My Race Miracle :)

This post will be pretty long and wordy, with zero pictures (lo siento) but that doesn't make it any less important! So you should probably still read it :)

Throughout this whole training process and the half marathon, I prayed for a way to glorify God through my running...and he gave it to me! So of course, I'm here to share it. :)

The week leading up to the race, my left foot was in some tremendous pain. It was off and on, and seemed to get worse after I ran. The weekend of the race finally came...and I could hardly walk, it was horrible! I went to the doctor earlier and they said that they thought I had cellulitus (don't ask me what that is or how you get it...I'm still not sure) and that I could just take some antibiotics to get rid of it, hoooray! So day 1 of antibiotics and I already saw a huge difference. My foot was still pretty sore, but not as bad as before and it wasn't red like it was before. Slowly but surely it was healing! I was ecstatic. So on Wednesday I decided to just go ahead and continue on with my training, so I ran about 3 miles. Not too bad...but after my foot began to hurt a bit more. Same thing happend on Thursday after my run. I headed back to the doctor for a follow up appointment, and he asks how my foot has been after taking the medicine. I told him that it was great, and the redness had completely cleared up after a day! Well, apparently that doesn't mean great things to the doctor, because it seemed to heal too fast, so they ruled out cellulitus. Uhhh? So here I am, with a painful foot, and some puzzled doctors. The doctors said that there wasn't much I could do for it, other than just ice it and take it easy if it got really painful. It was completely out of my control, completely left up to God.

I prayed and prayed for God to heal my foot, and to allow me to still run the race and train in a way that praised Him - what that way was yet, I wasn't sure. Race day comes, I get out of bed, and I can't walk my foot hurts so bad. Eventually it loosened up a bit and was a little better, but for the whole morning leading up to the race I was in some serious pain. How in the world was I going to run 13.1 miles?? By this point I was starting to get nervous about the race in general, and I was beginning to freak out about hurting my foot even more. So we line up in our corrals, do some stretching, and camp out to wait for our turn to begin. It's finally our corrals turn and at this point the anxiety and nervousness had turned to excitement! I'm beginning to forget about my foot, trusting God completely and leaving it all up to Him! Well you guys...I can not praise God enough! The race started and off we went, the beginning of the 13.1 miles in darkness. It was odd, I won't lie. It took me a while to remember how to run, for some reason I felt a bit off, and to get in my groove. But those 13.1 miles were amazing! Although my foot pain didn't completely go away, it was still barley noticeable...and the most important part: I WAS RUNNING! I couldn't walk a few hours ago and here I was running my first half marathon! I finished the whole half marathon, running the entire way, and afterwards? my foot felt amazing. It's day 3 after the race and so far...my foot has been as good as new! A few little pains here and there, but nothing like before. If that's not God's way of answering prayers and giving me a wonderful opportunity to praise Him, then I don't know what is! The verse Philippians 4:13 - "I can do all things through Christ who strenghtens me" - has never been more true for me then it was this weekend :)

B.Hines

Disney Princess Half Marathon Weekend

Oh my goodness y'all, the Disney Princess Half Marathon was completely amazing! I know I already mentioned that, but seriously I had the best time! The whole weekend was just wonderful, it was definitely a first half that I will always remember.

Let's rewind, shall we?

8:30pm on Friday night and we finally arrived in Orlando! (We = my mom and I, she's my #1 fan!)

It was a long day of traveling due to flights being delayed because of bad weather. In fact, the Raleigh airport apparently closed at around 5pm that afternoon because the wind was so bad. I'm super thankful that we made it out before then!

We finally got to our resort and were starving, so we chowed down on some yummy resort food while watching Cars 2 outside. Not only do I love Cars...but watching it outside by the pool?! Yes please!

Oh, and maybe I should mention that it was gorgeous outside as well... love Florida weather!

After we had our late dinner, my mom and I wandered around the resort for a bit. We stayed in the Disney All Star Sports Resort so everything was sports themed and I loved it. We stayed in the football part, so fitting for a girl that loves football as much as me :)

They also had a tennis section, basketball section, and a baseball section. They've got it all.

Saturday morning we attempted to sleep in, but unfortunately I was still up by 8:00. Sleeping in is apparently a foreign concept to me now...so dumb. Saturday we didn't have many other plans other than heading to the expo and relaxing! Luckily, since we stayed at a Disney resort, they had a shuttle going to take us to the expo, so that made things really simple for us.

The expo was at the ESPN Wide World of Sports complex. That place is huge! I've never been out there before so it was really fun to go check it out. In the morning they had a 5k and a family fun run going on, and then also the expo which was all day. That place was packed! I've never seen so many females decked out in glitter and tutu's before in my life...and it wasn't even race day yet!

Even though the expo was completely crowded, it all went pretty smoothly. I got my bib, t-shirt, and other race day necessities (eeek!) and then just walked around the expo for a while, checking out the different vendors.

