101 things in a 1001 days!

Create a "bucket list" of things you hope to accomplish/complete in 1001 Days (2 years, 8 months, 26 days). 

Then go out and get started! The 'things' can be as big or small as you want them to be.

MY START DATE: 8/26/2011 MY END DATE: 5/22/2014

KEY: BOLD: Completed. ITALIC: In progress.

Here's my list:

Blogging

1.     Post about each of the things on this list

2.     Take a picture of each of the things on this list

3.     Make my blog prettier

Living

4.     Get Married

5.     Buy a house

6.     Buy new furniture

7.     Do a date night with Jman at least once a month

8.     Learn to ballroom dance

9.     Make a room in my house look like one from a magazine

10. Stay at a bed and breakfast

Fitness

11. Complete an Olympic Distance Triathlon

12. Run a 5k

13. Swim the Chesapeake bay

14. Hike part of the Appalachian trail

15. Be able to do 30 push ups in a row

16. Be able to do 5 pull ups at a time

17. Beat my iron girl triathlon time of 2 hr and 32 mins

Physical Health

18. Take vitamins every day for a whole month

19. Maintain a healthy weight for a person my height

20. Go to a dermatologist

21. Go 3 months without fast food (not even chick-fil-a!)

Mental Health

22. Get organized (and stay organized for a month)

23. Get a massage

Travel

24. Go to Vegas

25. Visit New Orleans

26. Visit the statue of Liberty

27. See a show in New York

28. Go for a carriage ride in new york

29. Travel outside the country

30. Travel to 5 states I have never been to before

31. Fly first class

32. Go on a road trip

Learning

33. Learn a new language

34. Be able to recite all of the presidents in order

35. Learn to drive a manual

36. Learn to play golf

For good

37. Pay it forward to 3 strangers

38. Plant a tree

39. Volunteer for 3 events

40. Send 5 care packages to soldiers oversees

41. Raise over $1,000 for a good cause

42. Donate over $100 for a good cause

Food

43. Shop at a farmers market

44. Make a recipe book

45. Taste 3 new foods

46. Invent a new recipe/dish that actually tastes good

47. Learn how to cook bananas foster

48. Learn how to cook cheesecake

Just for Fun

49. Send a post secret

50. Do a service project

51. Go for a ride in a convertible with the top down

52. Host a party

53. Save $10 per each completed item from this list to spend upon completion

54. Go ice skating outside

55. Take a nap in a hammock

56. Get my tattoo fixed

57. Get my fortune read

58. Do a craft

59. Get a manicure

60. Take a wine tasting class

61. Tour at least 6 of the wineries in MD

62. See a comedian on tour

63.  Go to a hockey game

64.  Go to a pro-football game

65. Go zip lining

66. Go white water rafting with Jman

67. Go canoeing

68.  Go crabbing

69. Build a snowman

70. Have a picnic

71. Read the entire bible

72. Build something

73. Go camping in 6 new places

74. Go to a country concert

75. See gone with the wind

76. See Citizen kane

77. See “Nos fera to”

78. See “The God father”

79. Successfully navigate through 1 haunted house

80. Go through a Corn maze

81. Have a fondue night

82. Get mom to create a bucket list

83. Make a wine cork board

84. Sing at a karaoke night

85. Straighten my hair everyday for a week

86. Take the dog for a walk every Saturday for a month

87. Go to church for two months in a row

88. Inspire someone to make a 101 list

89. Go for a bar crawl in DTA

90.  Go to a state fair

91. Go skiing 3 times

92. Buy new makeup

93. Write 3 letters to Donnie

94.  Take my nieces out to a movie

95.  Check in with at least 1 cousin every month

96.  Go see the National Christmas tree

97.  Go on a cruise with jman

98.  Double my bank roll of at least $50 on Preakness day

99. Bottle my own wine

          100.  Bowl over 175

         101.  Say yes to at least 3 things I would normally say no to

-Until Next Time www

Iron Girl Triathlon Details

First of all, THANK YOU! Thank you to everyone who donated to The Leukemia and Lymphoma society and helped me reach my goal of $1400. The final amount raised was $1577!!!! Maybe one day we will find a cure for Leukemia, which is the #1 disease killer of children. Also, Thank you to everyone who congratulated me, supported me, cheered me on, and helped me to keep going. I could not have done this with out my amazing family and friends. I truly feel blessed to be able to do something like this and I feel inspired, motivated and accomplished.

