Wrap Up & Run 10K Race Recap

I honestly wasn't even going to do this race. I was going to concentrate on PRing in the Eastleigh 10K (which is next weekend) because literally 100 people from my running club are doing it and didn't know if I'd be up for racing 2 weekends in a row.

But oops! I found myself signing up for it because it was super close to my house and I felt like I should take advantage of that. I mean, America finds a race for everything. I kinda miss that.

I wore green even though it wasn't St. Paddy's Day themed! Oh well! #TeamSparkle

The course was about 2.5 laps of the park that I know like the back of my hand. This kind of worked to both my advantage and disadvantage.

My slowest points were definitely when I thought "Ugh crap... I still have to run this exact spot 2 more times..."

And then to top it off, they had signs for every kilometer. So as we passed the 1K marker, we passed the 5K marker about 4 seconds later. That was a bit soul crushing. Stupid laps.

Oh and did I mention it rained poured the entire time?? I know, I'm really painting a fantastic picture of how lovely this race was.... But it down-poured. And it was kind of nice for like a minute. And then rain got in my eyes and my contacts starting cursing at me and that sucked.

Other than that, it was a great race! It wasn't very big, therefore, no big crowds or need for weaving.

Thumbs-upping to Alex, who was a lovely sport and stood in the rain! It looks like I'm going super fast because I'm a blur in the picture. In reality I'm probably like "It's raining, it's cold, and we're at .3 miles right now...."

My last 10K was back in December 2011. So going into this race on Sunday, I knew I had a PR in me somewhere.

I had no idea I had a 10 minute PR in me, though! My official time was 1:03:38!

I stayed pretty positive throughout the race. Even though I didn't train much (read: AT ALL) for this race, I knew how far I had come and felt proud to be a runner.

The worst parts, like I said before, were the parts when I realized how much was left simply by knowing how many laps we had completed. Those were my 2 mental blocks. Anything in between was more like "Yay! Running! This is fun! I'm flying!" 

I sprinted through the finish and was beaming when I looked down at my Garmin and saw 1 hour and 3 minutes staring back at me. It was a good feeling.

What wasn't a good feeling was walking through the mud as shooting pains were going through my knee. Ouch, that was no fun....

But then we went home and made green drinks in honor of St. Patrick's Day.  

Green cider... Why the hell not!

In my lovely college town, they always had green beer for the weekend. But I hate beer. So I never really celebrated St. Patrick's Day. So when Alex said the pubs were making green beer/cider for the first time (that he'd seen), I knew I had to celebrate my PR in style!

Hope you had loads to celebrate this weekend! Do anything fun for St. Patrick's Day?? Race? PR? Pretend to be Irish?

Guest Post - Spring Has Almost Sprung

(Hi friends! Today's post is brought to you by the Expat Hub, which is a Taylor approved expat site full of guides and articles! I'm super excited for them to be talking about spring time! Minus the fact that it's been so cold here lately... Seriously, it was colder here than it was in Wisconsin! Regardless, Spring is going happen sooner or later, so let's talk about it!)

Spring has almost sprung; it’s time for festivals and celebrations

With spring literally being just around the corner many towns and villages are preparing to celebrate the end of the winter and the beginning of a hopefully hot spring. The UK is an extremely old nation and as such some of the traditions we are about to list have been held on a yearly basis for hundreds and hundreds of years, Some even date back all the way before the Norman invasions in 1066! Here are just a few of the most fun and well known.

Flora Day (Helston, Cornwall held on May 8^th) 

Every year on the 8^th of May (unless the 8^th is a Sunday) the town of Helston located on the Lizard peninsula of Cornwall welcomes huge crowds of visitors to watch the ancient Furry dance. The town is covered in bluebells as up to 1,000 dancers make their way through the colourfully decorated streets.

The day sees four dances with the most famous being the children’s dance and the adult’s mid-day dance. The men are decked out in top hats and tails. The women wear their best frocks. The band plays as the dancers weave their way through the offices and on up the main street. No one's quite sure anymore how it all began, but local legend says that it is a celebration of St Michael’s victory over the Devil. The town of Helston itself is named after the giant rock the Devil threw at the archangel in battle. Where the rock landed became Helston or ‘Hells stone’.

The Furry dance is believed to be one of the oldest British customs still being practised today possibly making it over a thousand years old! 

