THIS. IS. SPARTA.

Yesterday I decided to spend my day a little differently than I normally do. I spent it among Spartans... beautiful, mighty, ripped, muddy, shirtless Spartans... :)

But of course, thats not why I was there.

Just in case you have never heard of the Spartan race before, allow me to introduce you:

12 {mostly uphill} miles. Crazy obstacles. The Spartan Beast.

I was there to cheer on my brother and many other Spartan friends. I stayed on the sidelines as a {rather loud} spectator this time, but the hype and pump up and victory of the whole shebang just might motivate me to join the ranks of Spartans one day.

An ideal morning in Midway for a Spartan Beast.

Um... just giving you a glimpse of... the competition.

The rope climb was the first obstacle that we could actually watch. Most of them were up and out of sight in the mountains.

This is what many say was the hardest part. An uphill mud sharp rock barbed wire crawl. Don't be deceived friends, i'm told its much more challenging than it appears.

Had to get up and over a slippery sudsy slide.

Robby getting ready for the uphill mud crawl. He was doing great!

More barbed wire. Made for quite a few bloody gashes. Rob happens to be sporting a nice one on the back of his head.

Theres my girl Jules and her gorgeous smile :) She is a Spartan race veteran, and she's a beast!! Notice she's a rare lady spartan among the many males.

Please take note of the ankle deep mud, and the {fill in admiring adjective here} man with the Koolaid smile tattoo.

The starting line. A mud bath from the very beginning.

Our tired and dirty but victorious finisher!

The handsome team. Major props boys!

Some people pay big bucks for an exfoliating mud bath.

These guys earned it, but they had no problem jumping into the showers to rid themselves of the hardening cement-like mud that covered them literally from head to toe.

Here is Rob's last obstacle and his cross at the finish line after 2.5 hours and 12 grueling miles.
Please excuse my loud, rambunctious, obnoxious screaming. I was rather pumped up.

SNL Greatness

If you are in as desperate need of a laugh as I was this morning,

watch this.

And laugh so hard you cry... just like I did.

Rise, Shine, and Smile

{No friends, thats not water}

The half-marathon was 2 weeks ago, and since then I have run a grand total of 7 miles... woopsie. I am planning to do the Bryce Canyon Half with my brother in 3 weeks... so there was no question that I had to get out there and get some more milage in this morning.

I seriously wrestled with myself to roll my lazy butt out of bed before 6:30 this morning. If I hadn't had to go pee, I probably would have hit the snooze button, rolled over, and returned to my sweet dreams {exactly what I did every other day this week}. But then I would have woken up later, made a lame excuse about the heat, and I never would've gone. So before I knew it I was putting my contacts in, chugging water, eating oatmeal, lacing up my shoes, and I was out the door and into the sunshine.

The first 5 miles were pretty meh, especially with the cruel head wind during mile 5. I reached the mouth of the canyon, stopped and got some good stretching in, and turned around {yay for the tailwind!}, feeling renewed strength and ready to bust out the last 5 miles. And thats when I decided to try something new. In the past I have always made an effort to smile and say good morning to the other devoted early morning exercisers that I pass. Today I decided I would just smile during the entire run, whether I was around someone else or not. So, I slapped a big silly grin on my face and something amazing happened: I actually felt happy. Whereas before all I could think about how I didn't want to be running, now I was feeling sort of goofy and energized. Instead of thinking about how many steps I had taken since I last looked at my Garmin, I was thinking about all the different reasons I had to be smiling! And I have to say, whenever I did pass somebody I think they got a kick out of my ridiculous face and cheery greeting. Its amazing how simply smiling transformed my attitude and energy this morning. I'm thinking it might be a serious {or I guess it'd be a not-so-serious} goal to do this from now on :)

Doesn't it just make YOU smile to see THEIR smiles? Have a happy day friends!

Spoons Again

If my big goal was to break every spoon I own, {as well as get through today without putting on a lick of makeup} then i'd consider myself an extremely successful girl!

Remember this? Okay well i've now decided that it wasn't {just} the fat kid ice-cream-out-of-the-carton move that made the spoon break, it was the fact that I bought really cheap spoons. Cheers to being a poor college kid and hoping that one of these upcoming job opportunities works out and puts some much needed dough back into my bank account. Because this girl needs new spoons.

This Last Little While

First off, Happy Father's Day Daddio! Love you!
(and I miss being goofy with you)

And now, in no particular order

My family came into town.

I ran my 4th half marathon.

I spent quality time with my best friend who I won't see again until Thanksgiving.

I had a dream about hiding from Voldemort in which I really truly was terrified, even for a few seconds after I woke up.

I found out I get to share living space with a lifelong friend come this fall!

I finished school, and I even managed to improve my GPA.

I went on a beautiful motorcycle ride.

I went shopping with Kristin and Lindsey and very successfully didn't spend any of the money that I don't have. I did find this sign though. Actually IN the dressing room, really?

I've improved my tan lines.

Way, way too much One Tree Hill.

Plenty of Hokulia Shave Ice, of course.

I have almost completely depleted my food supply... and I have an inactivated debit card for the next week.

In other words, I haven't been up to much.

:)