Hey everyone! My April was awesome in terms of lively, and not so much in terms of books. Does one balance out the other? Ah well, I’m combining these posts since my #BirthMay announcement took the place of my books post.

If you missed it, I’m blogging everyday in honor of my birthday! I’m calling it BirthMay because it’s cute!

I’ll start with my lively topics!

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Running

I did so much running this month. Well, maybe not that much compared to someone who is actually fit, but for me, it was a lot!

On April 1st I was out for a run! I ran for 2 miles and felt so tired afterwards! Not a promising start but everyone starts somewhere, right? I believe I was at around 13mins per miles. It was kind of cold out but I warmed up while running. The trail was soaked as it had rained the night before so I did a lot of hopping around trying to avoid puddles.

April 9th was my next run. I did 2 miles again and felt great! This time I was at around 12:30 per mile so progress was happening! I love trail runs and while I don’t listen to music I do have my phone for selfie purposes. I know lots of people listen to music but I don’t because I’m not used to it. When I was running in school I wasn’t actually allowed to listen to music for safety reasons. When on the road or trail it can be dangerous not to know what’s going on around you in case a car or crazy person comes towards you. So I just don’t listen to anything. Plus it’s good thinking time!

I featured this outfit in my Houston OOTD post (and it’s the same shirt I wore on my previous run) but I worked out and ran on a treadmill when I was in Texas for work! I know you’re likely sick of hearing about my work trip but it was huge for me! Back to the running. I did not have a good run but I think it was because 1) I really wanted to be in the pool instead and 2) I was actually about to come down with a cold. It was kind of disappointing because at this point I was a week out from a 5k and I had wanted to do well in what was likely the last run before the run. I think I was at 15mins for the miles I did run and then I walked a lot. Yikes!

And on April 28th I ran a 5k! I briefly mentioned this in My April Life post, I did a Superhero Run at Six Flags Great America, an amusement park near me. As you can see, it was a sort of a color run and many people looked like they’d already gone through the course when my sister and I arrived for the “pre-party”.

 

We picked up our packets early and had picked the Batman team. I love Batman and my car is named after him so it was the obvious choice! You could pick between Batman, Superman, the Joker, and Wonder Woman. Our color powder was yellow but my sister traded some of our yellow for someone else’s Wonder Woman red (which looked pink) and we put some on our capes. We soon got covered in Joker Green and Superman Blue walking around as people were throwing it to get it on themselves and their friends/family with them.

Now it was a run/walk situation and luckily since my sister and I had picked up our stuff early we got pretty low bib numbers (we’d gone to pick it up the night before). Since we were 1-1000 we were in the first group to run. It was tough because a lot of people were walking and when the area narrowed we couldn’t pass them but after about 3/4 of a mile it finally thinned out to people who were mostly running. We had still been pretty far back. Anyway, she’s a faster runner and soon ditched me (with my encouragement) and I ran along steadily.

My original plan was to run 2 miles, as I had only run about 2 miles at a time before then, and then walk the rest. But there were no mile markers anywhere! So I had to guess how long I had run. I also hadn’t looked at the map closely so I couldn’t remember where the finish line was. We ran through one section of the park and then out and around the park on their private road, into Hurricane Harbor (the water park area) and out again through the parking lot, around another private road to the other side of the park, through the back employee only areas, and then back into the park. We got to see the new Joker ride (looks terrifying but I’ll ride it) and then there was a rave party in one of the bridges that separate the different themed areas. We came back around to the front and just as I was thinking “hmmm I must have ran at least two miles already” the finish line appeared! I didn’t even get a photo of the finish like because it was hidden around a corner. I ever saw it coming and then hoards of runners were still coming through so I couldn’t get back to it. Oh well!

So I accidentally ran the whole 5k. Yay! I finished just over 31 minutes, which means I did about a 10min mile pace. That was my college “easy” pace! (I’m a really slow runner.) Then I rode a few rides and then headed home. It was a fun time except for the part afterwards when I couldn’t find my sister because her phone “wasn’t working” (she seemed to have no problems with it after I yelled at her real good for being irresponsible and scaring me that something might be wrong) but I’m mostly over that. I totally want to do another 5k and I would be willing to do a half marathon in the future. Preferably the Disney Princess Half Marathon!

Writing

I didn’t do as much of this as I would have liked as I got distracted by work. And I can’t share much about it because it’s for my grad school statement of purpose. In order to apply I have to write a statement of purpose explaining why I want to go back to school to earn my MBA. I need to seriously sit down and work on it but I got a pretty good outline I think. Just need to flesh it out and… well… write it out.

Blogging

I’m including this here because of #BirthMay! I came up with this idea when I started my blog but was way too shy to do it last year. This year I’m totally excited for it and I am having so much fun blogging everyday so far!

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April Books

I didn’t do so well reading wise. I only read two books this month. Between traveling and just being in a reading slump I just didn’t pick up many books. Hopefully May is better for reading!

RoseBlood by A.G. Howard

2/5 Stars

I really enjoyed this book at first and had potential for me but as it went on it just wasn’t good. I continued reading as I love the Phantom of the Opera but it didn’t live up to the story it’s based on. Roseblood is a retelling where the main character is sent to a school where the Opera Populaire supposedly was inspired. There were various promising plot points but they ultimately fell flat and the secondary characters seemed so irrelevant to the plot they could have not been there at all and it wouldn’t have changed much, if anything. The magic system also didn’t make much sense, it was all over the place! I just didn’t enjoy this book and it was very disappointing for me.

Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster by Jon Krakauer

5/5 Stars

There is something about Mount Everest that has always interested me. I would love to see it someday. Not climb it necessarily, I don’t think I am willing to commit the time it would take to be prepared enough and experienced enough for that but I do want to see it with my own eyes. I remember reading books about Everest, the tallest mountain in the world, and wondering what it was like to climb it. Recently I checked the movie Everest out from the library and it sparked my interest again. The movie is based on another book written about Everest, specifically the 1996 disaster that occurred May 10th and 11th on the mountain that resulted in 12 deaths, making it the deadliest day and year for the mountain until the number was surpassed in 2014 and 2015. This book is written by a person who was in that disaster as well, providing insight about how this event was unavoidable.

Krakauer detailed his climbing experience before he settled into his career as a journalist. Eventually his work allowed him to join an expedition and climb the mountain. He points out several instances where inexperienced climbers were being led up the mountain, usually wealthy clients who could pay the expensive fees associated with not only mountaineering but with the permits necessary to climb this particular mountain. He also points out that many of the climbers were focused only on ascending the mountain, and not thinking ahead to the descent as well as heightened competition, politics, and other factors that contributed to the terrible events.

It was a really great book and I do plan to read more books about Everest. I’m also following along Cory Richards and Adrian Ballinger’s #EverestNoFilter Snapchat story as they attempt to climb Everest without supplemental oxygen. I also followed them the first time they attempted the climb when Richards was able to ascend but his phone died before he could get a snap from the top of the world. I hope this year they both make it up and down safely and a snap from the top of Everest would be amazing!

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And that’s really all I have for the month! Let me know what you hope to accomplish in terms of your goals and hobbies in May. I’d love to hear from you!

Thanks for reading!