Sunshine Award!

A while back Lauren at runsaltrun and Susie at suzlyfe nominated me for the Sunshine Award. I’m a little late in getting this out, but here are ten random facts about me:

1) I used to think it was bad form to wish someone “good luck” before a race. My reasoning was that someone who has put in the time and effort into training didn’t need luck, they were prepared. I’ve since changed my mind about this. I think you can train perfectly and still have things go wrong on race day. So I now wish runners good luck on their races, I think we all could use a little luck on race day.

2) I have run a marathon before, and it did not go well. In 2006 I registered to run the Twin Cities Marathon. My training was going okay, not great, until the final month before the race. I moved into a new apartment and for whatever reason, stopped running. I was young, 25, and foolishly thought I’d be fine for the marathon. And I might have been okay if I hadn’t left my nutrition in my sweat bag that morning. I started the race thinking I’d take it slow and finish. I took it slow and by mile 20, I was shot. I started walking and couldn’t run anymore. I hobbled across the finish line less than five minutes after the 6 hour time limit. At that moment I told myself that I would make it back someday. That someday will be October 5, 2014.

3) In August of 2007, I bought my first car. Less than two weeks later, a couple days after I turned 26, I packed up my cats and a car load of belongings and drove to Utah. I was moving to Utah for a job, but also to be closer to my boyfriend who lived in Carson City, Nevada and was planning to eventually move to Salt Lake as well. The boyfriend and I broke up the night before I left, there was another woman. I was completely alone in a new city with only a carful of belongings. It was a lonely time for me as I built a life and home for myself in Utah, but it was also exhilarating. There was something I really loved about being completely alone for the first time in my life. I had no family here and no friends, but that didn’t last long, and I’ve since built a very happy life for myself in Utah. I can’t imagine what my life would have been like if I had chickened out of moving to Utah after that breakup.

Frosty, the Subaru I bought in Minnesota just weeks before moving to Utah.

4) I’ve always loved pugs. I even had a name for the pug I would someday get. His name was going to be Pudgy, and it was going to be a he because I wouldn’t feel right calling a girl Pudgy. Five years later I found myself newly moved to Utah and feeling that I wanted to do something to symbolize my new beginning. I was considering a tattoo when a co-worker at my new job told me she had just bred a litter of pugs. That was how Pudgy the pug finally came into my life.

Pudgy back in 2007

Pudgy now

5) I have an irrational fear of flying. When I was living in Minnesota, and my job interview in Salt Lake City was days away, I knew I wasn’t going to get on the plane. I got myself to a doctor who prescribed me anxiety medication. To this day, I try to avoid flying, and when I do fly, I usually take the anxiety medication. I know that statistically I’m less safe driving than I am flying, but there is something about being thousands of feet in the air in a multi-ton aircraft that just doesn’t seem right to me, despite the fact that hundreds of aircraft fly every day without incident. Hence, why I call it an irrational fear.

6) I used to really dislike the color pink. Even well into my adulthood, I couldn’t buy pink workout clothes because I thought it was too girly, too…pink. I now really appreciate pink. I now own lots of pink clothing. I even have pink trail running shoes. I don’t know how this happened.

7) Speaking of things I used to dislike, I used to hate cilantro. I always thought it tasted like soap. Now, I love the stuff! In any recipe that calls for cilantro, I will usually put in one entire cilantro bunch, even if the recipe calls for one tablespoon of it. I’m pretty sure my new appreciation of cilantro came from over a decade of eating Chipotle. I love that place!

8) I’m allergic to egg whites. I remember one day when I was a kid, my brother and I were eating breakfast, eggs. I wasn’t feeling so great and my mom must have been trying to get us out the door, she kept telling me I had to finish my breakfast. I kept eating more and feeling worse, so I told her again that my stomach wasn’t feeling good. This happened a few times until I threw everything up all over the table. After that I got an allergy test, I was really allergic to egg whites. If I ever have kids, I will never force them to clean their plates.

9) I’ve never been stung by a bee. Seriously. I’m 32 and have never been stung by a bee. I sometimes wonder if I should carry an epi-pen, just in case I am hyper sensitive to bee stings and someday get stung by one. I am allergy prone, and if a mosquito bites me, I get a huge welt. Any nurses out there who can give me some advice?

10) My mom is my hero. She grew up on a farm in South Korea without electricity or plumbing. Her father, my grandfather, passed away when my mom was young, and my mom worked full-time in addition to going to high school to support her family. My mom married an American and moved to the US without knowing English. She learned to speak and read English on her own. She struggled in a marriage to an alcoholic and had the courage to eventually leave. She raised me and my brother alone and without child support. She taught me about strength, independence, resilience, and courage. I love my mom and wish her a very Happy Mother’s Day!

Okay, now you know a lot more about me, what about you? I know a lot of the bloggers I follow have already been Sunshine Award recipients, so my apologies if you’ve already done this. My nominees are:

piratebobcat

runudwari

stampedwithaheart

runningsouthern

runningbetty

irishrunnerchick

For anyone else reading, please post some random facts about yourself!