Alright my turn…I got tagged by Amanda : )

Here is how it works:

1. Post these rules.
2. You must post 11 random things about yourself.
3. Answer the questions set for you in their post.
4. Create 11 new questions for the people you tag to answer.
5. Go to their blog and tell them you’ve tagged them.
6. No stuff in the tagging section about you are tagged if you are reading this. You legitimately have to tag 11 people.

11 Random Things About me…

1. Everyone in my direct family (parents, brother) has blue eyes except me.  Mine are green.
2. In my first year of college, I had 3 different majors.  And took classes in all of them.
3. I have super sensitive skin, that doesn’t tan, and gets freckles.  Oh well.
4. I went to the same school from Kindergarten through Senior Year.  Different buildings, but same school, same campus.  Our campus was bigger than many college campuses and it was always interesting watching 5 year olds walk around with 18 year olds.  I loved every second and I still consider it my second home.  A big part of me wants to get married in the campus chapel
5. I was in last August’s Runner’s World (Stunner/Fastinista article).  It was super awesome
6. I have about 10 pairs of running shoes (probably three of which I really run in).  Working in running specialty will do that to you.
7. I haven’t run in shorts in 2 years.  Skirts all the way.
8. I really love reading historical fiction and watching historical movies and shows.  I always hated History classes in school simply because I hate the whole “memorize and regurgitate information” testing aspect but I love actually sitting in class and hearing about it.  Military and political history…not so much, but anything social or cultural fascinates me.  
9. I adore dogs.  Don’t like cats at all.  And don’t like little tiny dogs that look like cats.
10. I’m pretty sure there are only two green foods I like.  That includes RAW spinach (cooked is disgusting), and mint chocolate chip ice cream.
11. Katye isn’t short for anything.  My legal name is simply Katye Mateer.  I’m named after my dad’s aunt and my mom’s grandmother.  Fun fact…my mom really didn’t like the name Katie at all but my dad insisted so she had to quirk it up somehow. 

Amanda’s Questions…

1. Favorite race/event & why? New York City Marathon.  I have so many races I really really really love and will do again and again but something about this race is so magical and powerful.  There’s really no words to explain the experience and I think every marathoner needs to experience it at some point.
2. Were you a Princess or TomBoy?  Princess.  Still am in many aspects but I do  love a good sweat fest and have no problem leaving the house without makeup.
3. Who or What inspires you & why?  Oh goodness.  My family in general but particularly my brother who has faced hell and back and over come so much and come out so strong.  Also, my two lovely friends G and Erin who are kicking cancer’s ass as we speak inspire and motivate the hell outta me.
4. Do you have more “online” friends or real life friends?  Online.  Yes…I know.
5. 20 Year Class Reunion….Are you going, legitimately busy or you wouldn’t be caught dead stepping in the door?  I’d like to say I’d go!  But I’m only 23 so 20 year reunion is a bit a ways out there…
6. Do you prefer Flowers or Candy from the significant other or should they save the $?  Flowers.  I really love yellow roses and bright gerber daisies.  But the grocery store ones are just fine with me.  Don’t need the overpriced expensive ones.
   
7. If you were rich and famous and had the balls guts to name your kid something outlandish, what would that be?  First and Middle name, please!  Oh gosh…I mean I have a few names that seem a bit out there but that I would totally name my kids.  But I think Ireland would be a pretty cool name!  Hmm…maybe Ireland Greene ; )
   
8. You’re in a marathon, in first place, on world record pace…..You have to “go”.  Do you stop for a port-o-pot, and possibly lose the race and miss the world record or do you go in the street for the world to see?  Hold it? 
   
9. Why do you run? Because it taught me to love my body for what it can do, not what it looks like or what size it fits in!
   
10. Favorite type of run:  Group, Solo, Tempo, Long Run, Speed Work? Group!  Although I do love a good treadmill speed session
    
11. Most adventurous “out of character” thing you’ve ever done?  Does take up running count?  If you would have asked ANYONE who knew me (or me for that matter) 5 years ago and told them one day I’d be running marathons, we would have laughed.  Hard.  It took a huge leap of faith to put myself out there and so far out of my comfort zone.  So incredibly happy I did!

Okay now I get to come up with some!

