I love you fall.

That is all really. I love fall.  It's by far my favorite season!  I love apple cider and caramel apples. I love seeing the leaves change color and fall to the ground. I love the crisp air and cooler temperatures. I love that I get to start wearing my warm hats.  I love drinking the seasonal Octoberfest beers.  I just love fall.  I love how the air conditioner can be turned off for a while, and how the windows can be kept open. I love the smells!  I love it all. 

2 months????

My oh my how time flies! I haven 't updated this poor little bloggy blog in over two months. I don't know how I let it slip away.  Everyone can thank Andrea for reminding me of my neglect.

So, when last I updated, I had just ran a 50k.  Turns out a lot has happened since then, so I figure I will just bring you up to speed.

*I turned 30. Yep. 30.  I am excited about it though. It's a new chapter in my life, and I'm excited about where I am.  I have the future ahead of me and the past wasn't that bad.  Life is good.  Crazy to think though...I've had this blog since December 2004!  If you are bored, and want to know what 22 year old me thought or was up to, go back and read.  Oh how times have changed. :)

So...here's me at 22 with my dear cousin Sarah...

And, now here I am today at the good ole age of 30 with a couple spectacular people...

Age is on my side if I do say so myself. 

What else besides turning 30?

*I ran another marathon. That makes 4 marathons and a 50k since March. I may be insane.
*Then I ran a half marathon.
*Then I ran another half marathon.  Yes, I said I might be insane.  I'm not lying.
*I bought a bicycle! (actually Andy got it for me for Christmas and Birthday and every other holiday possible) and it's pretty :) and did I tell you I might be insane?

So now I've been riding it some, and it's fun.

*But then yesterday...I was bad...I put the bike behind my vehicle, then I got in my vehicle and started backing up. LUCKILY some people yelled at me to stop or else the damage could have been far worse. I can't ride it until I fix it, but I think it won't be too hard to fix, and I know the right people. I won't be doing that again.  I can tell you that much.

*There, now you are all up to speed. I promise I won't go two months with out updating this time. Promise!

So I ran a 50k.

I should probably say something about it huh?

What is a 50k? It's a 31ish mile race. This particular one was a trail run at Lake Sylvia in Perryville, AR. It was at night. It basically was on a gravel road the whole time.

I had no idea how this race would go or if I would even like it, but I decided to give it a shot. 

Well, I liked it. :) I had so much fun on this race.

I finished in 5 hours and forty minutes. It wasn't a half bad time for my first 50k, or for this course.

I loved the aid stations and the amount of food that were at them. It was my first ultra, so I had never experienced a run with such amounts of food. I even drank Mountain Dew!

I felt good the whole time and even finished very strongly.

As soon as I finished, I didn't feel good! My calves wanted to cry!

Sooo, I took a glorious ice cold shower, and the hard stream of water felt so wonderful on my calves...and my back.

What else? I saw 2 snakes and may have stepped on a third.

I only ended up with one blister.

I ate a hot dog afterwards.

I drank beer.

I hung out with cool people.

Today was the first day  I really got a run in since, and I ran 14 miles and felt good...so I'm ready to keep on training!

I will do this again.

I will do a longer distance too. I may like ultras. I may like trail running. I may be crazy.

I know several other crazy people though.

Here are some of them:

Things I miss about Indanapolis...

I basically lived my whole life in and around the Indianapolis area. I spent several years after college there. I know this town. I love this town. I haven't lived there since the end of 2006. I don't think I will ever live there again. Who knows though. I do miss things about it. I'm going to make a list. I'm too lazy to add in links or pictures or anything. The list is in no particular order.

1. Yats- It's cajun food, and it's fast, and it's cheap, and it's soooo good! If you haven't eaten there and you are in Indianapolis, you need to go!!!

2. Broadripple- I love the whole area. I used to be able to walk down Broadripple Ave and see people I knew, and I spent a lot of time in this area.

3. Broadripple Deli- They make steamed sandwiches on bagels. Oh my, Oh my, Oh my!

4. The Monon Trail

5. The Canal

6. IUPUI- oddly enough.

7. Living in a city- there is soo much to do! I love it.

8. My family-of course

9. My friends- of course

10.  The Spaghetti Factory- Soooo good.

11. The Athletic Annex running club-This club got me to start knocking races out of the park and I miss the weekly group runs we had. I was chasing the faster runners and that helped!

