Many updates

Wow, so it's been quite awhile since I've last updated! This post will be a whole bunch of updates then - it's been quite a busy time for us lately!

A couple weeks ago, Marek and I went to Indianapolis to run a half marathon. It is the One America 500 Festival Mini Marathon, and it's a lot of fun. We went last year, but didn't do too well (mainly because we didn't bother training), but this year I trained faithfully from January until we left for the race. Here we are laying over at the Cleveland airport, playing around with the self-timer feature on my camera.

The race is on Saturday morning, and we fly in on Friday morning and basically fly out right after the race is over on Saturday. We get late check-out so we can take a shower, then kill a couple hours in Indy (this year we went and saw Iron Man 2!), and then fly home. It's a tiring trip, but is so much fun and definitely worth it! We already signed up again for next year's race.

While in Indy, I also got to see my friend Erin. She and I went to college together, and it's so nice to be able to see her and catch up whenever I am in Indy. I felt bad for Marek though, as she and I were chatting for almost 3 hours, and he didn't have much to do. :(

This year we did a lot better in the race than last year. Last year, we just wanted to finish, haha! This year I was aiming for a 2:30 time, which was aggressive for me based on all my practice runs. I ended up finishing at 2:29:07 (Marek finished at 2:29:08), which was fast enough to get a preferred seeding start for next year. I'm so excited! Here is our picture from the finish line from this year.

The next weekend, I graduated from graduate school! I have been going to business school for the past two and a half years, and finished this past spring! I am very excited to have graduated again - it's nice to have some free time and be able to do whatever I want (including nothing!) during the week.

Here is a picture of me walking into the Commencement tent.

The Commencement ceremony was okay - it was long, as expected, but there were some good speeches I thought. They had to read almost 400 names, so for that many people, I didn't think it was too long. Here I am walking across the stage after having my name called. On the left is the President of the college, and on the right, I am shaking hands with the Dean of the college.

Here we are walking out of the tent. Marek did a good job getting a whole bunch of seats together and I was able to see my family while we were walking in and out.

After we walked out, I met my family and a couple friends and we took a bunch of pictures together. My professor from my undergraduate studies actually made the drive out, so I was very excited to see him. Below is a picture of me with my "little" brother. He is graduating next year, so I can't wait to go to his graduation and cheer him on!

Then on Sunday I drove to New Jersey to attend a wedding with my friend Kevin. I've known Kevin since college, but hadn't seen him in about 4.5 years, so it was nice to get to hang out with him. The only bad part is that the trip was pretty short - I got there a couple of hours before the wedding started, and left right after. I got home at 5 AM, so it was a very long day, but it was worth it to sleep in my own bed and be able to get up Monday morning and start my day, instead of then having to drive home.