Chaf hickies, fundraisers, fantasy walk offs, promotions, hell night and monkeys

Sup bloggies. I know I know, it’s been awhile. Life has been quite the whirlwind lately.

Let’s dive into some details shall we?

The Hyannis half marathon happened a couple weekends ago and I was really hoping to break the 2 hour limit. In case you didn’t know, my first race ever was a half marathon in the blue hills and the only other official half I have run since then was that Newport half I had a sprained ankle for. Needless to say, I had some beef with the half marathon distance.

Of course the half marathon distance couldn’t let me win and the weather was not looking so great. I finished at 2:04. However, I did win the awkward injury award and I got neck chaffing from all the running in the rain from my jacket. The image is best understood with the following selfies:

Maybe no one will notice?

Day 3: Still very noticeable

I shall just embrace it!

Yeah so, I might have gotten made fun of the rest of the week. The whole "I remember high school" joke was heard several times.

I also went to Chicago for a total of 12 hours to meet with a client. I have ONE high neck sweaterdress that proved to be my savior for this awesome skin plague. I kind of got no sleep that whole week, crashed Friday when I got home and then ran my second 18.4 the next day. It went well! I ended with a big smile on my face :) It felt good but I also think I was very excited about my fundraiser that night.

Fundraiser went great! My band rocked it and it was fun to sing for everyone. I had some great volunteers and it seemed like all the raffle prize went over really well. I was so relieved! At the end of the night I had this ridiculous amount of cash in a shoe box that I griped so tightly as I was saying goodbye to everyone and I was dancing around with it. I finally put it in the trunk of my car and stayed out pretty late, relieved it was all over with and the event was a success.

I was excited to go into work Monday and be less stressed now that my second 18 miler was done and my fundraiser was over. I came back into find out that for this month's pedometer challenge (exactly what you think it is but you can also get steps for working out)  was made into a fantasy league by the non-pedometer challenge participants. There was even a live draft in the office on Friday. Um what? So yes, I got drafted onto a pedometer fantasy team. Only in my office.

Speaking of office, I'm officially Manager of my awesome team of 5 :) I'm very happy to have this role officially (I've been in a "trial" run for awhile now) and they wrote such a nice blurb about me in the email that went out to the company. Aww *group hug*. Happy Cat!

These beauties also got surprised delivered to me at my desk :)

Because I got promoted, I got a nice salary bump/yearly bonus so I decided I could finally go on a post marathon vacation!! The week after the marathon I'm going on your average, run of the mill, typical, week long vacation to....NICARAGUA!!!! Yup, officially booked as of today we will be staying in a tree house and get to hang out with Howler Monkeys who just walk around and chill on our deck. Check it out: http://www.aquanicaragua.com/

A few of us from the office also when to the infamous Hell Night at the East Coast Grill and all i can say is wow. Jello shot roulette. We found out there was scorpion chiles in the jello shot. I've never felt anything like that in my life. I ordered a bailey's on the rocks and after i had the shot I just sat with my tongue and lips in the bailey's. The rest of the food was really good but i woke up the next morning and felt like I had a knife in my stomach. Ouch. Needless to say I had to skip the morning run and run 10 miles that night in the rain.

BAM! So yes, sorry it's been awhile but as you can see I've been making the most of everyday! I also thought it fun to note, I picked up the official marathon jacket BUT I'm not allowed to have it until after I finish (it's at my parent's house.) If I don't finish, it goes right back to the store. I'm also getting pre-marathon jitters and it is merely an exact month away. EEEEEK! I'm sure more to post on that the closer and closer we get. O and I have my 21 miler next weekend. Eek indeed...

Marathon bib number is: 22025. In case you don't want to do the math: 2*2*2 + 5*0 = 8 

Until then...I'm just happy my neck is back to looking normal :)

Also now's the time to donate if you haven't yet: http://tedysteam2013.kintera.org/faf/donorReg/donorPledge.asp?ievent=1039935&supid=371671877

-Manager Cat