Walking the Runway for Husker Greats

About a month ago I received a phone call about being in a fashion show to help raise funds for the  Husker Greats Foundation. They raise money for former athletes in their time of medical need.
  Number one, I was excited to help my Husker family, number two was excited to do another runway show. If anyone knows me well, I am actually a HUGE Project Runway fan!

  The runway show featured accomplished former female student-athletes and we had some time to chat beforehand about life, family and the Husker Greats Program. The event was well attended and we even had two Heisman Trophy winners in attendance. That is one of the great things about Nebraska in general, it is a sporty state and people love all things Husker!

   As we got ready, our outfits were picked out for us and we donned our garments, prepped with hair and makeup and got ready with a lineup posted backstage. The picture below has a snapshot of the lineup in the top right corner and a few candid shots.

  The show was certainly fun, but the funniest part was the amount of nerves backstage. You would think with all of these female student-athletes who have competed for national championships, won national awards, played in the pros, etc....nerves would be a thing of the wayside....not so! I admittingly got wobbly in my knees to before hitting the runway as well.

Below is the picture before everyone came to their seats and we were lining up doing final preps (tell each other how fabulous we look, checking teeth for imaginary things we thought were stuck...you know, the normal things ladies do)

Some of the runway looks from Christian Noble

  At the end of the night, it was great to connect with our Husker Family and help raise much needed medical funds for former athletes.  I am always grateful to have made the decision to come from San Diego to be a Husker at Nebraska. GBR

 The picture below is of the featured former student-athletes who came from all over the country to participate and the owner of Christian Noble Furs who was the hub of putting the event together. Lovely group for a great cause!

Your Mrs. Great Plains International 2014,
Maggi

How to train for the Worlds Toughest Mudder (and throw on a pair of heels after!)

As the Worlds Toughest Mudder competition approaches, my biggest point of preparation has been my mind. There is only a point that you can take your body before your mental mindset needs to become stronger.

Before getting in to a few tips, I want to share a moment from the weekend that was super exciting for me...I got to meet Juliana Sproles, the very first female Worlds Toughest Mudder Champion! The below picture was taken post race. She was kind enough to share some tips with me for what it takes to last through the Toughest Mudder. She is truly amazing :)

When your body will physically want to give up and you have to be your biggest cheerleader each and every step of the way, your mind better be tough. Toughest Mudder has a rule of no music, etc while running in the 24 hour competition (among many other strict rules) So how am I getting my ready to compete there?

1. Any time I am in a car alone, NO music is playing. You have to have the ability to basically entertain yourself during a repetitive action that can be mind numbing if you allow it. This weekend I traveled to a few states and spent several long hours in the car. I played one CD at one point and that was only because it was a gift from Singer Tiffany Johnson who is donating 100% of her CD sales to soles4souls. It was a great CD!!
2. Even though I am fairly used to sleep deprivation (how else can I get so much done :), I have increased it. When traveling I chose to not stay in hotels 2 of the 3 nights to force myself to keep going and be able to perform while physically and mentally exhausted. After landing back in Omaha, I had to go speak right away to a room full of contractors and am pleased to say my mental acuity was in tact (There was lots of good feedback to verify it really was and I am not purely delusional that the presentation was great!)
3. Eat right! For our family, this is a given whether it is the worlds toughest mudder or just living life. With Heart Disease as the number one killer for women and heart disease running in my husbands family, we just focus on a balanced meal plan and stay consistent. 
4. Train with intention. I don't want to wait for race day and the decide to push my hardest, just like when we ran track in college, we laid it on the line daily.  

A sample workout is as follows:

• 4 mile run 8 mile pace in full wet suit
• 800 yards of lake crawls full submerged
• 30 fences hops
• 30 fence ducks
• 10 50 yard hill runs

This either has you excited to run in a obstacle race someday or terrified. I would suggest you try it at least once, it is such a great way to conquer fears and challenge yourself to see what you are really made of!