1. If you absolutely had to change your first and middle name, what would you change them to?
2. If you could just drop all responsibilities for a week with not negative outcomes, what would you do with that week?
3. What pattern best fits your personality and why?  Animal?  Stripes?  Dots?  Plaid?  Paisley?
4. If you could take up any career for a month, what would you pick?
5. Trendy or timeless?
6. Are there any brands (can be any kind of brand) that you just can’t live without?
7. If you could create your own endurance event, what would it be?  Place?  Time?  Event?  Prize?  What else?
8. If you are running out the door and can only tag one bag with you for the day, what would it be?  Gym bag?  Purse?  Mommy Bag?  Brief case?
9. What was one article of clothing from your childhood that you distinctly remember and what makes it so memorable?
10. What’s your bedroom look like?  Do you love it or would you change it up?
11. Just for the hell of it, what Chinese Zodiac year were you born in?  Google it if you must ; )

Okay time to tag 11 people…I’m trying to tag people who I haven’t seen tagged yet to spread the randomness and fun:

1. NYCRunningMama
2. Chloe Trying to throw my arms around the world
3. Shelly It’s just one foot in front of the other
4. Katie Runs this
5. Heather Run faster mommy
6. Melissa Crazy or determined
7. Jamie Motivating me
8. Run Courtney Run
9. Jamie Sweaty Hugs
10. Little Fruit Fly
11. Kayla Running: My Anti Drug

Have fun ladies!

Had to post this one for my brother and Emily

2012 has thus far brought some exciting and interesting changes in my life.  I have many impending big life changes on the radar including graduating (I’ve spent all my life since I was 5 as a student…this is such a weird feeling) in May and starting the real world full time job thing.  I have lots of wonderful things I’m looking forward too and will share in due time, but one of my big changes occurred this weekend.  I said goodbye to my good friend and companion, Alice the Mustang. 

My little silver 2005 Mustang came into my life when I was 16.  Yes, I was incredibly blessed by the gift from my grandparents and parents.  Her name was Alice.  And I managed to total her less than 6 months after acquiring her.  Okay not completely total…mostly just totaled the entire right side of her.  So we spent months apart as all the parts were ordered and she was put back together.  I got my first and only speeding ticket with her (going 15 miles over the speed limit…down hill, less than a mile away from home).  She saw me through high school, college #1 and college #2.  Oh man you should see what its like to pack up to travel to and from college in a Mustang.  She taught me the art of packing into tight spaces.  We had many many good times together.  I sped away from perhaps the scariest moment of my life with her, spent a couple of nights driving around and sobbing with her, and spent many days laughing with her.  Yes, we were quite close.

Not my Alice...but rather a first cousin. Alice wasn't a GT. But I don't feel like digging through all my pictures to find her photo right now

But life changes and now that I am moving toward real life, I need a car that can get me to and from work and commitments regardless of snow.  As much as I loved Alice, she did NOT love the snow, ice, or even heavy rain.  I needed a car I could rely on to get me safely place to place.  AKA a small SUV.  After searching around a bit, my parents ended up getting a nice deal on an 2010 RAV 4 (my dad loves Toyotas).  And thus on Saturday I said goodbye to Alice at Carmax (she will make someone very happy I’m sure), and said hello to my new black beauty.

yeah taking pictures of a black car at night isn't the greatest idea

I think of him as Alice’s rough and tumble, bigger, younger little brother.  Of course I had to make him official.

And now that he was official…he needed a name.  It came to me right away.  Achilles.  It has all the letters in ALICE and seemed appropriate.  I have to admit it feels very weird having so much space in my car.  I went to Target the other day and could just put bags in the trunk without finagling at all.  So as much as I will always love my little Alice, Achilles and I are off to an excellent start. 

I AM SO BEHIND!  Sorry all…hopefully I will get myself caught up soon.  But I just wanted to do a quick shout out post to my friend Heather who has helped me numerous time to book Disney accomodations.  Whether you are planning to go to Disney (land or world) just for a race or for a family vacation, Heather is the way to go.  And she booked me my awesome Pirate room.  Enough said.

Some quick details:

A lot of people don’t realize it is free to use a travel agent

^(not only are Heather’s quotes free, she ends up saving you a bunch because she has access to deals most may not know about)

I want to make it clear that Heather in no way asked me to do this post, she has just been a huge help to me so I wanted to spread the word.  Thanks Heather! 

I interrupt regularly scheduled programming (aka finally giving you my Disney Race Recaps) for this announcement.

