Running Through Life's Adventures

          When people hear that I have become a runner, they can't believe it. In a way it kind of upsets me but then I think about all the benefits that I have earned by running and it makes me smile! :)
          I didn't just wake up one day and decide, "I think I am going to become a runner." It did not work that way. I started running for a purpose and that purpose was Beef!

          My roommate, Bailey, was one of seven Nebraska Beef Council interns during the academic year of 2011-2012. Beef councils across the nation have been promoting beef through TEAM BEEF running teams for marathons for several years now. Nebraska's Beef Council took the opportunity of these intelligent, dedicated, young adults at UNL to create a Nebraska Team Beef running team for the Lincoln National Guard Marathon.




Ready to go at 6:00 am
day of the race May 6th

 


Team Beef representation from the Peach Street House

        

















          I took this opportunity to both promote beef and a motivation to get back in shape because trust me, after being in basketball and softball my entire high school career where going to practice was my exercise and I didn't really have to motivate myself at that point to workout; going to college I saw that self-motivation was needed but never really found.
          I started whipping myself back in shape during Christmas Break and saw myself running at least once a week plus strength training throughout the entire spring semester. During the cold, winter months it was harder to get into the rec center and run the track, 9 laps = 1 mile which got quite boring, or running on a treadmill which killed my knees so once it got nice out, which surprisingly came nice and early this year, I headed outside. Lincoln has some great trails and I luckily live close to Pioneers Park which is kind of like country life in the middle of the city. I even saw deer and wild turkeys on a couple of my runs on the Bison Trail, which for a country girl stuck in the big city, it really is a breath of fresh air!




And we are off! Started on UNL's city campus
and finished by running 50 yards on Memorial Stadium

 


Some of our fabulous cheering section.
(Hilary, Amanda, Tammie, Rob) 

 

          I live with my four best friends, Amanda, Bailey, Kat, and Kelsey, and Bailey, Kelsey, and I had signed up to run for Nebraska TEAM BEEF in the Lincoln Half Marathon, yes that is 13.1 miles and as some people say, "It's only half crazy." :)  It was fun to be able to train alongside some of your best friends and then run basically the entire race with them while we had family and friends cheering us on and a lot of people yelling, "GO TEAM BEEF" or even some runners coming up behind us saying, "I think I need to pass these girls, beef is making me hungry." I told my roommates that we should've gotten a stick and taped a big ole' juicy steak to it and see how many people would follow us instead of the pacer sticks. Haha, maybe another time! The team consisted of about 30 Nebraska beef enthusiasts. Although we only saw about five of the other team members during the race, we ran into a lot of them after the race.


Kelsey and Bailey at mile 10. They finished
4 mins ahead of me. You see Bailey here to

the "fist pump" which we did everytime

anyone yelled for Team Beef.



Me at mile 10, still with a smile on my face!

         



          I am pretty darn proud to be able to say that I ran my FIRST Half-Marathon in 2 hours and 18 minutes and 3 seconds, but most importantly that I had the opportunity to run it with some of the best friends anyone could have and promote my passion for the beef industry by running for TEAM BEEF!

WE FINISHED!!! So proud of my best friends!

          My mother made the 5 hour trek down to Licoln to spend the weekend with me. We went to the Henry Doorly Zoo on Saturday morning with Amanda and Kelsey and then she came to cheer me on during the half marathon. My mom has been my biggest fan throughout my entire athletic career! From endless basketball games during regular season onto state games and even my all-area elite games, softball games through rain and sunshine, to now running! Thank you soooo much Mom for your years of support. You don't know how much it really means to me! I love you!

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Have you ran a 5K, 10K, Half marathon or Full marathon? Do you want to sometime? Who offers you support through life's adventures?

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My next running adventure will be on June 9th at the Calamus Outfitters near Burwell, Nebraska for the Sandhills Sandbur 5K Run to help local cancer patients with travel expenses through the local 4-The-Cure charity. I will get to run through the gorgeous sandhills with two of my wondeful friends, Carrie and Ashley