Klakring Countdown: 21
Posted by: ltbeyer on: 8 July, 2009
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Today’s theme: 21st Century Breakdown — a nod to Green Day and the current times we live in. One of the single titles on GD’s new album is extremely appropriate after 23 weeks of waiting, don’t you think?
Green Day – “Restless Heart Syndrome” (click to listen)
And no, I didn’t forget to continue my countdown…I was just busy with lots of Single Greatest Night for Cystic Fibrosis stuff today. But I wasn’t too busy to keep thinking “only three weeks left” every five seconds throughout the day. Even when someone asked me, “how long until Garrett comes home?”, I answered with a big smile for the first time. What a change from a few weeks ago when I was telling myself that I could get through 8 more weeks alone. Now I’m counting the days to make sure I have enough time to get back to running, buy plane tickets for our trip home, get a haircut and a couple more girls nights in!
Klakring Countdown: 22
Posted by: ltbeyer on: 7 July, 2009
According to Wikipedia, the number 22 is significant to many in math, religion and sports (Clyde Drexler and Emmit Smith both wore #22). Today was significant as millions of people around the world watched Michael Jackson’s memorial service from LA. For me though, its just one (stormy) day closer to my guy coming home.
Today’s theme: Singing in the rain, MJ style…proof that you really can find anything on the internet.
Klakring Countdown: 23
Posted by: ltbeyer on: 6 July, 2009
- In: basketball| lol
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In honor of my friends (and boyfriend) on the USS Klakring returning from deployment this month, I present the “Klakring Countdown”.
Today’s theme: I wanna be like Mike
xoxo
Lending My Voice to Cystic Fibrosis
Posted by: ltbeyer on: 21 June, 2009
It’s been awhile since I’ve updated my blog, but that’s mostly because I’ve been enjoying life in Florida and staying busy with friends, working hard and trying to keep connected with with my family and a certain sailor who’s been on deployment since January. You’ll be seeing more consistent updates to the blog for the next six months (and hopefully longer) because now I’m involved with a group that has many stories that I want to help tell.
I have been selected as Single Greatest Night honoree by the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation in Jacksonville. Each year, the CFF selects young professionals who are active within the community to be honored at an event in November. As an honoree, I have committed to building awareness about Cystic Fibrosis and fundraising for the Foundation through the summer and fall. I am fortunate enough to have built a community that extends well beyond the geographic region of Jacksonville, Florida so I am going to be using my blog to share information and news about Cystic Fibrosis, my experience as an honoree and tell stories about those who are connected to this disease. My goals are two-fold, mainly to raise awareness and create conversation about Cystic Fibrosis with my friends, family and communities; and also to raise money for CFF so they can continue to provide support to families and fund research for new medicines to treat and cure the disease.
If you don’t know much about cystic fibrosis, you aren’t alone. Here are a few things I’ve learned about it already:
- About 30,000 children & adults in the US (and 70,000 worldwide) have cystic fibrosis
- CF is a inherited chronic disease that causes the body to product thick sticky mucus that clogs the lungs and affects the pancreases, preventing the absorption of nutrients.
- In the 1950’s, when the CFF was established, few children with CFF lived long enough to attend elementary school.
- Today, more than 40% of the CF population is over the age of 18 and the predicted median age of survival is 37 years old.
I ask for your support in my involvement with the Single Greatest Night and CFF. Please bookmark, subscribe or return to my blog periodically to follow along with my journey and the stories we’ll share. If you are able, please consider donating to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation in my name. You can do this easily online on my personal donation webpage, or you can send me a check if you’d rather. I invite you to contact me anytime if you have questions or want to share your story.
I’m very excited to be a Single Greatest Night honoree and to share my experience with you. I’ll be posting a lot of our kickoff materials and info this week, so make sure you come back to see it.
PS – Happy Father’s Day to all you dads out there. I wrote a post last year to my Dad and Grampa and don’t think I can do any better this year, so here it is again.
12 Things For You
Posted by: ltbeyer on: 5 June, 2009
12 things to learn, forget and remember again — courtesy of a fridge clipping that Tristan Prettyman saw and shared. I would have shared this with a few friends via email, but thought it would best to share with anyone who cares enough to find and read it.
