Went running as scheduled even though I absolutely did not want to. Goal for the day: accomplished.

Having survived one three-day week of this semester thus far, I'm feeling a little wary. I am constantly running from work to class to work to class to meetings to sleep, with not a whole lot of time for actual homework or studying in between. I feel this will get to be a problem. We shall see.

In other news, the first day of training for Austin FIT (with the overall goal of completing the Austin Half Marathon) was on Saturday. I had killed my feet with heels for an entire day on Friday, so that part was difficult, but I ran the timed mile like I supposed to and hopefully my time will continue. I currently run a 12:10 mile which I know is slow, but for me it's about what I expected. The goal of bigger importance is certainly distance, but I'm hoping to get to a 11:30 minute mile or so by the end of training. I'm just glad I got my butt out of bed and went to train! That was the biggest hurdle.

What I loved about running even just the mile was that it's so difficult for me that all I can do is keep breathing. I'm literally so focused on "okay, breathe in, okay, breathe out.... need more oxygen!" that I can't think about anything else. I know that if I pace myself by keeping my breathing as slow and deep as possible, I will run for much longer. It's when you let your breathing catch and stop getting enough air that you are forced to stop. All other thoughts literally can't enter my mind. Helps me block out the stress, thus far at least. Is this what other runners who love running are talking about? I'm not sure, but right now it works for me.

Last week was the first week of my internship. It went reasonably well, I thought. I was asked to write a press release on my first day!! This made me very nervous since I've never actually written one before, only worked with them in theory, or worked with releases I didn't write. I do feel however that this is the best way to learn, to be pushed into doing something you're unfamiliar with until you GET familiar with it. The actual writing of it took me about three hours, and I haven't gotten her feedback yet so I'm waiting to see how many flaws it had (or strengths.... I guess that's possible). I should also mention that my mentor seems incredibly cool and (from what I can see online) is a contributor to a bunch of different fun blogs and news sources (such as Austinist) which I think is admirable/goes above and beyond her job description. I did mail a bunch of things as well, but it's certainly a step up from getting coffee or dry cleaning, and I know internships like that do exist. Besides, the mailing was genuinely a learning process as well.

I signed up to train for the Austin Half Marathon via USA Fit Austin and training starts this Saturday. I am very nervous about pushing myself to a goal that feels in many ways unattainable at the moment, but I felt like the time was right. I was thinking about signing up several weeks ago, and I know I mentioned it here, and then when I was in Greece our tour guide taught us the origin of the word "marathon" and I thought, okay, it's a sign. I have only signed up for and paid for the training program so far, so if I really mess it up or can't do it for some reason I won't lose money on the race itself yet. Not that I'll be 'racing' in any way. Just trying to finish the course.

Moving over the last couple days has been such a hassle (but isn't it always?). Apparently there is an unspoken rule in the movers and maids business that they can be two hours later than the time they tell their customers, and that is just fine. I clearly was unaware of this rule and wasted around five hours in the last two days sitting around and waiting for these services to arrive. In any sense, I'm almost done with the whole process. Just organizing things at my new place at this point.

For over a year now, having an internship has been this huge mountain for me to scale. I've been paralyzed by nervousness about my resume and cover letters and interviews and how to apply and what to wear. This semester, I simply worked through the process and have been offered two of the three internships I applied for so far (I'm still waiting to hear from the third). I feel like I've literally conquered a huge fear of mine, and I love that. I'm having difficulty picking because both are great opportunities with a huge variety of things to teach me. Unfortunately I can only take one with my school schedule the way it is next semester. But either way, I feel that I've achieved something I was afraid of for so long, and I'm very excited about that.