It was a great day. I woke up at 4:30 because I wanted to get to Columbia by 5:30ish. There was a little bit of traffic coming in but not too bad of a drive. When I got there, I found some TNT friends, set up my transition area and pumped up my bike tires. Right before the race, a huge storm came in with a torrential downpour of rain so the race was postponed a few minutes. 

The race start is broken up in to swim waves of different age groups starting with the pro-athletes and then the oldest to youngest so I had a while to wait around until it was my time. I wasn't nervous for the swim at all. This is my element! I wanted to make sure I got out in front so that I wasn't slowed down by the huge crowd of swimmers. Unfortunately, right after the race started my time chip fell off my ankle and I stopped to see if I could find it. I ended up getting swam over by a few people and wasted some time so I just kept swimming. When I got out of the water, I got a new time chip and ran to transition. I was very out of breath (something I was not expecting to be after getting out of the water) but I felt like my transition went smooth and was fairly short. 

The bike was the part I was most nervous apart. I had this huge fear of getting a flat tire half way out on the course and being stuck not knowing what to do. I was thankful for all the support personnel that were out on the roads helping people with mechanical malfunctions. This definitely calmed my nerves. 

Columbia has what everyone likes to call "rolling hills" because the whole entire course is UP a hill.. DOWN a hill... up another hill... down another hill... so the up hills suck but the down hills feel great. There are about 5 HUGE and I mean steep/long hills on the course. I was not looking forward to any of them but I am very proud of myself for biking up all the hills and not walking at all! After the second big hill I stopped at the top because I was having an asthma attack. I am glad I took my inhaler. A few puffs and some water later I was back on the road. I stopped again at the turn around point to grab some gatorade. By that point I was so hungry it felt like my stomach was eating itself. My very favorite part of the race was the last 2 miles of the bike.. HOME STRETCH!! It felt so good to be going up and down those mini rolling hills. I kept thinking to myself... "I can finish this now! I will finish this triathlon! WOO HOOO!" It was a lot of fun.

Coming into transition #2 I was still on my "just finished the bike" high.... and then there was the run... ugh! The dreaded run. I can't lie. I didn't run the whole thing. I ran a lot of it..not all of it. But you know what... I finished it and that's all that mattered to me. 

I sprinted the last few yards to the finish. OH it was the mentally the best feeling in the world. (physically one of the worst that I have experienced in a while)...still, I would highly recommend it to anyone. It was emotional crossing the finish line but so so so much fun! I can't wait to do another tri. I still really want to do Nations (The olympic distance triathlon that I was originally signed up to do but dropped out after feeling overwhelmed). Next year I might even do both Iron Girl and Nations! 

I was a little bit disappointed when checking the official time. Because my time chip fell off in the water, they have my time as being 3 hours 4 mins. This was definitely not my time. Dad's unofficial time for me was 2 hours 33 mins. I should have been 33rd in my age group, instead it says I am 40th.. Unfortunately, that will never be the official time and that is somewhat disappointing to me. Now I have something to beat for next year! 

It was bittersweet saying good bye to all my TNT friends that I trained with over the past 3 months. I had a lot of fun and will never forget all the wonderful and inspirational women I have met. I am happy I can cross this off the list of things to do before I die, happy that I finished and happy that I raised money for such a great cause. I have rediscovered myself in a whole new way and I now have the confidence that I can do anything I want with some hard practice and a lot of support from family and friends.

-Until Next Time www