Cheese Rolling (Stilton, Cambridgeshire held on the first Monday in May)

The Stilton Cheese Rolling Festival is one of the year's highlights in the small Cambridgeshire town of Stilton. Participants compete in rolling large rounded blocks of wood along the high street for a prize of cheese and bottles of port. Many of the teams compete in fancy dress and although the sport has become better-behaved in recent years, you will still see a fair wince inducing tumbles and falls. It's a knockout competition with quarters, semis and a grand final, so you're in for a full day's entertainment.

Sweeps Festival (Rochester, Kent held on the 4^th, 5^th, and 6^th of May)

The town of Rochester celebrates and commemorates the chimney sweeper. In the days of the industrial revolution men and boys would do the messy job of cleaning and unblocking the chimneys of the coal burning houses and factories.

The annual festival recreates the joy and laughter enjoyed by the chimney sweeps as they celebrated the only day of the year they could take a day off. The modern festival is a mix of music, dancing and entertainment and sees up to 60 groups of Morris dancers and other entertainers celebrate throughout the three days of the festival.

Obby Oss (Padstow, Cornwall held on the 1^st of May)

The first day of May In the small town of Padstow is Obby Oss day. The origins of this ancient tradition are lost in the midst of time but it is thought to be some form of ancient fertility festival. the town is dressed with greenery, flowers and flags, with the focus being a maypole. The climax arrives when two groups of dancers progress through the town, one of each team wearing a stylised recreation of a 'horse.' The two 'osses are known as the "Old" and the "Blue Ribbon" 'osses.

All of the Padstow born folk traditionally dress in white with their family loyalties dictating whether they follow the Red Old Oss or the Blue Oss.

Cotswold Olimpick Games (Gloucestershire held at the end of May)

400 years ago in the Cotswolds lived Robert Dover, a man who was fascinated by the tales of the ancient Greek Olympic Games. His love of those games inspired him to begin the Cotswold Olimpicks, an event that has been held every year since. Events include wrestling, jumping, sack races, dancing and the infamous shin kicking contest (yes it really is as painful as that sounds!). Before the days of health and safety competitors from rival villages would meet with iron tipped boots or coal hammers acting as shin guards, back in the day many a leg was broken.  Thankfully today’s event is a lot less brutal. The games also see plenty of music and other activities.

This guest blog was provided by The Expat Hub, a top online stop for expatriate advice, support and information.

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Inside The Wardrobe - Lucky Green

Happy St. Patrick's Day, everyone! Well, for Sunday at least. Green is my fave color in case you didn't know. So wearing green is never a faux pas in my wardrobe!

I'm actually doing a 10K on Sunday. And unfortunately I won't be running it in this lovely get up. If I could, I would!

Dress . . Tights . . Flats . . Rings . . Necklace . . Bracelet

Of course I went for green and gold! I feel those are very St. Patrick's Day appropriate. Green like leprechauns. Pots of gold. Yes, I think this is very fitting.

And random owl bracelet. Well to be honest, not that random for me. I've accumulated so much owl jewelry over the years (when I was packing to move to England I think I counted at least 15 owl necklaces alone...) that it's probably a rare occasion if I don't have an owl on. Not that I think owls are particularly lucky, but if I'm dressing for luck it will probably include an owl. Just sayin'!

What do you wear for luck?? What are you sporting this year for St. Patty's Day??

(Link up with My Friday's Fancies)

Paris For A Day

Ah, Paris! The city of STAIRS. No, not lights, stairs. Stairs everywhere!

Anyway, I went to Paris about 2 days before the wedding. It was a day trip, which was ridiculously tiring. (Leaving for London at about 3 AM, 5:40 Eurostar, rush around the city, late night Eurostar back to London, late night coach back home. Home by Midnight. No big deal!)

It was my second time to Paris, so touring the city was in the hands of my sister who had never been.

Of course, I took a few photos! (With my crap underwater camera... Do I mention that enough? Sorry!)

Happy 850th birthday, Notre Dame! Looking good!

Recognize this bad boy? I was excited that my sister wanted to go all the way to the top! I learned from my last visit to Paris to prep my hair with a braid and a hat.....

Bad hair day circa December 2009.

It was windy (and cold) to say the least! But the view is nice...

We took a short break from culture and went shopping. We hit up the important stores, you know, like the French Disney Store. But not without getting a photo of the Arc de Triomphe first!

The last thing we saw was Sacre Coeur. I was excited to see this because it was the one thing I hadn't visited before!

