Counting down

For as long as I can remember I have always been counting down to something. Usually it’s a birthday or a holiday - just something I was excited for at the time. These were not little countdown’s either. Sometimes I would start counting down to my birthday in February or March...and my birthday is in June. I also would remind my family and friends on a weekly basis at bare minimum how long they had until that date.

(Growing up I considered my birthday to be on par with a national holiday :P)

My mom would always tell me to stop “wishing my life away”. Up until recently I ignored her advice. I thought there was nothing wrong with simply being excited for something. But over the past few years I have actually begun taking her advice, and I hadn’t even noticed until recently. My countdowns have almost diminished. As much as I still love my birthday I have no desire to countdown or hurry it along.

Now if I am counting down to something, it has to be BIG.

For example...

I only have 9 days left until Graduation!

Which also means there are 8 days left until my dad flies into town!!!

I have been waiting for these two events for what feels like forever. I took an extra year to complete my degree, so instead of graduating in the normal four years I did five. Which I know isn’t that uncommon and lots of people take longer to do their degree for many reasons, but it really killed me to not being able to do it in the “normal” amount of time. There were times during my degree that this day seemed so far away, so for it to be *thisclose* to being here is crazy exciting and almost surreal feeling. Something I have been talking about and working towards for what feels like forever is finally almost here!

I do have a slight fear though for when I do walk across the stage:

You’d think Meaghan wouldn’t be that hard to pronounce, but I can’t count how many professors and TA’s have called me “Meee-gan”. Fingers are crossed they pronounce it right!

I also have one other completely unrelated but but also exciting countdown right now:

151 days until ….

The Valley Harvest Marathon!

Well, I want to do the 10k...mayyyybe 5k... but regardless it’s a race! I found out about it on Twitter the other day and decided it's the perfect goal I need right now to help motivate me to start running more!
I haven’t registered yet, but that is only because I want to see how well I do training wise. I am still a novice when it comes to running so 10k may be aiming a little high. Luckily “Early Bird” registration goes until August so I am going to see where I am training wise before registering.

In my mind though I am at least registered for a 5k, which given the amount of time should be totally do-able! After work I am heading to the gym because training starts today!

Any tips for a new runner??