Two Ears One Mouth

April was a weird month. I finished school at the very end of March and spent about 2 weeks being unemployed and dramatic before getting a call from my externship site offering me a job which I obviously took. I'm now working strictly on the pastry side which has been fun but I must admit I miss bread a little. Anyway, working 10 hour shifts is hard on the body so it's taken me some time to adjust meaning I haven't been running or working out much in the traditional sense. But I figure being on my feet for at least 9 1/2 hours at work and slinging 50 lb bags of dead weight around counts for something. There were some family issues that popped up in April too that were less than ideal but the month ended with me and T hosting 3 out of town guests in our apartment for a few days. Exhausting but so amazing at the same time. One of those guests was my sister and bestie who flew out to run the Eugene Half with me. She's about finished with nursing school but needless to...

I figure it's about time to put this out there and I'm pretty sure if you know me really well, you won't be surprised by any of what I have to say. I've been having a lot of issues lately. I've been working hard with my counselor to determine who I really am and what brings me true joy in life and it's been surprising, frustrating, difficult, fun, exhausting, enlightening, exciting and hard....to sum it up in a few words. I spent some time in Puerto Rico back in March and finally got back into doing some writing while I was out there. It wasn't anything long and certainly not anything particularly newsworthy but it made me feel good. I enjoy writing. When I was young I used to write short fiction stories on my mom's computer whenever I had free time and though a lot of them remained unfinished, they were always fun for me and surprisingly effortless to compose. Blogging has never quite been the same as my true writing and I've been working hard t...

RCM Training (aka Me) had a big weekend! One of my many activities included speaking at the How to Festival hosted by the Louisville Free Public Library . My friend Amy put me in touch with the lovely library folks and they asked me to give a presentation on How to Train for a 5K. I was really excited. So much fun presenting at the #SWHowToFest today! Recruited some new 5k-ers! #RCMstrong #RCMtraining A photo posted by Rennay Cooke Marshall (@rnay225) on Nov 11, 2014 at 8:58am PST So in case you missed it, here are my 5 tips for getting to your first 5K... 1. Figure Out Your Why • Answer the question: Why do I want to do this? Think about what you want to gain and what you’re willing to sacrifice. • Exercise can’t be done for somebody else 2. Pick a Course that Plays to Your Strengths • This is directly related to your why. • What kind of atmosphere works for you? A fun run? A smaller yet more competitive field? A large family-friendly event with l...

Woo hoo the marathon was everything I hoped it would be! Wait, no it wasn't. I didn't actually do it. Allow me to explain... I'm still not entirely pleased with myself or the experience and it's for entirely vain and ridiculous reasons I've yet to overcome. In layman's terms, I have a big ego. To make a long story short, I dropped down to the half marathon (which is still a really long way!) and walked with a peg leg until yesterday afternoon ish. Prior to this race I didn't actually know where Savannah was (read how unprepared I was here ). We hit the road for what would become a 6+ hour drive to Atlanta Thursday night where we stopped for the night and I crashed on a friend's couch before getting up Friday and making the 3-4 hour drive to Savannah. We passed actual cotton fields and trees that looked like they were still in early October instead of November by their color and abundance of leaves. It was also very flat and very straight the ...

You all seemed to love my marathon bucket list post and that is awesome because now I know who to call to join me at which race. And who to tag along with. So thanks for that :) via One race that was missing from the list but will hopefully  be no less awesome is the Rock 'n' Roll Savannah marathon that I'm running this weekend! via When I was working at the running shoe store I met one of my very favorite people, we'll call her E for identity protection although you can just read her blog and you'll learn everything about how awesome she is. Anyway, we were hanging out at work during a particularly slow period and somehow she happened upon this race and revealed that it would be taking place on her birthday. Now she is younger than me but a much more accomplished runner so she quickly signed up and then decided to recruit friends to come along. We were close to renting a van, gathering anyone who could be gathered and driving down to make this t...

