Also, this weekend I’m attending my first blog conference/workshop. I’ll be attending Bloggy Boot Camp STL! I’m looking forward to learning more about this awesome world of blogging and meeting some crazy awesome people! Look forward to some updates about it next week!

And now for your regularly scheduled programming… A shorter than normal version of InstaFriday… A look into the everyday life here in Normanland…

Linking up at Life Rearranged!

Highlight of the week: The Half-Marathon and becoming an official member of the 13.1 club

 She discovered her “glass slippers” and loves to wear them around.

Breakfast time!

another set of skinned knees… How do I keep this from happening all summer?

Falling asleep at the table…

First experiment with gluten free pizza, it wasn’t that bad!

What was the highlight of your week? 

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I’ve been linking up with 5MinutesForMom.com for awhile now on the Wordless Wednesday posts, so when I saw they were hosting The Ultimate Blog Party I was in! It is a great way for bloggers to meet other bloggers and introduce them to your little corner of the blogging world. If you are here for UBP, Welcome to Normanland!

I’m Courtney, the blogger behind Adventures in Normanland. I’m a 25 year old Wife and Momma to a very spirited 2 year old. I share little bits of our adventures as a family, but mostly I write about my journey to fine what Healthy Living means to me. In the last few years I’ve taken up running as my healthy outlet and have been exploring what eating right means for me with my Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis. I have trained for a marathon, a few smaller races, and most recently completed a half marathon. I’m not fast, but at least I’m moving! I’ve also started to explore the connection between Gluten and my Hashimoto’s symptoms. One of the reasons I love writing about my running adventures is to inspire to try it. It’s easy to read healthy living/running blogs and see their athletic physique and immediately dismiss the idea that you could do it too. I am an overweight working mom and wife, going to school full time, managing a house and I still get out there and do it… So can you!!

I’d love to learn more about YOU! Tell me something random… Favorite Song? Guilty pleasure TV show? Pet Peeves?

630am walk/jog with the pup while sporting this weekend’s race shirt.

Linking up at Project Alicia, Wordless Wednesday HQ, and 5 Minutes For Mom.

To be honest, I wasn’t sure how this race was gonna go. I obviously felt unprepared. I really hadn’t trained as much as I should have. I was hoping to have a huge improvement in my time from my Disney split, but mostly… I just wanted to finish. After having a DNF at the Disney Marathon I wanted to know what crossing the finish line at a big race felt like.

The expo was decent, although both “big expos” i’ve been to have been stressful trying to navigate with a squirmy 2 year old.

We got downtown a little later than I would have liked. We walked a few blocks to the start and it was packed out. I rushed to find a bathroom and heard them say they were closing the corrals… they were very serious about the 6:40 corral closing time! My cousin Maggie came to town to run the race too, we both packed into Corral D, which was overflowing because not everyone made it to their corrals before closing time.

I saw a few of my Team Living Water teammates at the start. I was honestly still unsure of what to expect at this point. As we started shuffling towards the start I got a little nervous but mostly I just decided to focus and run my own race.

The starting line view.

I was thankful to have my garmin for this race to try to keep me on pace. I did great for the first two miles. I was inspired to see so many people out supporting Team Living Water.

One of the most inspiring was a lady pushing her friend in a wheelchair

If she could do that for 13.1 miles I decided I could push myself to go that far!

Around mile 3 there was a hill that was tough for me. I don’t know that I ever really recovered from that. Close to mile 4 I started chatting with another Team Living Water teammate. He was an older gentleman named Tom. This was his third year running with Team Living water and seventh half marathon. He said he was out of town most of the winter and didn’t have time to train much but he didn’t think he could back out because he thought of all the people who had to walk for miles every day to get water. We ran together off and on for most of the race. I will say it was probably Tom that helped get me through the race.

