Fun Fridays Come To An End

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It's Labor Day weekend, which means not only will I eat my weight in veggie burgers and Ezkiel sprouted grain buns, but it signifies the end of Fun Fridays. Tomorrow Blair returns to his normal 5 day work week and Fun Fridays will be but a memory. 

But what good memories! This summer we: 

  • Rode monster roller coasters and managed not to throw up on each other or others waiting in line at Carowinds
  • Visited the town of West Jefferson where we locked our keys in our car and visited the cheese factory while we waited for AAA to arrive
  • Did a walking tour of downtown Greensboro
  • Spent a week at Hilton Head Island
  • Traveled to Boone where Blair ran the Grandfather Mountain Marathon
  • Had our niece Katlin here for a visit and cooked a whole fish (It was epic.)
  • Took our nephew Logan and my mom ziplining.
  • Paid a quick visit to Mount Airy then welcomed our long-lost NC friends Anne and John and their wonderful kids for a visit
  • Spent a weekend at Wrightsville Beach
  • Caught up with Blair's good friend Bill whom I hadn't seen since he was a groomsman in our wedding

And what did we do on this, the LAST fun Friday of the season? What could possibly top a summer of such fun?

Why -- beer and nachos on the outdoor patio at Village Tavern. Can't ever get enough.

It's been a fun summer. Thanks for tagging along with us through the blog. We now return you to your regularly scheduled life.

Cheers,

Dena

 

When The Speech Writer Needs A Speech Writer

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Remember that entry I posted recently about how I'm one of 15 speakers that will be presenting at Ignite Charlotte 5? My deck (list of PowerPoint slides) is due next Friday. Before I can pull together my deck, I have to write my speech. "Write Speech For Ignite Charlotte" has been on my to-do list for the past month. 

I have yet to write a word.

I am on the borderline of having a massive panic attack about this. 

I have two choices. I can either sit down and do the work, or I can meet Blair for an afternoon of drinking and eating nachos. 

Guess which option I'm going with?

Cheers,

Dena

Race Training

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Many of you (okay, one of you) have asked how my race training is going. It made me realize I haven't said much about running since I posted this whiny entry back in June. 

The good news is the sore ankles went away, as did the heavy legs. I've still got the right hamstring/glute issue but I've been dealing wtih that for the last four years, so it's more of a white noise pain at this point. 

I'm wrapping up week 6 of training (10 weeks still to go) and just came off an awesome 20 mile run this morning. I got to mile 16 and was like, "What up? That's all you've got?" and pushed out 8 minute miles for the last four. Hell yeah. 

That being said, I struggled through a 17-mile run a couple of weeks ago and had a COMPLETE meltdown this week on a tempo run.

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Ignite Charlotte 5

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Mark your calendars! Tuesday, September 25th is the 5th annual Ignite Charlotte series and yours truly is one of the 15 speakers presenting.

What is Ignite Charlotte? From their website:

"Enlighten us, but make it quick” is the mantra for [worldwide] Ignite talks. During Ignite Charlotte, members from the community will share their personal or professional passions using 20 slides that auto-advance every 15 seconds for a total talk time of 5 minutes.  

How did I become involved? Apparently I decided that having a book due to my editor, traveling to Italy, doing client work and training for a marathon wasn't enough to keep me busy. My friend David Horne sent me a link to the Ignite Charlotte website and--on a whim--I sent in an application. I was equal parts pleased and horrified when I found out I'd been selected. 

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