12. Downtown Indianapolis- If you want to see a city that is well planned, check out Indianapolis. If you want to see a downtown that is easy to navigate and very vibrant, check out Indianapolis. Also, they have the coolest system of tunnels.

13. FLAT RACES- enough said.

14. Bazbeaux Pizza- mmmmmm.

15. Plenty of places to eat.

16. The Colts!- I miss being able to go somewhere and watch a game and have such an atmosphere of so many fans together.

17. Pacers games- I miss going to them.

18. my cool house on Pennsylvania St.- minus the crazy roommate.

19. The Catholics- there was a mighty cool group of them there.

20. 4 hours from the Red River Gorge

21. I have to be missing something.

Well, there you go. Indy is a good place. I miss the people, I miss the stuff. I miss being a city girl.  However, I do love my life now, and don't get your hopes up, I'm not moving back anytime soon :). Sorry grandma. :)

slightly embarrassing...

If you want to read a story about yours truly...then click here.


There ago, you did it. You may have already read it, so didn't have to click there.

Just thought I needed to post it on my blog.

I'm excited for this weekend! I'm doing a race in Indianapolis called the Mudathlon with Jessie and Patrick. Three miles, forty obstacles. This should be fun.

Jessie and Patrick are getting married in September. :) I was there when they met. This picture was taken the day they met. We were at a party at Jake's house. Jake's was a coworker of our friend Lynsey. I thought Jake's roommate Jake was cute. He did triathlons.

Here's Jessie and I that day:

So, back to Jake...this could be embarrassing. haha. For the sake of this story, I'm going to change one of the Jake's names to cute guy. I got Jake's email address from Lynsey, and I emailed Jake about his roommate cute guy. Well, thanks google, it saves everything.  Here is the email I sent.

how are you?  what's new?
my thoughts for the day...
I think your roommate is really cute....and really nice...and really cool...because he runs...and likes outdoorsy stuff...plus...he's a Christian...I like that. 
I think your roommate and I...and for that matter...you and I should be friends. 
You should pass this along to your roommate... :)
Rose

WHAT WAS I THINKING???????? Wow. I was gutsy.  I got a response... suppose I will show you.

Jake forwarded the email on to cute boy with the response "here you go brotha."

Then cute boy e-mailed me!!!!

Really cute, really cool, and really nice, huh? If onlythat were enough to get me through life I'd be set. So, you seem to begetting into rock climbing. I went to RRG about a month ago to climb forthe first time. Climbing is definitely a good time. I do more than run,by the way, I bike and swim too (and a lot of other stuff). I competedin a half Ironman on Sunday. Finished in 5:43:32. That's a long time. Thatwill wear you out. What have you been up to since that awesome party Jakeand I threw? Anyway, I'm training for a marathon right now. Maybe we canhook up for a run on the Monon sometime. You better bring your fast runningshoes though, because I run like the wind. -Jake

We emailed back and forth a few times, and then I guess I got gutsy enought to ask to hang out... haha.  I through it on at the end of an e-mail.

so yeah, if you ever want to get together to run, or ride a bike really slow, or eat, or watch a movie, or kick a soccer ball...or climb...or go to church...well, we should :).

The response I got at the end of the e-mail he sent back?

Anyway, about getting together... It sounds like of like a date and I usually don't date shy girls which you so obviously are. I might be able to make an exception for you though. When do you leave/get back from KY this weekend?

That's Jake sitting next to me...

So we went on a few dates...but nothing came of that.

I told you all that because it really is funny. I went back through our e-mails, and they are pretty boring. I thought they were pretty fantastic at the time, but I guess that is what a crush is. All we talked about was soccer, running, climbing, and triathlons, and church. Fanstastic huh?

Well I did my very first Star Wars movie with him. That's significant. I am sorry Andy if I told you differently, I may have forgot.


This isn't the same story as Jessie and Patrick.  Jessie and Patrick also met at that party, but things turned out way differently for them :). I am so happy for them!

I ran a 5k with Jessie the morning of the day of their first date. They went to a baseball game.


This is Jessie and I on the morning of the day of their first date.

That's my white Jeep in the background, and the car in front of it is one I bought for $500. It was amazing.

So, anyway, I'm glad they went on a date. Turns out she is marrying one of the funniest guys around. He is spectacular. Here he is.

Ok, I picked a very old, very goofy picture, but that's Patrick. :)

Here they are now.

Well, this was really chaotic. It will be fun to read a few years from now, and that is what is making this blog fun anyway.

Congrats Jessie and Patrick! Can't wait to see you this weekend!