Goodness! It has been awhile!  I blame a few things for my lack of bloggering but lets not point fingers and just get down to what has been keeping me busy.

Early April I was able to see CALIFORNIA for the first time, flying over for Nicole's birthday and spending 10 days in "running camp" mode. Pretty much, our days revolved around the following:

eating
running
organizing nicoles apartment
making friends at Sal's sandwich place
running again
coffee and staring at the Starbucks coffee boy
kindling
playing with the gopro
sleeping

I liked the time to just focus on things that I wanted to focus on, running hard and brainstorming life plans.   I was so thankful for the California trails and running buddy to spice up my training. The trip came at the peak of my mileage in training for the 25k Riverbank run, so it was great to devote time to really prep for each run, think about what I was doing, and execute, without work or anything else getting in the way.

Now that I'm back in MI I'm getting excited about racing this summer, and the awesome things that are happening at UR Sportswear.  What is this, you ask? Well it's a sportswear company (brand new) that makes ridiculously comfortable and attention grabbing spandex running shorts.  They sponsor me and in return I blog for them about my training, tips, and other fun stuff people might be interested in. You should definitely check them out, their product launched May 15 so go get them! www.ursportswear.com

As for career stuff, I am still working at Pfizer but I have taken on a mini job of finding as many contacts within the company as possible that could direct me towards the global health field. I am also applying to TONS of internships in hopes of getting in touch with global NGO's that help with care, treatment, and prevention of disease.  Fingers crossed!

I set fire to the rain

Photos courtesy of Nicole Bush :)

Updates:

Work has taken a surprising turn for good, my obsession for kindling has been taken to a new level, and came incredibly close to stalking someone on the way home from work. What a week, lets start from the top:

When you sign on as a contractor, or really any temp job, you know that you will most likely end up at the bottom of the proverbial work pile.  For the last couple months this has meant a relatively mundane week highlighted by midday running sessions and enlightening lunch conversations. Revising my resume and Linkedin profile as well as sending various emails to friends of friends that might know of someone who is in my career field has become somewhat of a supplement to the work I am given on a daily basis. I had resigned myself to the fact that this would most likely be the norm for the rest of the year and have been actively finding ways to continue to exercise my brain and other skills so that I can be ready when my time to work within my field will come. However, I was taken aback by a simple question posed to me by one of my supervisors on Friday, “So what do you WANT to do here?”  After recovering from shock at not being given another spreadsheet to add to, we ventured into a conversation of how I could become more involved with projects closer to my passion, even though neglected third world diseases can seem like a far stretch from the regulatory department of animal health there is some strange overlap. Success!  

Now, although I am probably running consistently more mileage than I ever have before, I am not sleeping consistently more. I blame the kindle.  I cannot tell you the number of times I have literally fell asleep with it clutched in my hands, just to wake up in the morning cursing that I wouldn’t get to be able to find out what happens next until a break at work.  Incredibly addicting little buggers, I have read 6 books so far this year and am currently about halfway through the 7th. So potential kindle buyers, beware.  It will make all that lovely ideal running recovery sleep very difficult, you will have to work extra hard to get that 8 hours.

As for the stalking, it was a fleeting notion and very minor at that.  Coming home from work one day I pulled behind this cool subaru at a stoplight.  I have noticed them a lot recently because it’s the type of car I have been shopping around for myself.  Cute little sporty things that go forever and have a decent enough back to sleep in or throw your bike in, what more could you want.  Anyway, as I was checking it out I noticed a “Live Simply” bumper sticker.  “Yesss, this person could be a cool dude/ dudette,”I thought to myself as the light remained red. But just as I was trying to figure out if the driver was a he or a she, a South African flag magnet on the bumper caught my eye. Oh goodness, this is my ideal Kzoo friend.  As I was pondering how best to figure out who exactly this person was, the light turned green and said person drove on, leaving me wondering what cool adventure they were heading to, and exactly how I came to posses such stalkerish tendencies. Oh well, anonymous driver, I think you are rad anyway.

I'm gonna burn a hole in the road...Leave nothing on this street to explore

My lovely Kal-Haven trails, pre-snow 

Kalamazoo Lights

Waterstreet for some liquid chocolate

Long run around Wayland on Saturday :) 

Hey all!  Its been a minute since my last post.  I have been caught up in settling myself into a new life in Kalamazoo for the time being.  It’s interesting how similar yet different it feels to be in a new place finding my way around to the essentials... work.. trail.. food..coffee. But I am also reminded at how I did this in the not so distant past but in a much more foreign place.  Its been amusing how easily I have recently been slipping into the “survival mode” I took on in Cape Town whenever I needed to find something/ do something/ meet someone I hadn’t before. I have found my learning curve to be as steep as ever though, and within a few weeks I feel comfortable going about my everyday activities knowing I will probably not end up lost and confused.

I am also happy to report that my running has been really taking positive steps as well.  Before I left Florida I was still battling at minimal distances and trying to rebuild from some time I took off nursing some posterior tibial tendinitis.  Time, patience, and lots of strength rebuilding later I feel awesome running the mileage my legs have been longing for.  My sights are set on the Riverbank Run 25k in May, with the long term goal of breaking my personal best in the marathon this fall.  This winter has actually been graciously mild for my first one back (running in South Africa during January, not so bad :) but I have actually enjoyed the past week’s snow dump.  We are Michiganders after all, the snow is one of the major perks of living here!  I admit it did take a few runs to remember exactly how much clothing you really need to wear so as to not freeze, and how half frozen gels don’t go down nearly as smooth, but so long as the sun is shining I can handle the chilly temps.  

So it seems that I have a new hobby this year, kindling. Yes, kindling.  This is the act of reading on a kindle.  My mom bought my brother and I both one for Christmas, just the regular one, no fancy touch screen or color.  I love it, and actually enjoy its simpleness.  If we were to have gotten the upgraded version I think it would have been easy to just turn them into gaming/ video devices.  But my little kindle just allows me to read. And read. And read.  I will be finishing my fourth book this month sometime in the next day, so you could fairly guess that I am hooked.  I am actually hoping some of the novelty might wear off so I can get to bed at a decent hour (there have been countless times already where I LITERALLY can’t put it down!). I’m trying to get a reading list together now, so if you have any favorites just message me them :)