Princess Brittany ;)

We also saw Jeff Galloway and Sage Steele talk for a bit about training and running your first half marathon...

After the expo, my mom and I headed over to Downtown Disney for a late lunch and to wander around the area a bit because we had never been to that part of Disney.

We had lunch at Planet Hollywood, explored in Lego Land, and continued to wander...

This is how I fuel up before a race. Deliiiiish.

After all of our walking around, eating, and more walking around, we headed back to our resort to enjoy the rest of our afternoon with this as our view....

I could definitely get used to that.

And for the rest of the evening I sat in bed icing my foot and praying to God that it would be healed before the big race in the morning!

But, let's just save that issue and the race recap for another post, shall we? :) I'll be impressed if you've actually read this post this far...

Happy Tuesday!

B.Hines

That one time I ran a half marathon...

Well, the Disney Princess Half Marathon has officially come and gone and it was amazing!!

The whole weekend was so much fun and I had such a great time running...it will definitely be a race that I remember forever :)

My overall time was 2:57:57 (that's what happens when you stop and wait to get pictures with every character...but it was worth it!) and my Garmin time (I stopped the watch everytime we stopped for pictures, so I would know my actual time spent running) was around 2 hours and 15 minutes!

Here are a few cell phone pictures from the race... more to come later, with a full recap of the weekend!

The castle!

And I finished! Got my medal and some champagne... I was a happy girl :)

More soon!

B.Hines

Off to Orlando!

Well, it's officially here. Today in just a few short hours I will be on my way to Orlando!

I cannot believe that this half marathon is only TWO days away!! Oh my goodness gracious...time flys!

This morning I found this lovely note on my car...

Seriously, my roommate is the bomb.

Happy Friday!!

B.Hines

Training Update: Week ??

Honestly, no clue what this last week makes. BUT, it was the second to LAST week before the actual race...we're almost there!!

Monday: rest day after my 9 mile run on Sunday :)

Tuesday: I didn't run. Oops...

Wednesday: 4:34 miles, 43ish minutes. It was such a gorgeous day outside, in the 60's! Loved it!

Thursday: 5.22 miles, 50ish minutes. Not so gorgeous day outside, but still had a great run. It was pouring down rain all afternoon, but regardless I still thought it would be fun to go for a run. Once you get over the fact that it's pouring rain and you're soaking wet...it actually makes it a very exciting run!

I promise my legs aren't as fat as they look in this picture haha

Friday: I played tennis with a friend for a bit because it was so pretty outside :)

Saturday: ANOTHER gorgeous day...loved the weather last week! I was supposed to do 60 minutes of cross training, but unfortunately my foot started hurting Friday night and continued to hurt throughout the day on Saturday, so I figured a rest day would be okay.

Sunday: 11:06 miles, 1 hour 50 minutes. Longest run yet! AND last long run before the big race! Although I woke up to my foot still hurting, I decided to deal with it and run anyway (I know you technically shouldn't do this...but I'm stubborn). I guess I'm paying for that decision now, because my foot is in some major pain. Luckily though, the doctor doesn't think it's fractured or broken, but instead I have cellulitis (whatever that is?) and it's some infection. So I have some lovely antibiotics to get rid of it :) Please be praying that this heals it... I think I will lose it if I can't run my half on Sunday. I'm just putting all of my of trust in God right now! :)

And now, a little sneak peek of my outfit for the race...

I'm so excited! :)

Happy Monday,

B.Hines

The Story of the Steelers Dice

Once upon a time, I got two pretty Steelers dice for Christmas.

Source

Beautiful. 

Like any normal human being, I put them in my car and hung them for the whole word to see! (not from my mirror though, that's just a little too much for me...but instead from my "oh crap!" handles)

Sadly, I don't have a picture of this and can't just take one because my little Jeepy is yet again in the shop. More on that later, it's a good story I promise.

Just use your imagination that this is my actual car and that there are two beautiful dice hanging from that handle.

Anyway...back to the story, these dice were hanging by the handles that are right next to my windows, and on a gorgeous sunny day heading to work, I had my windows down. Well, next thing I know a big gust of wind goes through my car and my dice are hanging out the window! Oh my.

I should probably go ahead and mention that I've had these dice for a while. For like 5 or 6 years they have been hanging in my car. Their colors have faded, they've been abused by non-steelers fans (so mean), they've been through it all! So, when I reached over to grab one to pull them both back in the car, well...that didn't go over too well. The string that connected the dice was so worn that it just broke and the black dice fell out the window off onto the side of the road...

And then there was one...

Well now, what am I supposed to do with just one dice with no string??

So this was weeks ago... now let's fast forward to yesterday.

After work I went for a run and decided to run from my apartment to work (work is only about 2 miles away...if that). As I was heading back, I was running along the side of the road and I suddenly remembered that this was the road that I lost my dice on over 2 weeks ago.