1. You will receive a body.
You may like it or hate it, but it will be yours the entire period.
2. You will learn lessons.
You are enrolled in a full-time informal school called Life. Each day in this school you will have the opportunity to learn lessons. You may like the lessons or think them irrelevant and stupid.
3. There are no mistakes, only lessons.
Growth is a process of trial and error: experimentation. The “failed” experiments are as much a part of the process as the experiments that ultimately “work.”
4. A lesson is repeated until learned.
A lesson will be presented to you in various forms until you have learned it. When you have learned it, you can then go on to the next lesson.
5. Learning lessons does not end.
There is no part of life that does not contain its lessons. If you are alive, there are lessons to be learned.
6. “There” is no better than “here.”
When your “there” has become a “here,” you will simply obtain another “there” that will again look better than “here.”
7. Others are merely mirrors of you.
You cannot love or hate something about another person unless it reflects something you love or hate about yourself.
8. What you make of your life is up to you.
You have all the tools and resources you need. What you do with them is up to you. The choice is yours.
9. Life is exactly what you think it is.
You create a life that matches your beliefs and expectations.
10. Your answers lie inside you.
The answers to life’s questions lie inside you. All you need to do is look, listen, and trust.
11. You will forget all this.
12. You can remember it whenever you want.
Happy Friday! ♥
Coffee Cup Inspiration
Posted by: ltbeyer on: 21 May, 2009
Courtesy of my Starbucks grande vanilla with room americano…
The Way I See It #293
The way I see it
Isn’t necessarily
The way you see it
Or the way it is
Or ought to be
What’s more important
Is that we’re all
Looking for it
And a way to see it
–Desi Di Nardo (author and poet)
What good thoughts help you start your day off well?
First time in South Carolina!
Posted by: ltbeyer on: 18 April, 2009
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My first Gate River Run
Posted by: ltbeyer on: 23 March, 2009
- In: Move| My List| Photos| sports
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9 days after the Gate River Run 15K, I actually get around to updating my blog about the race. However, moments after I finished I was posting on Facebook and Twitter…which goes to show I need to find a way to import more of that stuff onto my blog!
My time for the race was 1:33:52. I beat my overall goal of finishing under 1 hour 35 minutes. I would have liked to be closer to a flat 10 min mile pace (was 10:19), but I was pretty happy with that. It’s weird to say now, but the first six miles (hour) flew by for me. I remember most of the steps, but it didn’t feel like it took long to cross that 10K line.
My race strategy was to run 10-12 minutes at a time, the walk for 1-2 minutes throughout the race. I wasn’t planning on running in packs of curb-to-curb people for the entire time, which made it harder to execute my plan. For example, I took my first walk break on the Main Street bridge, at about 1.6 miles in and feared I would be trampled by the crowd around me. Along the ways I realized it sucked to be walking, even if just for a couple minutes, while people were passing me left and right. I knew, though, that sticking to my strategy would leave me with enough power to get up the Hart Bridge in the 9th mile. I made up for lost time (and earned a ton of roadkill points!) by running the entire way up the bridge. My final mile was actually my fastest (probably thanks to a large downhill portion). Crossing the finish line was awesome, as were the beers we hoisted in celebration afterwards.
Congrats (belated) to my friends and everyone else who finished the River Run, including Stacey, Katherine, Jason, Cate and Holly. And thanks to all the people who stood along the race route with signs and noisemakers, shouting your encouragement. That really kept me moving (even if I did have to pretend that every cheer was really for me).
Next up for me (now that my legs don’t feel like cement bags anymore) are the final weeks of training for the Nashville Country Music Half Marathon on April 25th. I did about an hour run (5.5 miles?) this past Saturday and will pick up my running to 4-5 times a week in preparation. I also may run the Navy 10k in a couple weeks. It’d be nice to get one more race in before going to Nashville and I have the Navy to thank (kinda) for getting me running in the first place.
9.3 Miles – Every Step of the Way
Posted by: ltbeyer on: 13 March, 2009
It’s the night before the Gate River Run 15k, and I should be turning off the computer and trying to fall asleep. I can feel adrenaline flowing through my body though, so I hope by writing it wil relax me enough to knock me out for 7 good hours of sleep.
