets for $20. Let me know if you would like to be in on it! All money goes directly into my race account. Second, you can either mail me a check made out to LLS (Leukemia & Lymphoma Society) or visit my website below to donate safely online! A great big THANK YOU to all of you who have helped me out. Feel free to spread the word and share my website with anyone!

http://pages.teamintraining.org/ntx/rnr09/mflenniken

Lessons learned...

Well, the goal throughout the marathon training process was to blog about it once a week. Clearly, that lasted about a week! So I'll just make it my goal to update as often as possible. Training is going very well. I can tell that I'm getting into better shape (slowly, but surely!) because the short runs of the week are getting easier and easier. The really challenging part for me is the long runs on Saturday mornings. Not only is it not extremely exciting to get up and run 8 or 9 miles at 7 am on Saturday, but working nights forces me to try to find someone to trade days with me so I will be able to sleep on Friday night before running. So far, I haven't had any problems, but this next schedule seems to be giving me a bit of trouble. Hopefully I'll get it all worked out!

This past Saturday was the Fort Worth Cowtown 10K race. Here are just a few things I learned about running in a race:

- ALWAYS check the weather! Seeing as it had been almost 90 degrees the week before, I did not check the weather, and was NOT prepared for the 30 degree race day!
- Do not check any of your belongings in at the runner's check in tent. It will take far too long to get them back after the race.
- If it is allowed for your race, try not to forget your iPod. Running 6 miles would have been much more enjoyable if I had been jammin'!
- Do not be surprised when that 85 year old man passes you. And then when another senior citizen passes you. It's going to happen. Just run your race.
- When you get tired or hit a wall, think of something very inspiring. For me, it was my brother. Kyle deployed this morning. He didn't get a choice as to go or not go. Therefore, in my running, I often think of him and my motivation returns. I love you, Kyle! Know that we miss you and are praying for you!

And just for fun, here is the link to the pictures they took at the race. I refuse to spend the outrageous amount of money to have them saved on my computer, so I'll just provide the link for you to visit. And as always, below is the link to my fundraising page! Please help out by donating! Every amount helps! Just as my brother didn't get a choice, those diagnosed with leukemia and lymphoma don't get a choice!


http://www.brightroom.com/go.asp?49581092

http://pages.teamintraining.org/ntx/rnr09/mflenniken

Stay tuned!!!