Miles 5-7 were tough. There seemed to be more hills than flats. My average pace kept climbing. I saw Chris and Payton around mile 6, they ran with me for a few minutes. I loved seeing them! Around mile 8ish there was supposed to be a water/gu stop… but being with the slow group they barely had any water still left out.

At Mile 9 we hit the last part of the street which was an out and back. The turnaround was Mile 10. We rejoined with the full marathon route and it was inspiring to watch them finish strong.

I was getting pretty tense and my hips were killing me… I slowed down even more, but at this point I knew I had enough left to finish. Mile 11… Mile 12… then you could see the finish line… at the top of a hill. how rude. I sprinted as hard as I could the last 400 meters or so.

It may not have been considered “fast” by any stretch, but I finished. That was my one goal. and it felt great.

I finished 4 minutes faster than my split time from Disney. It was a PR, even if it wasn’t as big of a change as I wanted to see. But I did finish… and that means I get to join the cool car sticker club…

oh yes, I did.

Overall I was pretty happy with the race experience. The feeling of community that came from running with Team Living Water was awesome. It made the whole race a way better experience. I will most certainly do it again next year. My donation site is still up if you want to help provide clean drinking water for people around the world who wouldn’t otherwise have it. Click here!

I don’t have any race plans. I’m looking forward to being able to run when I want to and not have to run. I think for the next little while I’m going to focus on speed and maybe try to break a 5k PR and actually run a 10k.

13.1, done!

 I had to snap this shot of her at dinner last week… She looks so grown up with her Pony tail and Pink Chucks.

I made another Sparkly running headband! Teal sequins! and it doesn’t slip!

We built our garden this week. I have to give mad props to the hubs for this, he built the raised bed, got the dirt and mulch, and worked hard to get these set up. I’m SO excited about them.

Her hair has been getting in her face a lot lately, so i’ve tried to be creative with putting it up. The top isn’t as long as the back, but we’re working on it… HA.

Easter Festivities! Egg coloring, Egg hunt and Easter dress!

Nighttime fire. One of my favorite things.

Gluten free grocery shopping. It should be an olympic event.
(ironically, there is a loaf of bread right there next to the shopping list. for the hubs and kiddo)

Got my bib number. yikes.

Early morning vibram 2 miler on Tuesday.

With this gluten free adventure, I’ve been trying to like different foods.
One of those is cottage cheese. I usually think its gross. But if you cover it with strawberries, grapes, cantelope, PB2, Honey, and a caramel rice cake it is palatable. Barely, but it was.

And my Favorite picture of the week.
She puts on her crown and runs around screaming “I a booootiful princess!!)
I love this girl!

How was your week? Anything you are looking forward to/are anxious about this weekend?

 PS- If you have a second could you please just click this banner below to vote for my blog? I’m currently #71 and would love to get in the Top 25. I currently have 41 votes and need to get to at least 100 to get into the Top 25. It just takes a second, and 1 click!

While I was training for the Disney Marathon I had a training plan that I followed religiously. I put my heart and soul into the training. And I was disappointed in the results. I guess that is part of the reason I may not have been as strict in training for this half marathon. I wasn’t convinced it was going to make much difference in the outcome I guess.

And if we are being realllly honest… While I did sign up for this race partially because of Team Living Water and the amazing things they do to provide clean drinking water in underprivileged areas of the world… but I also did it because I felt like I needed to redeem myself after Disney. Looking back now I realize I probably should have given myself more than 2 weeks off after such a physically, mentally and emotionally challenging experience with the training and the marathon. Mentally I just fizzled out. I still love running, but I want to be able to run when I feel like it, not because I have to stick to a certain training plan. Which is funny… because I started running seriously only because I had a training plan to stick to. It seems as though I have evolved as a runner, but I feel like I may have done it backwards. A lot of people start running as a hobby and then love it so much they get into racing. I had run off and on for awhile, but only really got into it because I signed up for a marathon. Way to be unconventional, Courtney.

