A Weekend Off

There’s a lot of things going on in my life: school, SGA, running, CARA, drum corps, and teaching at Downers Grove South on the weekends. I absolutely love it, I definitely wouldn’t have it any other way, because I like being busy. But like everyone, it’s nice to have some downtime every once in awhile. I’ve had days off here and there, but it’s been about two months since I had two full days off in a row. Which is why I was so beyond over-the-moon when I was able to get this one off.

Year in Review: 2015

Much like a lot of this past year, I’ve procrastinated a lot in writing this year-end blog post. I’ve been thinking a lot about it, I promise, but time has just gotten away from me. Hopefully, 2016 will be a different story, but let’s end the year on a strong note here on my little corner of the internet filled to the brim with ramblings. 2015 was a great year, and here’s some pictures to prove it. Stay with us.

January

For the second time, I rang in the new year with my Spirit Family. When I arrived on New Years Eve, I wasn’t exactly sure what my summer would consist of, but when I flew back to Chicago a few days later, I knew that I wanted nothing more than to return to my family in baby blue.

Less Than 800 Words

Everything is moving so fast, and even though in the moment sometimes it sure doesn’t feel that way, I can’t believe that Halloween is just over a week away. I’m going to blame it on being in the suburbs every weekend for band the primary reason that I haven’t been able to update my corner of the internet with my ramblings and life very often this semester (even though that’s one of the best parts of this year so far). In reality, it’s just because I feel like if I wrote something, and did that every week, I’d be saying a lot of the same stuff. Don’t worry guys, I’m still running (half marathon #6 coming up in just over seven days), I’m working so many wonderful jobs (more on that in a minute), still trying to save as much as I can to make DCI 2016 happen, so ultimately, I can return to my family (gofundme.com/erikamarches2016). In addition to obviously doing my best to stay on top of all of my schoolwork (but we probably won’t be discussing that much). Here we go…hold on.

Review, Preview… Here We Go

I suppose it’s about time I fill y’all in on what’s gone down this summer, what’s in store for the semester, and what the rest of 2015 looks like for me… Because it’s going to be over pretty quick here.

First off, I say y’all now. Yeah, that’s a thing that I do. Blame my Southern drum corps.

Secondly, Spirit of Atlanta came in 18th place at DCI Semifinals on August 8th. Although the placement isn’t exactly what we were gunning for, I think it’s safe to say that we all still had an incredible summer. I met some of the best friends of my life, I got so much better at color guard, and I discovered a lot about myself through the whole process. I learned that I can actually make some crazy drill moves with even crazier twirls. I picked up the habit of trying something three times before asking for help, deciding I don’t like it, or taking a deep breath. I re-fell in love with Sweet Tea, especially on show days, and I have yet to find a suitable place to get some in Chicago, unfortunately. I learned that it’s okay to indulge yourself at 2am after a buy stop, but only if you share with a friend. I found some music that plays with my heartstrings more than I’d like to admit (…thanks Jen Barton), how to hype things that you might not want to do… and how much easier it makes them.

But drum corps wasn’t the entire summer – oh, no – I had another month before the start of the semester. I spent about two weeks of it back in Minnesota being a little lazy and teaching band, then we finished moving into our new apartment in the Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago. I also got back into running before I even picked up a new pair of shoes (which I was in desperate need of after a summer marching around the country).

Semester Four, Employment, and Drum Corps!

On the most recent episode of Wits, Rhett Miller does a cover of “Changes”, and maybe it’s because I just listened to it this morning, or maybe it actually is fitting, but all I can think to start this post off with is mediocre blog-singing of “ch-ch-ch-ch-changessssssss”!

A LOT of things are different since my last post here. I’ve had two new jobs, break ended, the semester started, (my fourth at Columbia already… where is the time going?) I’m training for my fourth half marathon, and more.

My Sleeves Froze at the Finish

I live in Chicago, and it’s been pretty cold the past week. So cold that the Chicago Area Runners Association canceled their Boston training long run on Saturday morning, but not cold enough for Team Ortho to cancel their Polar Dash races – which was good for me, or else I would have been out of a week of tapering and $65. AND the hype I had built up over about two and a half months for my longest race thus far of 15 miles.

At the start, the thermometer temp was reading 0, and according to WeatherBug it ‘felt like -25.’ So yeah, it was a little cold, especially with the wind that comes with the Windy City. But honestly, it didn’t feel that bad until about mile 9, when I rolled the sleeves of my sweatshirt down and they froze in an instant. I’ve never really had anything like that happen, since the temps in Chicago haven’t been that bad until the week of the race of course.

But it actually ended up being a pretty good learning experience. I figured out I need to do more long runs before the race, and if I had been able to do a proper taper, I would have probably been in a better headspace going into the race. I had my first mid-race bathroom breaks, and I ran the most I’ve ever ran a race. Even though my time wasn’t what I was hoping, I’m still proud I finished and that I set out to run that day at all. It was a learning experience, as have been all of the races I’ve done so far.

Registered for my next half – the race that started it all – Get Lucky (Chicago) in March. Excited to train hard and hopefully set a new PR for the Spring. Oh, and did I mention how badly I want to do the Chicago Marathon this year? That’s a goal. That’s something I’m really actually considering at least, which is mind-boggling.

This year, I’m starting to take running more seriously. Maybe it’s because I’ve considered myself a ‘real’ distance runner for almost a year, or the marathon goal, or the fact that I’m now working at the Chicago Area Runner’s Association, regardless, I’ve bought some books on strength training and I’m setting out to become a better runner. It should be interesting, hopefully.

Anyway, Classes start in about a week and a half, I’m currently working, like, four part-time jobs, I’m finding some great music on Spotify, and there’s some shows coming up that I can’t wait to tell you about. 2015 is starting to shape up to be both a personal-growth year and (hopefully) a career-growth year. Stay with us.