little ynna, long run

On Saturday I ran my first marathon! It was the Irving Marathon and it was super hard but Cheryl helped me through the last six miles when I thought I would have to crawl to the finish. 

I have always wanted to run a marathon and before training tried to run 5-6 times a week in the mornings for exercise. I toyed with the idea of doing a half marathon but somehow Cheryl (who has run many marathons and was basically my trainer via text message) convinced me to sign up for the full. So I started training in January and ran 20 miles and slow jogged/trotted/walked/whimpered 6.2.

I have always admired marathoners, but after experiencing one for myself, I have a newfound admiration for them. It's effing hard and my body has never felt like it had nothing left to give like it did the last six miles. But everything they say about how great you feel (mentally) at the end is true. I was so proud of myself! Even though my time wasn't great and even though I had to walk, I still did it and that was the only goal I had for myself. And now I'm honestly more motivated than ever to do another one just to try and improve from this one. Shoutout to Cheryl for helping me train and answering all my annoying questions and responding to every text after a long run. Shoutout to Preston for waking up early to drive us and sticking around to see us run and finish and for only getting a little annoyed with me on Saturdays for not wanting to do anything but eat and sleep after long runs. And shoutout to everyone who laughed at me when I told them I was doing a marathon and asked if I've ever done a half and I said no. Joke's on you hehe.

My slow poke stats^ But I did it!

march madness

This post isn't about my bracket (which beat Preston's) but about the crazy month that was March. The first week was spent cruising around the Bahamas. We started our trip in Miami (pictured above) and stopped in Nassau, Coco Cay, Key West and ended up back in Miami.

We went with Grady, Molly, Chad and Michelle and had the best time lying in the sun and eating way too much. This is us in Coco Cay.

 Here's another one in Coco Cay. This was taken before or after we saw a shark!!

This was taken right before my favorite part of the trip which was swimming with a sea turtle!!! If you could hear me underwater it would just be me squealing. This was in Key West. 

I visited Ellie in my favorite part of Texas- Austin. We attended a jogger's brunch hosted by Outdoor Voices and met the CEO and now I'm in love with her and want to be her BFF. This is us being awkward.

Supposedly the best BBQ in the world and I've wanted to try it since we moved to Texas. No one (Preston) ever wants to wait five hours with me so I took advantage of my solo Austin trip to go. I got in line at 6:40 AM, was tenth in line and sat down to eat at 11:30. It was super delicious and the line didn't feel that long 'cause I got a lot of reading done and wasn't subjected to awful small talk.

Last weekend we went camping in the Grand Canyon with our friends Kev and Rachel Nemelka. It was awesome even though the last 3 miles of the Grand Canyon hike Preston asked me how I was doing and I glared at him and said, "THIS SUCKS." But really it was beautiful and I'm happy we did it.

The first night we camped in the Grand Canyon and the second night we camped in Sedona and hiked around there on Sunday. That was pretty beautiful as well and not as hard. We had the best time with Kev and Rachel.

Happy April everyone! I am spending this first weekend listening to the words of Latter-day prophets and other amazing men and women called of God via the 186th General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I invite you to join me. I promise you will leave feeling inspired, happier and wanting to be a better human being.