My dad has two season tickets for the Ravens.  This worked out fine for my dad and brother…up until I got to high school and finally began appreciating football.  When my brother’s home…chances are about 99% that I don’t get one of said two tickets.  But if I really want to go to a game, my dad always manages to work his magic and find me a ticket.  Well when the Ravens scored a home playoff game, I wanted to go.  I knew Jamie would be coming home from school for it, but my awesome family made it happen and I got two tickets (happy birthday to me!).  Boyfriend has been in Panama for a class for the past few weeks and wouldn’t get back until after the game so we wouldn’t be able to go…so I asked my trusty partner in crime, Emily, to come along.  We had a blast.   If you care about football, you already know the details…so I’ll just leave you with some pictures from the beautiful day.

go time.

tailgate club

HappiLee Running: Grill Master. This is no ordinary tailgate. Think grilled scallops, bacon wrapped shrimp, terderloin, home made desserts...

Dad's pregame speech. There are really no words for this...

we all drink the kool aid.

sign on the transformer my dad is standing on.

"A seven nation army couldn't hold me back"

Jamie's cold face

my brother Jamie, me, and Emily

RAYvens!

I'd like to thank my brother for pointing out that Tom Brady wears UGGs. Just sayin...

So I was super looking forward to tomorrow.  I was going to a) sleep past 6am for the first time in 14 days (yes I realized 6AM may be sleeping in to many of you) or b) finally go for a long run downtown with my running group.  Alas, neither will be happening because in my realization that today is Friday January 13th…I realized that makes tomorrow January 14th.  AKA the day I take my second to last certification tests for school.  At 7:30AM.

I hate standardized tests.  I hate multiple choice.  I hate having to go take a test in a room I’m not familiar with (weird, I know, but I don’t like it).  I have been studying and taking the practice tests for the past few weeks and did well on another practice test this evening, but I always have test anxiety.  So instead of psyching up for sleeping in or running tomorrow AM, I am hunting down #2 pencils and reviewing Vgotsky and Kohlberg’s Stages of Development.

So I shall leave you with this. 

I forgot to mention in my last post that I was invited to join in on the pre-race training with Jeff Galloway at Disney Hollywood Studios on Friday morning!  I was so excited until I realized it started at 7:30AM…my flight didn’t get in until after 9AM.  Oh well, would have loved to join but maybe next time!

So it was time for the Inspiration Dinner.  Emily and I weren’t there as fundraisers but we still wanted to be a part of the amazing night so we purchased tickets with the Maryland team.  Plus this dinner was going to be extra special. 

1) It was for Erin. 

2) This was Georgia Cleland’s first TNT Event!  If you aren’t too familiar with TNT, the founder’s name is Bruce Cleland.  He started this whole crazy team when his toddler daughter was diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukemia.  It all started with a father’s crazy idea.  He got together a small group of family and friends to run the New York City Marathon and fundraise for blood cancer research.  His little girl is now 28 years old, CANCER FREE Georgia!  Georgia has been working at the Maryland Chapter’s office ever since I joined and I always thought it was so cool to know the girl who inspired this whole team that has raised over $1 Billion for blood cancer research.  This was Georgia’s first event with the team she inspired.  Both she and Bruce spoke.  There were tears and laughs.  Wonderful time!  Read the rest of their story HERE

Georgia giving her speech

3) I hadn’t really told anyone because it was supposed to be a surprise but my friend and NYCM Teammate (also founder of the Grassroot Soccer Marathon Team and Survivor Africa winner) would be there to both speak at the inspiration dinner and run the half.  Ethan is on his second go round with this damn cancer thing (or canzer as he calls it), but still constantly on the move and not letting this disease keep him from inspiring and entertaining people everywhere.  He and his girlfriend Jenna ran a great half and Ethan gave an awesome speech. 

It was such a great night.  The Maryland Team was there in full force.  As always, I both cried and smiled through dinner as I looked around the room of all those people who had worked their butts off not only to run but to raise money to end this disgusting disease.  After the dinner we had to hang around- the press people wanted some pictures of the MD Chapter with Georgia and Bruce.

Beautiful people. I'm in the front row, left side, Emily is next to me, Georgia is in the pretty purple blouse/tank, Bruce is in white all the way to the right

After the pictures, I handed out the Erin bibs for the team to wear during the race and then it was time for Em and myself to venture back to our resort.  It was already later than I had hoped but the adrenaline was pumping so it wasn’t worth it to stress about attempting to get back fast to attempt to sleep.  We stopped back at the food court area of the resort and picked up some breakfast for the next morning and had fun playing around in the gift shop.

