HBBC 6 & Resolution Run

"I just picked up my race kit. This thing isn't even timed. Lame!"

So week 6 of the HBBC wasn't all that great for me. I had planned on getting out to run 5 times this week but reality turned it into 3 and I never got to the gym once. I'm really missing the summer right now when getting a run in is so much easier. Tonight was also the Brita Resolution Run. I realized when I picked up my kit on Thursday that this was a fun run and not even timed. Being a super competitive girl, this didn't sit well with me (as you can see from my text to Sarah above). The same Sarah who has been trying to weasel her way out of this run for weeks. Today we sent a few texts back and forth about what time we would meet downtown which finally resulted in Sarah breaking me down into meeting up at a pub for a drink rather than doing the run. We got our coats out of the run, and we both did 5k's on our own today (mine part of dailyvitaminF's virtual 5k) so what the heck. I got my run in and time with my friend so I'm not disappointed that we didn't make it to the organised run. Now had it have been a chip race things would have been different..........

Saturday (Christmas Eve) 5k run (3)

Sunday (Christmas Day) 5k run (3)

Monday (Boxing Day) (0)

Tuesday 5k run & 7 f/v (4)

Wednesday 7 f/v (1)

Thursday 2k walk & 7 f/v (2)

Friday (0)

Weekly Total 13

NYE Virtual 5k Race Bib. And my Resolution Run Swag, Boy was that coat hot to run in!

This run was a mess for me. I had planned on running at 5pm downtown so I ate at 3pm. Then Sarah and her texts happened and I went out at about 3:45 instead. Poached eggs and toast along with Acai Pomegranate juice do not make a good meal right before running. I honestly thought I was going to vomit a few times during this run (which really worried me because a lot of people were out walking their dogs on the trail this afternoon. You know dogs and vomit..........nasty!) and suffered quite a bit of acid reflux. Adding in the fact that I was hotter than hell in this jacket this run sucked and I was happy to see it over. Crappy run to end the year with. Hopefully tomorrow morning's run goes better! BYE BYE 2011.

HBBC Resolution Run Race Bib. This is tomorrow's run but I plan on doing it at 6am before I go to work so I figured I'd get my son to take this picture at the same time as the other one.

I got up at 6am for this run, I put in a sweaty 5K (wore my Resolution Run jacket again) and then walked the dog around the block to cool down. Thankfully the acid reflux from yesterday was gone! It certainly made things more comfortable. Then off to work I went. Boo. I'm glad that I welcomed 2012 with a run! Thanks Amanda for getting my butt out of bed and into my new running shoes!  



2011 Favourite Facebook Statuses

I'm always told that people enjoy my Facebook status updates. I think some people may even be on my friends list only to read them. While they're not always keepers, quite a few make me smile. I've compiled a list of my favourites from the past year. Most of them are direct quotes from my family. I'm pretty sure that no family laughs as much as mine does. :o)

"ME: What pants are you wearing?
NOAH: I don't know. I couldn't find any in my drawer so I put these on. I think that they're Kyles.
ME: Turn around and let me see the back...................Yeah. You can wear those if you want but they're not Kyles. They're mine."

"The dry skin under my nose from my cold looks like boogers. Perfect!"

"Probably shouldn't laugh, but listening to Noah & his buddy crank call the 'mean girls' in his grade on the way to SP/FX class last night was pretty entertaining....
"Hi this is Gavin from Value Village. Your order of large size ladies clothes is ready to be picked up.""

"Co-worker hugs = awkward. Drunk co-worker hugs while you rub my back and hum in my ear = creepy. Please refrain. Thank you."

"‎"Of course mom posted about it. My entire life is cataloged on Facebook"
-Kyle

"KYLE: Can you wake me up early tomorrow. I need to shave to get Movember started. ME: Wow babe, are you raising money? KYLE: No. Just growing the 'stache My philanthropic son. Always thinking of others. :oP"

 "‎"That persons house smelled like crap" -Noah thankful for Halloween treats."