A few highlights from last weekends spartan race:

Top 3 finishers make and females Spartan Elite Heat

Our son Charlie ran in the Kids Spartan race

They even had a sign that said Never Give Up!

Have a great weekend and thank you for sharing this journey!
Your Mrs. Great Plains International 2014
Maggi

Every Day Matters...

A few years ago our church started a "Decade on Purpose" effort to focus on intentional living and making each day matter by living out what God has put before you.

This week's blog will vary into our family side of things. You may notice that we do not post much about our children on social media and this is a personal family decision we agreed on a few years ago. We are ok with the occasional post, but it is pretty limited. With this said, we wanted to give you a peek into our family life this week inspired by our Church's sermon on Sunday :)

One of our favorite things to do as a family is simple, just be together. It doesn't need to be anything special or anywhere special, we just love to get cozy and laugh.

Our girls room is FULL of dress up clothes. We have more princess dress's than we know what to do with. This can be crazy for me sometimes as someone who grew up with brothers and was always getting their hand me down toys like matchbox cars and transformers. I still do my best and we play barbie, paint nails, curl hair and wouldn't you believe it I let the girls (and Charlie) even do my makeup. One time I forgot they did my makeup and left the house with it on....oh boy was that day special!

Charlie's room we are usually lucky if we can see the floor. He likes dress up too, but on the end of Ninja's, Darth Vader and Transformers. As he get's more in to sports, shin guards and cleats are capturing some floor space as well.

As we went to the park the other day and we were playing chase (aka Tag) I tried to capture some of the moments of our laughing and smiling.

It would be fair to say Charlie is a total mommy's boy and Fiona is a Daddy's girl. Ellie is at the age where it is whoever is convenient at that time :)

As I think about making each day matter I am motivated to inspire others around the world...but God is very quick to remind me that it starts at home with our family. Do I fail some days...yes. Does Fred fail some days...yes. But number one rule in the Thorne house...show Grace.

For us, making each day matter at home is about showing our kids God's love for them by the way treat them and our intentional family time. 

Is our life just plain nuts some times...oh yes. Would we have it any other way? NO WAY! I am grateful for a God who would entrust me to be a parent...now I just need to make EVERY DAY Matter.


To find out more about a Every Day Matters, visit Every Day Matters
From this link, you can also get the 1 second every day app to help capture life's memories :)
Enjoy!

Warmly,
  Your Mrs. Great Plains International 2014
Maggi

The Tough Mudder Experience

First and foremost before the tough mudder experience, I want to introduce you to a great organization I am so excited about I feel like getting out there and running right this instant!! If you are anxious, here is the link to their website: http://www.girlsontherun.org/

The other weekend was what started out to be what I thought would be a once (emphasize the "one time") in a lifetime experience competing in the Tough Mudder race. I walked away (slightly limping) from Tough Mudder in Kansas more motivated than ever though to run races that are longer than 5k and challenge myself more than ever thought possible. The dots really connected for me though when going over obstacles on the race course and I think about all of the obstacles in life young women can face. I was fueled with energy thinking about Girls on the Run International and how after all of these years of running, to meet such a wonderful cause was a blessing.

One item of note in case you were ever curious, false eyelashses can survive a 12 mile obstacle course race!

The Tough Mudder went well and I was able to win the UnderArmour #IWILL challenge. In light of this experience, the opportunity arose to compete in the Worlds Toughest Mudder, the world championship race with runners from all over the world. It is a 24 hour race from noon on Saturday to noon on Sunday with each competitor charged with the task of competing as many laps as possible, each "lap" being 10 miles with obstacles.  Honestly, I have lots of fears when I think about the race, so I just try not to focus on the race itself, but the preparation leading to it. If I prepare right, the race will take care of itself and a charity will get great visibility. Prayers for my body to stay healthy as I pick up my current training load would be great, thank you!

Pre-race

Our race numbers were written on our foreheads

Post- race

Warm Regards,

Maggi

Your Mrs. Great Plains International 2014