"Remember this for next time..."

That's been said MULTIPLE times in my short, beautiful life by many, many people. Mom, Grandparents and more recently, Ryan.

Let's clear the air here and now, I'm (mostly) always right. I also consider myself a bad ass. I run outside in the winter. Bad Ass.

Back in October as I was picking up my race packet for the Chicago Monster Dash big flashing signs drew me into signing up for the Chicago Polar Dash.

LOTS of things went through my mind including, "Won't this be great?! I'll HAVE to train through the winter and that way I will hold off gaining winter weight right before the wedding. PERFECT! Here's my $55 and I will do the HALF MARATHON on JAN 14th in CHICAGO." (Reminder: Chicago is in the mid-west and it's nickname is 'The Windy City')

So I signed up for a winter race in October when it's still BEAUTIFUL outside. Also, I'm trying to collect as many Chicago running BIB's as possible before the inevitable move back to Michigan. I also LOVE bling. I don't get medals in life for anything else. I don't get a medal for having the cleanest floor! (Which I would win) But when I see this:

I HAVE TO SIGN UP BECAUSE I HAVE TO HAVE THE PRETTY PRETTY MEDAL!!!

This is not the first time I have made the fatal mistake of signing up for a winter race in the fall. Two years ago I signed up for the New Years Day 5K and it was ZERO degrees. That's crap and I lost $35.00. The curse of winter races is that there ARE beautiful and relatively warm days during this time but they never occur on the day of the race. EVER!

So I am going to train for the half marathon no matter what because in my heart I am a bad ass and I can't throw in the towel yet. Lucky for me, this is a half marathon, 10K and 5K...so if for whatever reason its just TOO cold to do the half (meaning I sweat like a monster and the longer I run, the more I sweat, therefore the longer I'm out the colder I get) I can and will do the 10K.

I do that so A) I will have NOT wasted my money and B) I can still come home with pretty bling. If none of this makes sense...you and Ryan have something in common; not understanding a crazy lady.