 

"Served a 20something guy in with his parents tonight. He dropped some wing goop on the crotch of his pants and his mom went to wipe it away. Yowza."

"Kyle & I walking through some crappy Milton Mall:
ME: I wonder what that store is?
KYLE: I think it's kind of like Conspiracy Comics, although judging from the people in there, it's a little more geeky.
ME: Do you see the floor length trench coat on that one guy?
KYLE: I can smell the B.O from out here
**Look out world. There's now officially two of me out there!**"

"I Ran For The Cure and raised almost $1850 for breast cancer research. Yay me!"

"Saw a grown man in a Charlie Brown tshirt tonight....obviously he's single."

"ME "Robert, I got the donation that you left for me on Saturday night for the run for the cure, thank you!
WEE ROBERT "I left you a donation? What was it for?"

Gotta love working in a place that serves alcohol....obviously a little too freely...."

"KYLE "Let's drive through the Buffalo slums to kill some time!"
DEREK "Yeah, probably not a good idea. Either your mom will look at someone the wrong way or your brother will yell something completely inappropriate out the window""

"Watched a clip of Anderson Cooper getting a spray tan with Snooki. What the heck happened to this guy? He's gone from credible reporter to creep. I bet that Aaron guy who he replaced on CNN is ready to give him a throat punch right about now!"

"Going to pick up my & Ryan's race kits today for tomorrow's Waterfront Trail 5K Race! Here's hoping that we don't crap the bed. Considering Ryan only just realized last night that this was a race and not a friendly run we may be in trouble. "It's a race?! What do you mean it's a race?! What am I supposed to do?!""

"Shocked at the amount of people that I noticed last night with their phones clipped to their belts! Can't fit it in your fanny pack?"

"ME "Let's go to the grocery store"
NOAH "Let's?"
ME "Yeah. Me & you. Together. Together Forever like like ramma lamma lamma ka dinga da dinga dong"
NOAH after massive eye roll "You're forever alone""

"Noah watching Billy the Exterminator "Cool! I didn't know that beavers have disposable thumbs!""

"has never understood the need for a dream catcher in your car........."

"ME "Kyle & I planted a tree today"
NOAH "was it a seed or did it come preassembled?""

"those couple of beers after work last night sounded like a great idea at the time...not so much during my run this morning. Talk about sweating like a canned ham! Yowza!"

"Went for a run through the park this morning. Ahhhh the sound of birds chirping, owls hooting and the smell of hot dog crap in the garbage cans...."

"Um, if you have an upset stomach please don't order the curry...."

"Called Noah last night from work to see how his soccer game went
NOAH "Yeah, I won game MVP"
ME "Awesome! Great job. What did you do that was so great to deserve that?"
NOAH "Nothing. You know they give them to everyone""

Line of the night goes to Tony @ table 5
ME "Look, they're lighting fires in Vancouver!!!"
TONY "Is that Luongo's car?""

"I think Thomas is running a close second to Miller for being my favourite goalie. He always looks like he's having a great time out there, unlike Luongo who just looks like someone farted in his crease..."

 "Yay to my nephew Jonathon for winning MVP of the year at MMR!!!
Clearly he inherited his athletic prowess from me, fellow athlete of the year. #AlBundy"

 Attention concrete dudes: I didn't pay Mohawk College to teach me how to do payroll for you to tell me how your stat pay should work out. :P"

Derek has my car today. He just called and asked if I've been renting it out to hobo's...."

"KYLE" Mom, can you give me $50. This kid at school can get stitched NHL jerseys cheap and I want to get a Seguin one"
ME" Kyle, you don't even wear hockey jersey's anymore. Why should I waste my money?"
KYLE "It doesn't matter if I ever wear it. It's practically free!!!""

"NOAH looking through grocery flyers "Lamb? That looks good, I want to try it!"
ME "You know that's baby sheep right?"
NOAH "Yeah so. I only like dogs & wolves so we're good""

"‎**Conversation with guy who has an empty beer glass on his head
ME "Is there something that you want to say to me?"
GLASS HEAD "I have a glass on my head. That's the universal sign for I want a beer"
ME "No. That's the universal sign for 'I'm an a-hole'."