It was a nightmare and a half getting there though! We took a taxi (mistake) and got stuck in traffic. Our taxi driver was nice, but insane. He just kept pointing at different roads, speaking French (as they do in France), and then exclaiming "Sacre Coeur!". Between mine and my sister's French speaking skills (she took it throughout high school and I can say "Je m'appelle Taylor" and count to 15) we thought he was saying that we'd be there in 14 minutes.

47 minutes later, we finally arrived.

The view was also nice there, too!

We couldn't spend much time there, to be honest. The traffic really screwed everything up and we had to soon check in for our train back to London.

But it was a fun little adventure! (And to be honest, I was SO HAPPY to be back in London... Nothing compares to London.)

Have you ever been to Paris? / Is Paris a place you want to visit?

Work It

We all know I haven't worked since I moved to England.

And that's been hard.

I mean, not like what I've done before was particularly strenuous...

You know, working hard with Stitch...

Most of jobs have been exactly that... Jobs. Not careers.

I do have the face of a professional summer camp counselor

But I have to admit.... The most strenuous part of my life was when I didn't have a job. I've had a job since I was 16. I thought I was going to go nuts!

Whether you choose to be unemployed or you are actively seeking new opportunities, the days can be long and tedious. It can take a toll on your mentality.

In my case, I couldn't work. Under the terms of my visa I couldn't work or even volunteer (thanks UK Border Agency).

When I was finally able to work, it was irritating not getting any calls. Okay, I will admit I am very impatient, especially when it comes to my goals and the time frame when I want them to happen. (I only got approval to work in the UK on the 12th of Feb)

I will say I have been incredibly lucky.

I applied to 10 different jobs. I got 4 interviews, and got offered all 4 jobs. 

Most recently (aka last Wednesday) I got offered the best out of the 4; I considered that one the "stretch". I had my hopes set on it because it was the best hours and pay, but knew there were probably more qualified people going for it as well.

I won't go into detail just because it's new and I'd like to keep at least this one thing private in my life (which admittedly is hard when my entire life is all over the internet).

But I will say that I stayed very proactive during my months of unemployment. In my case, I knew a time frame for when I could work, so a lot of what I did reflected that. 

I'm not a job expert, and I am not claiming to be.

But I do know what helped me stay sane during my days of job hunting and staring at a computer screen. 

Here are my 5 tips for staying proactive during a period of unemployment:

1. Make sure your resume/CV is perfect - That sounds like a given, but you'd be surprised. Checking it every other day for little errors or out of date information can be a lifesaver. That way, when you start applying for jobs you don't have to waste time fixing or changing it. (Prime example, in my CV I have a Personal Interests section that said "I'm currently training for my first half marathon" when I had already done the half! Oops!)

Shameless half marathon pic right there. So in the zone (and looking like I'm catching flies with my mouth!)

2. Make daily lists - Even if they are stupid lists, make them! So many times I just put thoughts in the back of my head saying I'd do them and then they'd get put off for days. Even if the list is "run, remove nail polish, clean sink, organize closet." Write it down (no matter how insignificant the task is) and cross things off your list!

3. Make a cover letter template - In my experience, most cover letters are incredibly similar. Make a generic one that encompasses you and your experience and how that translates to wanting to work for _______. Now when you apply to different jobs, you won't have to write a million cover letters. Just make sure you still proof read before submitting it to a potential employer. Nothing is worse than having the wrong company name in your cover letter!

4. Do things you love - Sometimes, it's hard to want to get up and put on socially acceptable clothing for a day that you have nothing planned for. But maintaining your hobbies definitely helps. For me, it was running! I trained for a half marathon during my months of unemployment. It was a good routine to get into when I had, well absolutely no routine whatsoever! 

5. Still keep a current calender or agenda - I know the last thing you want to do is open up your daily or monthly agenda and be like "oh look at all this nothing I have to do!" But keep it up to date with events or plans you make ahead of time. When you do start getting interviews, you'll be happy you did! You might forget about that wedding next month or how you promised your cousin you'd help them move.

Like I said, there may be many reasons why you are unemployed.

The economy still isn't great. More and more people aren't finding the right fit at their current job. You can't find something that utilized your degree.

But if you're trying your luck at the job hunting game, these 5 things really can help you stay sane and positive about the outcome!  

Have you had a period in your life where you couldn't work or couldn't find work? What tips would you give someone to stay proactive during a time of unemployment??