The Haunted Half Doesn't Scare Us

Well folks. I have changed a lot over the last couple of years, and done quite a few things I said I never would. (Number one on that list would be nursing school. That was a hard no. But it turns out you cannot actually give Heavenly Father a hard no, or he will test you on it.) 

Kylie, Rick, me, and Steven keeping warm pre-race

Running was something I always despised growing up. I hated being sweaty, I hated feeling slow and out of breath, and I hated feeling weaker than everyone around me because I just thought I could not do it. I always told myself and others that I simply was not athletic; it is easy to blame things on what is out of your control and rationalize that you therefore have no power to change it.

Spider Man, Harry Potter, Leonardo, and Super Man ready to rock.

As I have grown and matured (or like to believe I have..) I have come to reject the idea that there are a lot of things outside of my control. I have come to love the challenge of being told I can't do something or can't change something. My parents raised me to believe that I could accomplish anything I wanted if I planned and worked hard enough for it. A few years ago I decided to take my health into my own hands and started doing research on healthy eating/lifestyles/etc. I came to truly love how it felt to eat and be healthy. I started swimming a lot to get my exercise in. But the problem with swimming is it is sort of a seasonal sport. Every winter would come and my health would decline for a few months, and I once again would place the blame on the weather; something outside of my control. Last year when I left on study abroad I became determined to continue exercising year round. I realize the only way to make that happen would be to start running...

family fun 

I was lucky enough in London to have a bunkmate who was an avid runner and got me up every morning to go with her for a half hour. It only took a week or two to learn to love our morning jogs through Kensington Gardens. It was gorgeous trails, perfect temperature, and just felt good to move my body and feel my heart and muscles growing stronger.

This summer I made a goal to run a half marathon. Daunting to my beginning runner self, but I wanted to prove I could do it. Fast forward 6 months and I am thrilled (and shamelessly proud) to announce I have conquered that goal. Yesterday me and my roommate/best friend ran the Haunted Half! We've been running every morning together since school started and training for longer runs, but the farthest I had ever run was 10 miles.. How different can 13 be, right? ha.

running 13.1 miles is fun folks

We had two goals going into it:
1. Don't walk/stop running
2. Finish in under 2 hours.

shamelessly proud of ourselves and thrilled that I can now go eat all the pumpkin cookies I want..

We did not stop even for one second and ran an 8:47 mile to finish a few minutes under the two hour mark!  #success. WE ARE SO HAPPY. It was so fun! Can I say that? It was 2 hours of running, but I had the time of my life pushing myself and accomplishing a big goal with Erika. My brother-in-law decided last minute to run it as well, and the three of us ended up running the last few miles together and crossing the finish line hand it hand. Ashley came down to support us at the finish line, and Erika's parents came so we saw them several times on the trail. They are adorable.

Rick's cute fams signs

I would be lying if I did not say it was hard, and I definitely had to push myself. I don't know if I could have done it alone, but Erika is a champion friend and encouraged me in my moments of doubt and up the hill at the end. It was definitely an experience for the books, and we are already looking into future half marathons for us to run. It might be an addiction.. We love to say that we run because we can. Our bodies are strong, and they can do amazing things. I am so grateful to my Father in Heaven for my incredible body. The more I study it in anatomy and physiology the more I am blown away by the complexity and perfect intricate workings of our bodies.

 

Health/exercise has become one of the subjects I am most passionate about. I love that I have grown to love running and pushing my body to its limits. It is so empowering and humbling at the same time. I run because I can; I will keep pushing myself and running until I can't. And even then I am not sure I will accept my fate.. Who knows what adventures are in store for me and Erika now. We feel like we can conquer the world at this point! Everyone should go make a health goal and then work until you reach it. I have such a testimony of goal setting. IT IS SO FUN. Go! Get up and move. You won't regret it and I promise your body will thank you for it now and in the years to come.

Spider Man and Harry Potter on cloud 9

Happy Halloween!