Aside from dart & volleyball players, verbal tippers are the worst!"

"KYLE: be quiet nerd!
ME: please don't talk to your brother like that
KYLE: Uh, I was talking to you...."

 Is happy to see Kyle reading! Who cares if it's Sh*t My Dad Says! It's a friggin' book!

HBBC Week 5 & Virtual 5K

Here we are. Christmas eve. Yay! The HBBC is coming to an end soon, and while I'm certainly not going to win the whole thing, it has kept me active (even when I hurt my foot) and eating my fruits and veggies so for me, that's a win right there. Trying to fit in an extra mile so that I can get an extra point and finding different ways to get my 7 servings of fruits and vegetables has been challenging but fun and it's something that I hope to keep up when this is all over.

This week has been super busy at work so I haven't had the chance to work out much, but last night I came across this virtual 5k so I made it a point to get up early this morning so that I could participate in it before I headed into work. I went out at 6am and ran it in 30:48. I would have been under 30min but due to the fact that I didn't drink much at all yesterday (stupid I know!)  literally 3 strides from hitting the 4.5k mark I got a cramp. Boo! I was happy to get out though and got to break in my new Lulu Run Free pants that I bought myself for Christmas. Yay!



Here I am with my Race Bib. Rolling out of bed at 6am and into my running shoes is not conducive of a flattering picure!

HBBC Week In Review:
Saturday weights 30min & run 6k (5.5)
Sunday: 0
Monday walk 3.3k 7 f&v (3)
Tuesday 7 f&v (1)
Wednesday run 5K 7 f&v (4)
Thursday walk 3.45k 7 f&v (3)
Friday 7 f&v (1)

Weekly total 17.5

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas. Now it's time for me to get myself dolled up for church. Midnight Mass at 9pm is my kind of Midnight Mass!! Back home and in bed long before Santa arrives. Thank goodness for elderly priests who can't stay up that late. God Bless you Father Ray. :o)

Next week is the Resolution Run on New Years Eve which I will tie in with this virtual race.

HBBC Week 4?!

What the heck? Week 4 already? Where has the time gone?! This week didn't go much better than the previous one. While my foot feels better, I now have a cold and feel like crap. I never get sick, but when I do, I do it right! Unfortunately for our clientele I will only call in sick for death bed illness because if I don't work I don't get paid and I kind of like to eat, so I toughed it out at work. Thankfully we weren't too busy so I was able to at least duck out early a few nights.

My week in review

Saturday: 1 hour on the elliptical on the hills setting, 30min weights and a 3K walk. (7.5) We also got our tree today! Yay!

Sunday: Starting to feel like garbage so I did nothing other than work and watch my boys deck the halls. (0)

Monday: Feeling like full blown garbage but I fit in a 2k walk & my 7 fruits & veggies. (2)

Tuesday: Still sick but got my 7 F&V (1)

Wednesday: Surprise still feeling nasty. 7 F&V (1)

Thursday: Starting to feel better so I did an hour on the bike along with 7 F&V (5)

Friday: Today I decided that I was running even if it killed me. It's been almost 2 weeks so come hell or high water I'm getting out there! 5K run accompanied with a runny nose and coughing fit but I did it, along with a 3K walk. (5) I also took my boys on a car ride to see the Christmas light display at the lake but neither one of them was dressed appropriately for the drizzle so we didn't get out of the car. We did get the obligatory shot of the house on Spruce though....

Weekly total: 21.5

Random photo: Do you think that it's weird that I have 5 Christmas cards from suppliers on my desk at work and 3 of them are the exact same?

HBBC Week 3 and my first injury. Boo!