I know the title can be misleading so to clarify, this is a bucket list of marathons I'd like to run. Not just a really long bucket list. I'm keeping it to a top 10 because any list longer than 10 is just too long. This post was inspired by my new blog friend Eat Pray Run DC . If you haven't read her blog, you should, because it's prettier than mine. Anyway, here we go, in no particular order... 1. Marine Corps Marathon People who have run it never shut up about it so it must be great. Plus it's in DC and hello, Marines. Ooo rah. via 2. New York City Marathon Since I was born in New York and lived there for a bit it holds quite a place in my heart. It's another one of those epic races people can never say enough good things about. My only hesitation is that I'll really need to get over that thing I have about bridges. (get it? "get over"...bridges...) via 3. Boston Marathon - as a charity runner of course Let's get one th...

Hey friends! I ran another marathon on Saturday! Fun, right? Yes. Let's Tarantino this and start at the end. I had a 3 tiered goal with this race as I usually do. First and foremost was to finish but this was the first time I had goals other than survival or beat the cutoff in a marathon so it was a little scary. My next goal was to beat last year's 5:42 which on one hand would be "easy" since I didn't have any broken bones this year but on the other hand, still scary because a lot can happen in 26 miles...not mention the .2. The last goal was a 5:30 or better. That was the time goal I had floating around in my head last year but not anything I was actively chasing. This year I was. I met my first 2 goals but I missed 5:30...again...by 1 FREAKING MINUTE. Another stellar performance by me (not quite  last in my age group) but more importantly, they also sent us these cute certificates we can print for ourselves. Why didn't I hit my elusive 5:3...

With a mere 2 days and 20 hours left until race time, it's time for me to update my playlist! Here's my current top 10 of must have songs but I want your input too! One of my favorite parts of road racing is the ipod playlist because you can unleash your inner teenager, give in to your guilty pleasure songs and have someone's soulful voice with you through the emotional marathon rollercoaster. 1. Taylor Swift - Shake it Off: I have no idea why I resisted this song for so long. 2. Fun - Carry On: A slow song, yes. But so perfect when I really really need to carry on. 3. Katy Perry - Roar: I hate this video. But who doesn't want to roar? 4. Kris Allen - Live Like We're Dying:  This song is good at getting me to "snap out of it!" and remember why I'm doing what I'm doing. In running and in life... 5. Katy Perry - Firework: I like Katy Perry ok? Are there people who don't visualize finishing a race with this...

Until maybe 9 hours ago I was never really interested in getting faster. My "racing" goals have always just been survival. Occasionally I have secret time ideas  in my head but I never really name a specific goal for various reasons. Let me just say, survival is always a valid goal. But somehow I tend to find myself repeatedly ever so slightly disappointed in my performances. I always say I never want to race to exhaustion. I don't want to be the person crawling and puking at the finish line. I want my pictures to be triumphant and as Carrie Bradshaw once said, "impossibly fresh looking". That's not entirely true, I actually think I look my best all sweaty and a little roughed up. The triumphant part was true though.  Anyway, after my longest long run ever last week outside of a race (18 miles! Boom.) I felt awesome. I'd figured out my nutrition and hydration, kept an embarrassingly slow pace so I didn't die in the heat and humidity and finished feel...

I should probably confess that I don't hate Mondays. I guess I don't like them but I definitely don't hate them. Today has actually been fun though because this morning I met with my new dietitian and she says she's going to make sure I stop breaking bones. I don't want to turn that into a bad habit. How was your weekend? I actually had a pretty good one and don't remember a lot of it. Not because I was drunk but because it wasn't terribly eventful which is just the way I like them. I went to the movies Friday and saw Lucy which did a great job of making my life seem inferior then I met up with a new person for a Saturday long run. I haven't talked about it much but yes, I'm still doing that marathon running thing. And I love, love, LOVE long shorts. No thanks 4 inch inseam! I'm always super nervous about new people or even doing new things with people I already know so I was up bright and early from anxiety alone. I tried out my ...