I’ve had tomorrow’s race circled on my calendar since I first thought about taking up running, back in August. It’s the biggest race in Jacksonville every year (15,000 runners in the 15k) and I’ve come to realize if you’re a runner in Jax, people don’t ask if you’ve run the River Run – they ask how many you’ve finished.
My friend (and roommate) Stacey wrote this really cool note about why she’s running the Gate, and it inspired me to make one of my own. So here’s 9 or so reasons I’ll be thinking of every step of the way.
Mile 1 - I’m taking this one for me. For setting a new challenge in front of me, something I had never thought about seriously doing (or enjoying), sticking to the training (mostly) and accomplishing a big part of my goal. I intend to continue finding challenges and working towards accomplishing throughout my lifetime. Running is really good practice.
Mile 2 - This one’s for Raechel, my best friend, confidant and my favorite runner! Last year, we were supposed to run the Shamrock Run 5k together and I bailed on her, having just flown back from a job interview in Jax, feeling under the weather and frightened of running in a real race with lots of people. Rae was the first one I’d text or call when I finished a step in training (2 miles today! 5K! 6 miles!) and she always encouraged me. I can’t thank her enough for her support and all-around incredibleness. I can’t wait until we run a race TOGETHER! (PS: She’s running a half marathon next month with Team in Training. You can read about it and cheer her on here.)
Mile 3 - For my Mom, who told me the other day that me running was “so cool because its so unlike you.” LOL, I can’t argue with that because she’s kinda right. To think that I’m going to do a 15K and a half marathon before my Mom does is a little unreal, since she’s a workout machine. Tomorrow I’ll definitely be thinking about that one time we worked out together, where she kicked my ass and I was too intimidated to go with her again for 2 years. Love you Momma!!
Mile 4 - Here’s to you Dad, who told me one of the last times I was home, that I couldn’t run that far. (Garrett is my witness) You were kidding a little, but I know you’ll be proud when I call and tell you I finished 9 miles.
Mile 5 – For Stacey, who has been a great friend, roommate and teammate since I met you last summer. Good luck in the race, even though I really want to beat you! 
Mile 6 - Running this one for Laura, who I met right after she finished her first half marathon. Remember that conversation I had with you Labor Day weekend (you were getting ready for Anna’s wedding so probably not) and I told you, I’m going to run a half marathon? That got you really excited and you gave me all sorts of good advice about workouts, training and nutrition. We need to re-do that conversation now that I’m 5 weeks from a real half marathon.
Mile 7 – This one is for my brother Adam. Because after you start running 7 miles at a time, you can’t be called “fatty” anymore…even by your little brother (who could probably benefit from more soccer or running himself). Come down here and we’ll compare beach bods.
Mile 8 - A big thanks in this mile to all my Brass peeps and Corvallis friends. Laura E., Sarah, Bryan, Tom, Zack, Steve, Eric – who all were training for some marathon, half marathon, triatholon while I knew and worked with you. I used to think you were crazy. Actually, I still do but more in an admiring way. To Ethan, who told me running more than 2 miles ever was stupid (you’re right). And to Brady, who founded Corn Dog Day many years ago – I’m celebrating my running achievements with a few corndogs at next week’s party.
Mile 9 – I started running as a way of distraction when Garrett left for 2 months on his ship, so its no surprise that I chose this mile specifically for him. This is the mile with the really big bridge that you have to run up and over before you see the finish line. Your words “just keep swimming” will get me up that hill and down the other side. It’s kinda like the hill we’re climbing right now…no matter how steep or long it might seem now, soon we’ll only have the downhill part left. And when we get to that finish line, I’ll be there waiting for you (with Starbucks in hand).
Last .3 miles - This little part is for my virtual running buddy, Kait, who I’ll actually get to meet at the Country Music (Half) Marathon next month. Nashville, here we come!!!
You can follow along on www.jacksonville.com tomorrow for race results and information. I expect to finish right around 10AM, so check it out when you west coasters wake up tomorrow. I’ll also post something on Twitter, Facebook and eventually here to let you know I survived!