Love Always, Aimee

medals are for winners.

A Harry Potter Halloween

A little late in the game, but here is a run-down of Halloween as promised!
Here's how it went:

After class (and an mid-term exam, mind you) Me, Zoe, and Lauren went to the empty apartment flat by our professors and made around two hundred pumpkin cookies. That is correct: approximately two zero zero cookies. It took us a fair amount of time between the hand mixing and quadrupling the recipe and baking sheet after sheet and after sheet in only one oven... It was a process. Even getting the ingredients was a bit of a struggle. The pumpkin came from a wonderful American family in my ward who brought it back from the states for me! Talk about coming in clutch (they also brought me real gum, so truly they are just the most wonderful people). It turns out chocolate chips and spices are not a normal grocery store item...? In what world, right? But we found some at Wholes Foods and all was well.

perks of making cookies in the empty flat?
climbing out the window four stories up. (it's what all the cool kids do)

What do we do while cookies are baking, you ask?
Psch. Easy.
Dance to One Direction of course.

Did I mention this Halloween was London's RECORD HIGH TEMPERATURE? 75 degrees and sunny. 

Following the cookie baking extravaganza, Me and Ellen made a quick trip to our much beloved Chipotle because they were offering TWO POUND BURRITOS to anyone who came in costume on Halloween! I'm sorry. Two pound Chipotle burritos? I'm willing to pay ten so we obviously had to go take advantage for dinner. Chipotle is sort of our saving grace here.. England just does not do Mexican food and we all deeply miss it at times. At least, we deeply missed it until we discovered that Starbucks and Subway were not the only America food chains here. Three cheers to Chipotle and their blessed grilled chicken burrito!

After dinner came the actual party. Now, living in London with 40 students who all happen to also love Harry Potter, there really was only one option for a Halloween party: Harry Potter (obvi). We each got on Pottermore (the website designed by JK Rowling) and took the 'sorting quiz.' Then we dressed in our house colors/other costumes and competed for the house cup! It was so so fun. Emotions definitely were running high as the points got closer and closer.. We played a couple classic team games, like get the Oreo from the centre of your forehead to your mouth with no help or hands, and then finished with Harry Potter Trivia.
Talk about intense.. Haha the best part was definitely seeing the different house personalities coming out as we played. Slytherin's were dressed in black, intense, slightly snarky (esp. towards Gryffindor), and had a touch of sass and pride to them. Gryffindor's were loud, full of team pride, competitive, and always a little too into the game. Ravenclaw's remained cool and collected, always knowing the answers and maintaining their ground. Hufflepuff's were just laughing, not really caring about the score, and some looked slightly confused as to what was going on. It was epic. What else would you do if you lived at school in London??

Our awesome Centre facilitators 

 

 

After some calculating and final awarding of points, it was determined that Gryffindor did indeed win the house cup. (Please appreciate that we came from the bottom and knocked out Slytherin for it, just like the books/movies..)

Gryffindor, Gryffindor, GRYFFINDOR
**cheering voice/table banging**

At the end of the games we brought out the cookies and they were devoured within minutes. Seriously, with all the grabbing that went down you would think it was the Hunger Games or something. Or a bunch of high school boys, not college girls.. But I guess that just means they were good, right? **this is where everyone bows down to me for slaving away at them**

champions of the cooking making

Following the party everyone sort of split up to whatever; I spent some time dancing with a group in the front room, helping a few carve a pumpkin, and trick or treating to the professor's flats.

Harry and Hermione? 

After party festivities: Pumpkin Carving! 

All in all, it was honestly one of my favorite Halloweens so far. Full of all of my favorite things: pumpkin cookies, baking, grilled chicken burritos, Harry Potter, and good times with the best friends.

Love Always, Aimee

I'm Harry. Harry Potter.

 

 

Me: "Wait. Why are we holding pumpkins?"
Laur: "It's Halloween; just go with it"