101 in 1001

recap : 101 in 1001

July 13, 2016 Rachel Atwell1 Comment

My first 101 in 1001 timeline is finished!

One thousand and one days ago I set out to accomplish 101 tasks. I loved having a list to refer to, to remind/inspire me to try new things, to go on adventures, and to challenge myself.

When I began the list, I had just turned 27, had been married for 3 months, was living in a new state (with tentative plans for another move), and wasn’t working. Alot of changing and growing has happened, and I’m thankful for God’s grace that has sustained and carried me through.

My biggest practical take away in creating this kind of list was not listing so many weekly items. It proved to be a little overwhelming and hard to keep track of those – especially over 1001 days.

Overall I finished 49 of the items, began 26, and didn’t attempt 26 others. Maybe some of those will carry over to my next 101:) Until then, I have 3 months to accomplish my 30 before 30!

53. run 13 miles

December 31, 2015 Rachel AtwellLeave a comment

For a few years I’ve wanted to run a half marathon, but the idea of it was really intimidating. This summer, I decided to go for it and started training!

I planned on signing up for the Rock and Roll Savannah after hearing good reviews and that it had a flat course.

I signed up for a training plan on RunKeeper and 3 weeks in, my body was yelling at me to quit (there wasn’t much rest built into the plan). I took a few days off, and reevaluated. Over the years, I had read about Hal Higdon’s plans on different occasions, and finally decided this was the plan for me because of the cross training options.

Fortunately the training, although a little time consuming, was doable and much kinder on my body.

Until the month before the race. October happened to be one of the craziest months of my life, and I don’t think I trained at all. Not good when you’re planning on running 13 miles straight.

After much encouragement, I decided to still try, but to readjust my goals for the race. Originally I wanted to finish under 2:15 and run the entire race. My adjusted goal was 2:30 and to complete, even if walking was required.

We arrived to the start line that morning about 30 minutes prior to start time. What I didn’t know was that we’d be started in shifts and really wouldn’t start until about 30-40 minutes later. This turned out to be good news because I may have had to use the bathroom twice while we were in our corrals. #BlameItOnTheNerves

So a little while later, we were off! Some of our friends from church were also doing the race but I couldn’t find them prior to the start. About two minutes in I was able to catch up with one of them and we stayed with each other for most of the race.

As you’ll see in the picture below, it was extremely foggy and humid – even at our early start. By mile one I was already really sweaty, and even had a stomach cramp – which I didn’t have the entire time training.

Unfortunately things continued to get warmer. I honestly didn’t think much of the temperature but more of the humidity.

Mile after mile, I felt pretty good and happy with the pace I was running until mile 10. At one of the water tables they had an ice bag sitting out, and I remember scooping up some, not caring about how unsanitary that probably was, just to get something cold in me.

Along the way, I saw people sitting down but this being my first half, I didn’t think much of it. Later I learned that because of the warm temperatures they had a lot of people falling out on the course and needing medical attention. Eventually they started turning around the full marathoners on the course because of the temperatures.

Around mile 11, I noticed that my heart rate was up more than normal and I felt a little lightheaded. Obviously it wasn’t worth the risk of passing out. It was a little bit sad to stop running and walk but I felt confident in my decision – until I started running again and I realized my legs were pretty much dead at that point 😉

As I got closer to the finish line, I was so happy that I had almost finished a half and overcome something that I feared to try for so long. I think more than anything, it was a mental accomplishment, knowing that I can push myself to do things with hard work.

Crossing the finish line was a wonderful feeeling – and not just because they had ice cold water and Gatorade available – but that was pretty exciting. 🙂

Overall, I was happy with my time 2:33:45.7, even though it was over my goal time.

Hopefully I’ll do another soon and beat that time!

ps – my watch. Such a jokester. This was AFTER I finished. #Nope 🙂

101 in 1001 · Atwell Adventures · From The Road

75. take a skiing/snowboarding trip

April 15, 2015April 15, 2015 Rachel Atwell4 Comments

Well this is a little awkward. It’s spring time and I’m about to tell you about a ski trip and below freezing temperatures.

Ski Trip | Atwell Adventures.018

Back in February we planned a weekend getaway. At Christmas we decided instead of gifts we would plan a ski trip instead! So the weekend before G’s 28th, conveniently also Valentine’s Day weekend, we made our way to North Carolina!

And there might have been a slurpee pit stop on the way.

G found Red Rocker Inn, a bed and breakfast in Black Mountain about 25 minutes outside of Asheville and about an hour outside of Sugar Mountain, where we planned on skiing.

Ski Trip | Atwell Adventures.005 We checked in and had a late lunch at a pizza place in downtown Black Mountain. And then did a little window shopping where I found this strange faux-real animal scene.As luck would have it, the weekend we planned our trip was COLD. It began to snow on us in Black Mountain and later that evening when we went to dinner in Asheville.

Speaking of Asheville, we passed the cutest chocolate shop, French Broad Chocolates, on our way in to town, so we knew we wanted to have Valentines dessert there after dinner at Tupelo Honey Cafe. Little did we know that French Broad Chocolates Google map location was pointing us to their old location, so after 15 minutes of walking in the FAH-REEEEZING wind, we were able to find the address to their new location.

And finally we made it.

And approximately two minutes after we snapped that picture, G remembered he left his wallet in the car. Now most people would give up at this point and just decide to go home. Not us. So backkkk to the parking deck we went to retrieve the wallet and then back to French Broad so we could satisfy our sweet tooth. The salted caramel hot chocolate taste was worth every step of our trek around Asheville and the temperature of the drink made me forget about the wind that had made my face gone numb.

Speaking of faces feeling numb, when we woke up the next morning I decided to check the forecast for the day. Do you see that feels like temperature? NEGATIVE 28 DEGREES. And the high for our afternoon skiing adventure? 13 degrees.

Picture me crying and not wanting to move from the bed.

But move from the bed we did! I think I had abuot four layers but even with that this is about how we felt.

Ski Trip | Atwell Adventures.016

This was G’s first adventure on skis and he did well after getting in a few practice runs!

The sun was out all afternoon as were the Valentine/President’s Day weekend crowds.
And by afternoon time, even my iPhone was confused about what to do with such cold weather.

It was a fun day of trying something new with G!The next morning we woke up to our second morning of buffet-style homemade breakfast by the innkeepers at Red Rocker. Normally I’m one to enjoy a few extra minutes in bed, but I was eager to get to the dining room and snag a table so we could enjoy breakfast fireside. Both morning breakfast selections were SOOO good as you can tell by my full plate.