Accomplishments...

Today is the day after I ran my first marathon. It is funny how you think you might never do something and you end up doing it. I didn't even like running before I moved to Ukraine. I loved working out but I was more of a spinner. But coming here and not having the gym situation I was used to forced me to do different kinds of cardio exercising. So I tried running. People who run always rave about it. They say it is the best time of the day when they can just put all their problems aside and run for a while. And it is a great workout. Well I tried it sometime last year I started. I started off slow. Just running here and there. I even ran in the winter time with my yak tracks and all. I ran in the snow even snow that hadn't been broken in. I made my own footsteps in the snow. I think about it now and I can't believe I had that motivation.

Then Spring came and I was all of a sudden training for a 5k relay with some PCVs and then a 10k in Prague with more PCVs. After the relay marathon in Prague my eyes got big! All of a sudden I wanted to travel the world doing marathons. The energy there was so awesome. I thought I would do a half marathon in Switzerland or something in the fall. However, summer came and I spent a lot of time away from site but still had the motivation to get up in the morning where ever I was and run a few. Then before I knew it I was running for 2 hours without skipping a beat. Then I decided to test my luck with a 20 mile run and when I could do that I signed up for the Kiev Marathon.

It wasn't until about 3 weeks ago that I started to lose motivation to run. Probably because work had started again and I all of a sudden had a lot to do again. Not that I didn't work over the summer but it was easier. It was structured. I knew what I was doing and what I had to do so I did it. Camps are easy that way! You show up and have fun with kids! Now I am back to site and stressing about coming up with projects and that made it difficult to find joy in getting up to run. I knew that I had so much to do and that was weighing on my brain. So running for 2 hours was starting to look like a waste of time. So my training fell off a bit. But in the end I did it. I ran 42.195km yesterday in 4 hours and 48 minutes. I was shooting for a lower number but I am just happy to have finished under 5 hours. With minimal training and my first marathon I will take it! It was pretty grueling. It was painful around 30km. I had to mentally fix myself to keep running. I really wanted to just stop. But I didn't.

There were quite a few PCVs there cheering us on the whole time. I ran with Tammela Platt and another one of our PCV friends Nikita. We ran the whole time together until the end and we broke up according to our own paces. It was a great feeling coming across that finish line. You feel like you can do anything after that. I was high off the adrenalin for a few hours after that! I had to take a 3 hour train ride home though which wasn't exciting but such is life in the PC. I slept for about an hour on the train. I hadn't eaten anything with substance all day. I snacked on bananas, apples, bread and lots of water as we were running. But I just didn't feel like eating. I didn't pee for 6 hours. That is impressive!

Today I rested. And by rested I mean I worked my butt off all day. I stayed in my house but I was majorly productive. I cleaned up the water mess in my kitchen. My electricity went out while I was away and the freezer thawed out all over my kitchen floor. I was trying to figure out how I was going to thaw out that freezer and well there you have it...problem solved! I mopped my floors, cleaned out my refrigerator and did some laundry. I read some grants and answered some emails. And finally I called my mom to wish her a happy birthday...belated but none the less! And now I am catching up on my blog.

That is it for today! 

Another busy year...

So summer has certainly ended the weather outside tells me so. The last two weeks I spent at site were nothing like I thought they might be. I spent time getting back into the swing of things at work and in my personal life. I had many dates with friends, meetings with colleagues and lessons with my tutor. I have met new friends and I have new ideas for the next 9 months so some time for planning has ensued. I didn't account for the holidays. Silly me! The day of Konotop was quite fun. Very much like it was last year. I spent 7 hours in the center walking around and checking things out, listening to the music played at the concert, dancing at the disco, watching the dancers compete and then the finale of fireworks! I didn't stay for them last year and I can't remember why but they were awesome. Reminded me of my days at Ocean City, MD at the beach for July 4th weekend. Didn't think they had it in em! Apparently, Ukraine knows how to put a party on.

Our city was visited by Karaoke of Maidan a few weekends ago as well which brought out many people in our town. This is a big deal for Ktop! This organization you will usually find in Kiev looking for the next singer so to have them in Konotop is a big deal. The city was overly packed that day and you couldn't even get close enough to what was going on in the center. Whoever it was that won did a mini concert for us at city day. It was pretty cool!

Today is not only the 10 years anniversary of 9/11 but two of my very good friends are having a birthday today. Lyuda, my Ukrainian friend in Konotop, and Tricia my old friend from New York. Today I will be celebrating Lyuda's birthday with her. We are going to have a picnic and then I am not sure what will follow. You never know but today is Sunday so I will need to take it easy. Not only am I training for a marathon but I have to work tomorrow!

Next weekend should be a blast. Many PCVs will be in Kiev for the marathon and the many working group meetings that are taking place in the office so there will be people everywhere. I am looking forward to finishing this race!

I have a ton of good ideas for this year. I just finished an awesome meeting with my Special Needs Working Group.We are trying to put together a training conference for professionals in Ukraine that work with people with disabilities for next spring/summer. This is going to be a great project to work on and one I can't wait to see completed. I am working with two organizations in the states to help make this happen so I feel really good about it. Me and my site mate are working on a HIV/AIDS training as well for Konotop. We want to train the professionals here on new information and how to teach it to our city. We want to put on a concert in early spring/summer right here in Konotop. The ideas and thoughts have been flowing and I am so excited about the many different things we can do with this project. This may be all that I can muster for the next 9 months but if I can pull both of these off this will be exactly what I wanted to do with my service and I can go home happy!