RunChatHunt Summer 2016

It's time again for the semiannual #RunChatHunt, a photo scavenger hunt hosted by RunChat.  This is always a lot of fun, and there are some great prizes, too.

It's pretty simple to play.  On your run, just be on the lookout for the items on the list to the right.  Take a picture, post it to Twitter/Instagram with the hashtag #RunChatHunt.  That's it!  You don't have to be a great photographer, just have fun.

I always like doing this for several reasons.  First, you already know I like playing around with photography.  Second, it makes me stay aware while I'm running.  Sure it's nice to zone out sometimes too, but it's fun to tune in to my surroundings and be on the lookout for an interesting or pretty shot that will check one of these items off.  Third, it makes me look for different running routes, and you know I like to change things up a lot.  I am still trying to think of a running route that will take me by Hilligoss Bakery and planning what kind of picture I'll take once I get there.

Finally, of course, it's fun to win prizes!  In last winter's #RunChatHunt, I won this sweet Nuun prize pack.  I had never even tried Nuun before winning this, and now it's one of my favorite things.

Go to http://www.therunchat.com/2016/05/31/runchathunt-is-back-with-new-items/ for full rules and details.  Follow me on Instagram (thazel411) or Twitter (TeresaHazel411) to see my #RunChatHunt finds.  If you are playing too, send me a message with your Instagram or Twitter account so I can follow you and see your finds too.

On the banks of Lake Junaluska

Epic Vacation Wrap-Up

Ten glorious days at home in the mountains of western North Carolina: spending time with family, catching up with friends, eating lots of good food, and of course running.  This place is so beautiful; just being outside and looking around is refreshing and restorative.

Since Kevin died, people often ask me if I'm going to move back.  The answer is: I don't know yet.  This will always be home, but so will Indianapolis.  Both places tug at my heart, but sometimes so does the idea of starting over somewhere new.  When the time is right, God will let me know where He wants me to be next.  So for now, I'm just going to keep doing epic every day right where I am.

And where I've been for the past ten days is Paxton Holler in Canton, NC, so here are some of my epic vacation highlights:

My May Runstreak & A Run(317) PR

May Runstreak

Run(317) Ambassadors on the Circle

I woke up Sunday, May 1st and decided to try a runstreak for the month of May.  A runstreak, for those of you who don't know, is running at least one mile every day for the length of the streak.  I follow other runners online who've done runstreaks of various lengths, but I've never attempted one.  Every time I think about it, I'm daunted by the idea of all the laundry that would go with it.

Normally I run three or four days a week, depending on what else I have going on.  But I was coming off a bad few weeks, and I decided to challenge myself to get out and run every day in May.  But not just run, I also wanted to make each day's run different in some way - different route, place, type of run, etc.  And I wanted to document each run in a different and interesting way.

Mini Marathon Wrap-Up

Pic by Judi Lee

It's been a month since I blogged, but it's been a really rough month and I just needed to pull inside my turtle shell and hide for a little while.  I sort of feel like still staying there, but I know that's not good for me, so here I am again to tell you about last Saturday's 500 Festival Mini Marathon.  Physically this race went really well, but emotionally/mentally I was all over the place.

Last Monday when I got home, I thought I saw Kevin.  The neighbor was standing right in front of our mailbox while checking his own.  He was turned so I only saw him from the back, and he was wearing an olive green jacket the same color as one Kevin had.  When I saw him standing there as I was driving up the street, just for a second I thought Kevin was getting the mail and I was a little surprised he was just getting home since he usually was earlier than me.  All this flashed through my head for just a second, and then I remembered.  And it broke my heart all over again.  I pulled in the garage and ran into the house crying hysterically.

So that kind of sets the stage for the whole week leading up to the Mini.  I've just been so weepy and emotional, and then I will go run and it's that magic reset button so I'm okay for a little while, until I start falling back down.  The nightmares came back - the ones where Kevin is alive he just doesn't want to be with me anymore.  All while I was still trying to get ready for a race that's a really big deal.  (For blog readers not in the Indy area, the Mini Marathon is huge: over 28,000 people ran it this year.  Seven times the population of Canton, NC, in one race.)  I was planning my outfit and posting updates on social media, but secretly I was wishing I hadn't even signed up for the Mini this year.  I thought maybe it was still too close to the crapiversary of Kevin's death and that I should've taken a few more weeks off from racing.