Fun Fact: when I was little, my mom could bribe me to do almost ANYTHING with a trip to the Disney store.  It’s the only way I ever made it through shots without having 5 people hold me down.

Finally we crawled back to our Pirate Ships to lay out our stuff.  I wanted to rep TNT for at least one race so I went with the orange/charcoal combo.

Crabs against cancer!

I had aspirations of rocking all out costumes for these races but the holidays and teaching got the best of me and I ran out of time.  It’s okay…I was still cute.  Finally around 11 we turned out the lights…and waited for our first of two 2:40AM wake up calls. 

Two years ago I ran my very first distance race.  I got to run with family and some incredible new friends all through the power of Team in Training.  Little did I know what that first race and first fundraising effort would lead to.  Now I am a charity running junkie.  During that first weekend I learned about this crazy little thing called The Goofy Challenge.  Long story short, Emily saw a sparkly Goofy shirt and declared we would be running the Goofy Challenge in 2012.  Thus the GOOFY TWENTY TWELVE insanity began.  I ran Goofy Last year and had such an incredible weekend…but it wasn’t with the whole crew.

This year was all about the crew!  Em and I were up not so bright and early to catch out 7am flight to Orlando.  Without planning it or even talking about it, my aunt and uncle had booked the same flight and same resort.  Our friends Muffie and Becky had also booked the same resort.  Oh the magic of Goofy TwentyTwelve.  We got to Caribbean Beach resort, were escorted to our rooms, to be welcomed by this…

Oh yes my friends.  Pirate ship beds.  When I contacted my friend Heather to help book a room she found this pirate room and of course I jumped on it.  It was so much fun!  Thanks Heather!  If you ever need any help booking anything Disney Heather is your girl!  She does all the quotes and work for free and really helps you find what you need!  Thanks Heather!  Check out our mini fridge:

don't you love the "wood plank" carpet?

We grabbed some lunch and headed to the expo.

Saw Tony Horton

dude's hair gel give the Situation a run for his money

 Hung out with the infamous Dave

PS did you see the new MCM ad in Runner’s World this month?  Dave said he didn’t even know about it until it was published…pretty cool surprise, right?!

if I even attempted the famous Dave jump...I'd end up with a busted face.

 Took more pictures.

Did some shopping although I managed to leave with most my Christmas/birthday funds in tact, then we headed back to the hotel to clean up for the Inspiration Dinner.

More to come tomorrow ; )

Dear All,

I have been 1,000% MIA this year!  I apologize…I have been keeping up with your blogs!  But this whole full time student teaching thing typically means my schedule looks like this…wake up, go to school, stay there until around 4-5 depending on meetings, stay later if there is an event, come home, write lesson plans, sleep.  Yes…there is not much time in there for much writing or running!  I know after these first few weeks pass I will get more used to this full time big girl schedule…at least I hope!  I will get y’all caught up soon!  Goofy was amazing…recap to come!

Thank you for not capping on the gravestone on me just yet ; )

As I said the other day, today was my first day of full time student teaching.  Last semester I was with the same second grade class that I will be with until February, but I was only there once a week.  Anyway I haven’t seen them since before the Holidays.  First thing said to me?

“Ms. McNulty, did you get makeup for Christmas?”
“No, why?”
“Oh…looks like it”.

I believe that is 2nd grade code for “you were so stressed out the last few weeks you were here before Christmas that you looked like utter crap”.

Then later…

“Ms. McNulty, how many belly buttons do you have?”

“Um, 1. Why?”

“Just curious.”

It’s going to be a fun couple of months.  I also got to spend the evening baking for them in addition to my usual lesson plans because apparently the fact that tomorrow is my birthday means I get to throw them a party?

BTW, I turn 23 in like 2 hours.  I’m a bit uneasy with it.  Yes…I realize this is still incredibly young.  But something about 23 feels so…official.  Like I’m actually starting this real life thing.  Slowly but surely.  I realize there are plenty of people out there who have legit jobs and kids to be responsible for at this point this in their lives.  I am clearly not one of them and very happy about that (not that I think there is anything wrong with that!  I’m just not comfortable and familiar with myself yet to be responsible for other people!).  I am so grateful for all the support I have had from so many areas in taking time to figure out what I truly want to do and get out of this life..and I’m just beginning to figure that all out : )  Believe me, I have a LONG way to go…but I’m getting there

why yes...I did just give myself a neon colored cupcake.