Anyway, this half marathon is happening on Sunday, ready or not. I plan on giving it my all. Not for me, but for those who have to endure more than I can fathom simply to get a taste of fresh water. If you are interested in sponsoring me for this half marathon please click here to donate now. Just $10 can provide a family with clean drinking water for a year.

Representing Team Living Water.

We run so they don’t have to.

]]> http://courtneynorman.org/unprepared-slight-freak-out/feed/ 4 http://courtneynorman.org/toddler-self-facing-iphone-camera-wordless-wednesday/ http://courtneynorman.org/toddler-self-facing-iphone-camera-wordless-wednesday/#comments Wed, 11 Apr 2012 13:59:40 +0000 courtnorm http://courtneynorman.org/?p=1117

oh the things we’ll do to keep a 2 year old entertained while trying to open a bank account.

{this isn’t even all the ones she took. ha}

Linking up at Project Alicia, Wordless Wednesday HQ, and 5 Minutes For Mom.

It seemed to be a more current and effective program with better results. I was really apprehensive at first. I’m WAY more comfortable doing cardio than working with weights… at least I was. Now I feel perfectly confident in the weight area. I do prefer going early in the morning because there are less people and I have more freedom to use the space for my workouts.

One of my accomplishments was getting up the courage to use the squat rack.

(looks a little something like this, though the one in my gym is a bit difference)

I never really knew how it worked and was always intimidated by it. So, I loaded it up with some light weights (10 lbs on either side… watch out!) and just tried it out and loved it! I’m up to 60lbs on the squat rack so far and growing.

I’ve also moved from 10 lbs to 17.5 lbs on the dumbbell shoulder press, yeehaw! I’m feeling stronger and stronger each time.

The book also gives nutrition information, which is helpful, but I’m still trying to find my way on that. I’ve told you about my Hashimoto’s and have been researching it even more and it turns out there is some pretty solid research linking Hashimoto’s and gluten intolerance. I have read several articles backing this up. So, I decided to go gluten free and see if that helps my issues. I found some great resources for meal planning and grocery shopping here. Today was the first day and it went pretty well, I didn’t even notice it missing. I’m looking forward to seeing if this helps with my random stomach issues and problems losing weight.

Any tips for going Gluten Free? Any strength training tips? I’d love to hear it!

This week was actually pretty good as a whole. I’ve been trying to be more present in the now and not get so overwhelmed by what is to come. Baby steps!

Here is my week via iPhone pics, Hope you enjoy them!

Friday night we headed out to Greenville, IL to visit some good friends of ours. I got to ride back with Payt. She was excited.

She got to play with her friend Sullivan. She wasn’t sure what to do with him at first. ha.

Sleeping in the car.

Payton loves tractors!

She loves the sunglasses Aunt Caren got her, she even wore them on our late night run for ice cream!

The ice cream place had sidewalk chalk for the kids to play with and Payt was more interested in that than the ice cream… silly girl…

Speaking of ice cream…

My choice was vanilla frozen yogurt with cookie dough and SPRINKLES!

Monday morning 6am… It’s workout time! I’ve been doing New Rules of Lifting for Women and have been loving it so far!

My new superfood of choice…

I made my own sparkly sports headband, and totally love it! I’m going to make many many more.

Lunch with hubs and baby girl at Qdoba. Organic Peach Tea and Grilled Veggie Naked Burrito… YUM!

Another 6am workout on Wednesday!

I love this girl!

uhh… no… we don’t like salsa…

Can I just tell you I LOVE homemade pasta salad. Tons of veggies, some lite italian dressing and a some bowtie pasta. I had this several times this week.

I spent some time this week reading Payton the Easter story in her Toddler bible. She is so hungry for knowledge right now and always has questions. While repeated questions of a 2 year old can be annoying, I really do love that she is so open to learning.

Thursday night “Good Friday” Easter experience at church. So thought provoking. And we were also looking good.

I’m linking up at Life Rearranged.

What have you been up to this week?