Bye Bye Jayco

As I prepare to sell the house and transition into living alone, I've been trying to eliminate as much stuff as possible.  I'm also trying to do it in a responsible way: finding new homes for things with people who can use them, donating to organizations that I know need what we have, and of course I hope the kids will take a lot with them when they move out and set up their own homes.  There are a few things I will probably try to sell, but mostly I hope to use everything to bless other people.

I've cried when I parted with Kevin's glasses (Lions Club), and some of his coats (Horizon House), but it all still felt right even though it is really sad.  There was one last week that was really upsetting, though, and sadly it's not going to someone who can use it - it's going back to the bank.

Kevin & I bought a camper in 2010, and we had so much fun in it.  When the kids and I were cleaning it out, I realized that we had never had a fight or a bad day at all while we were camping.  That camper holds nothing but good memories and lots of love.  I've tried to sell it and I can't, because we owe more than it's worth.  I can't justify continuing to make payments on something, especially since I can't use it (can't pull a camper behind a Beetle), and I really don't want to go camping without Kevin anyway.  So I finally told the bank to come get it, and they picked it up a few days ago.

It made me sadder than I expected; I actually burst into tears at work as soon as I hung up the phone.  Thank God for a caring coworker who took the time to pray with me for comfort, and share a scripture and some chocolate with me too.

It's not the camper itself that I really want to hang on to, though.  It's all the good memories we made there.  So I'm sharing a few pictures and a few memories here.  And since I know that God is in control, I trust that when the bank auctions the camper off He will direct it to to someone who will enjoy it as much as we did.  The top left picture at the start of this post is the day we picked the camper up, still at the dealership.  The pictures above on the right side are all at the dealership too, the day we decided this camper was the one for us.  Kevin didn't really like me to make his picture, so sometimes I had to take two or three before I could get him to smile.

2016 Run (317) Race Series

Fountain Square 2015

I'm super excited to tell you I'm an Ambassador for the Run (317) race series this year!  If you've been following our blog for a while, you know these are some of my favorite races.  They are all on Thursday nights, and each one is 3.17 miles through a different and unique neighborhood in the 317 area code.

Fountain Square 2014

They started in 2014 with just one race, in October in Fountain Square.  Last year they expanded to three races: June in Broad Ripple, July on Mass Ave, and October in Fountain Square again.  I have done all four of those races, and I was really happy when they announced that this year there will be five.  The same three as before, plus May on the Circle downtown, and September in the Carmel Arts District.

Mass Ave w/Indy Womens

Why do I like these races so much?  So many reasons!

A Day in the Life of Teresa

I recorded Thursday, March 17, for the Day in the Life blogger event hosted by Trish from Love, Laughter, and a Touch of Insanity.  If you don't already follow Trish, you should definitely check out her blog as well as reading some of the other posts in the link-up.  We're all so different, yet we all have so much more in common with each other.

March 17 was of course St. Patrick's Day, but other than dressing up for run club, I didn't do very much different from an ordinary Thursday.

4:45 am I woke up when I heard Josh get home from a week of snowboarding and visiting friends in Colorado.  This was his third trip there in recent months; he's planning to move there in August.  I texted my mom to let her know Josh was home safe (I wasn't the only one worried about him), and then I went back to sleep.

6:00 am I woke up from a really strange dream.  I had been on the phone with Kathy making plans to meet up, then I'd gone into the garage to sort Kevin's shoes for donation.  I actually had sorted his shoes in real life on his birthday, so I guess that's why it was still on my mind.  In the dream, though, I was sorting them in the garage with the garage door open, when I saw a car come down the road that gave me a bad feeling.  I shut the garage door, but I could hear the car pull into my driveway and then it busted through the garage door.  I tried to run for the door to the house, but I was moving in slow motion and I knew they were going to get me.  Then, I woke up, heart pounding, but managed to fall back asleep.