Now how funny would that be if here I was just going on a casual run and I actually found my dice?!

So, just for fun I started to look for it...definitely not thinking that it would still be here on the side of the road after the wind and rain and whatever other weather that we've had in the past few weeks. Well, as luck would have it, I looked down and saw this little black dice sitting in the ditch.

REUNITED!!!!

I don't know that I even want to know where that sucker has been, but after a little wash it will be good as new and back in my Jeep! ...if I ever get my Jeep back that is...but like I said, more on that later.

So happy to have both of my Steelers dice back :) 

Happy Thursday!

B.Hines

Bucket List

For graduation, instead of getting a fancy piece of jewelry or something materialistic that would end up meaning little to nothing down the road, I preferred to go on a trip with my mom to celebrate! Recently, we've been in the planning stages of this trip and although it should be exciting and fun to plan, it's been kind of stressful. I've realized that there's a lot that I want to do and many places that I want to explore...and our budget doesn't quite cover all of that for a little graduation trip.

So all of this has got me thinking about my Bucket List. What am I going to accomplish before I die? There are many things I'd like to do, many places I'd like to see...it's almost impossible to list them all. But either way, I've tried. Here are some things on my Bucket List... don't judge.

Brittany's Bucket List!

Have a dog (of course). I'm hoping that this will happen sooner rather than later :)

This is me and my sweet pup, Lucky, before she passed away in 2008.

Travel, travel, travel! - Europe, South America, Iceland, the West Coast....

See the Northern Lights, and get fantastic pictures of them.

Marry a wonderful man that is the love of my life who is so in love with God - and myself of course ;)

Ryan Gosling would do just fine.

Ride in a hot air balloon

Become a professional photographer - whether it's that I have my own business, or that I'm working as a sports photographer, or for National Geographic...

You know you want to hire me.

See the Iguassu Falls

Go on a safari in Africa

Have a job that I love, one that I'm excited to go to everyday

I could definitely be president.

Learn to play the piano again

Source

Hike the Inca Trail - the whole 4 day trek!

Run a marathon, preferably the Nike Women's Marathon...I'm trying to get a Tiffany's Necklace ;)

Become a mom - and show my kids unconditional love the way my mom showed me and my brother.

Lead someone to God

Live and work in another country for a little while

Go on a trip and help others in underdeveloped areas

Stay in a hut in the water in Bora Bora

Source

This place would be ideal.

Have a photography studio, even if it's just in my house

Run a race in a foreign country.

Teach photography to kids

Road trip across the United States, stopping at all of the key spots


Obviously this is an ever growing list, for all I know it may be twice this long in a few months! Here's to hoping that I can at least accomplish half of these things...but first I think I'm going to need to find some pretty adventurous friends (or husband!) to do all of these things with :)

So, what's on your bucket list?

B.Hines

Oh, and about that graduation trip...when I first started writing this post it was still in the planning stages, but now we are booked and ready to roll! I'll save all the details for another post :)

How to have a successful Super Bowl

So, you want to know how to have a successful and fun Super Bowl even when your favorite team isn't in it and you could care less about the teams actually playing? Well, you came to the right place!

First, you should probably wear a shirt representing your favorite team and their SIX Super Bowl championships...you know, just to remind everyone that your team is in fact the best.

Next, take a trip to the grocery store during game time (yes, grocery stores stay open and the world still functions even though the Super Bowl is on...) to get some goodies for the game, like hummus, wine, brownie mix...the usual.

But wait a second, you probably shouldn't have bought that extra bottle of wine because you actually already have a whole shelf full of yummy goodies to drink. Oh well...

Now, it's time to start cooking! Pull out your new hummus (aka your latest obsession) and try out the recipe on the lid because it looks and sounds soooo delicious!

And yes, it was as delicious as it looks and sounded.

Once you've devoured that, you should probably let your food digest before moving on to the dessert, so it's a good idea to take a bunch of crazy pictures with your roommate (who is currently in the process of downing a bottle of wine...no biggie).

Pretty hair.

Okay, I think you're ready for the brownies now. Oh, and don't forget the wine...

Funfetti brownies are ideal.

Whew! All that cooking and baking has worn you out. Now it's time to sit back, relax, and enjoy the 4th quarter (because yes, you've somehow missed the rest of the game..)

Maybe even get some kickboxing in if you feel so inclined...

But no matter what you do, definitely be sure to cheer for the Giants...because even though you don't really care about either team, you HATE the Patriots and so obviously they should lose.

Feel free to take pictures of your cracked, old school TV so that you at least feel like you're at the game...

And hooray Giants, they did it! Take that, Tom Brady Patriots!!!

Well, there you have it, you successfully had an awesome Super Bowl night, even without your favorite team playing! Who knew it could be done?

It's almost as crazy as your roommate finishing a bottle of wine within 3 hours.

Happy Monday!

B.Hines