Finally - my bio...
Real life side: I am now late (I guess?) 40s, wife and mother of one amazing 22 year old, Katie. Originally from Memphis, Tennesse, we have been in Austin, Texas since 2000. I am a partner in a CPA firm, which is a career I love, and, except for Jan 1-April 15, gives me all kinds of flexibility for travel and time off. We are an active family, enjoying Disney, cruises, travel, wakeboarding, wakesurfing, snowboarding, Supercross races, and sailing as a family. On top of this, my husband Chris rides dirtbikes and street bikes and owns a business in the motorcycle industry. I also do a lot of volunteer work with our local golden retriever rescue group, including hotline, phone interviews, home visits, training, events, and together we do transport and fostering. Katie is studying for her dual (bachelors/masters) degree in accounting (go figure?) at the University of Colorado and has already landed a job to start in the Fall of 2014 with KPMG. On the travel side, we went to Germany/Italy/Austria/Luxembourg/London in 2012 as a family, and my husband and I did a Greek Isles sailing flotilla last summer for our 15th wedding anniversary. (Yes, if you do the math, this is my second marriage.)
Disney side: Mom took us to the Magic Kingdom in the 70s, then back when Epcot opened in the early 80s. I went to
Disneyland as part of a cross-country Vegas/LA trip for spring break in college, then honeymooned in WDW and with a "Big Red Boat" cruise. (That was the cruise line endorsed by Disney before
DCL came along.) Took Katie at age 5, then again at age 6 when Animal Kingdom opened. Again at 16 with a friend. Then we did a birthday trip for my DH in 2010 when we first became empty nesters! In 2011 we went as a family and took my niece for her dream vacation around Christmas. Last year we did a long weekend in May with friends, Katie, and our friends' kids.
Running side: I am not a runner. I just am not. I am slow. I have never really run much. But last Fall I had a skin cancer removed right in the middle of my back, and that meant I couldn't do any strength training, no wakeboarding, pretty much nothing but running for 90 days. So I took up running as my cardio (I guess I could have done elliptical but that gets very boring very quickly). We all three committed to a Thanksgiving Turkey Trot for 5 miles and really enjoyed doing that together (along with the bloody marys after!). After tossing around the idea of TOT run with these lovely Cupcakes for nearly 2 years, we finally committed to 2014. So Chris and I will be running it this year. I'm using the Galloway 10k plan right now and we have registered for an 8k on May 25, and a night time 5k in late June. Not many summertime races around Austin, so we may not get any/many more real race training before TOT.