So week 3 was going to be it! My best week ever, or best of 3 anyway. It started out great with an 11k run followed by a 3k walk with Gordie on Saturday and ended with a pulled something or other in the top of my foot and me taking it easy for the last half of the week. To say that I was disappointed is an understatement. And of course it's always those days that you can't do certain things where you see them everywhere, teasing you. I doubt that I've ever seen as many runners out there as I did towards the end of the week. But, as my walks past the Long Term Care Facility by my house told me, things could always be worse. At least I could still get out there and take walks. And that's what I did. And now my foot feels 100% again. So of course I have a rotten cold now. *sigh*

My week in review:

Saturday was a kick ass day 11k run and a 3k walk (8.5)

Sunday I worked and then took a nice 2.5k walk at night with Gordie and checked out the Christmas lights around the neighbourhood. Some are so nice. Others. Well........ (1.5)

The nativity set to lights........not 100% sold on this idea

Monday morning I hit the gym at 5:30am did 20 min of weights, did a 5k run on the treadmill on the hills setting and got my 7 servings of fruit & veg. Yay! (5)

Tuesday morning I hit the gym at 6am, skipped the weights because it was shoulder day and my shoulders were killing me from a busy night at work the night before and ran 5k intervals on the treadmill. I have to tell you about the man on the treadmill beside me....he was really sweaty........really really sweaty. He was so sweaty that it honestly looked like a dog got out of the lake and shook himself off all over that treadmill. Nice gym etiquette. After telling my friend about this she told me that there used to be a guy at her gym who would wear a raincoat on the treadmill to make himself sweat more! LOL What is wrong with people?! (4) I also got my 7 f&v in today!

Wednesday my foot was starting to bother me whenever I bent it so I laid off the running and just went for a 3.25k walk and ate my 7 f&v. (3)

Thursday my foot was still hurting so I stuck to walking. 3k & 7 f&v was my total for the day. (3)

Friday, surprise. Foot's still sore and now I'm starting to get worried. Between 2 jobs and 2 sons (1 of which plays on 3! hockey teams) I have absolutely no time to get this looked at! So I walked 3k and ate my 7 f&v. Taking 4 servings into work in the mornings is really helping! (3)

Any way, making sure that I wore supportive shoes all week (I really missed my Uggs), keeping my foot wrapped and keeping it up as much as I could really helped. By Monday it felt as good as new. Too bad the rest of me doesn't.

Weekly total 28.

HBBC Week 2

Well.......week 2 of the HBBC was not what I had hoped it would be. Starting it out in Pittsburgh and then ending it with a visit from my mother in law did not leave time for much else. I know I said last week that I would like another day in the week, but right now I would even take a couple of extra hours in a day! Yikes! And the fruit and veggies- brutal! I doubt that I got past 5 servings any day this week. Bad girl!


Saturday- Run 3 miles on a rickety hotel treadmill. It shook so much that it made my phone fall down and shoot off the end of the tread twice before I finally just left it there which made the miles go even slower. Boo! Then we walked downtown Pittsburgh for about 1 hour...I'm going to say 2 miles. (5)

Me infront of the Pittsburgh town square Christmas Tree

Sunday I had full intentions of getting up early and running the streets around the hotel now that I had my bearings, but a crappy nights sleep put an end to that by causing me to get up late. I was so disappointed about this when I walked out front that morning to see how mild it was and I watched a guy run by. Then we went to my sons championship hockey game (which they won!) and drove the 5 hours home leaving no time (nor desire) to do anything else that day. (0)

Pittsburgh tournament winners in the spirit of Movember!

Monday I walked 4k but had no time to do anything more between shifts. (2.5)

Tuesday I wanted to run my intervals but it was raining pretty hard all day so I didn't. I suppose I could have gone to the gym but with only 30 min to spare I didn't bother. (0)

Wedneday I FINALLY got outside to run and it felt glorious! I ran 5k and then walked 2k. (4)

Thursday Mother in Law came over so I spent all of my free time with her. She lives out east (Newfoundland) so I don't get to see her very often. I didn't feel badly about missing my workouts for her. :o) (0)

Friday I had far too many errands to get done during the day after work, and then I fell asleep on the couch preventing me from getting over to the gym in the evening. (0)

I think that this has been my least productive week since I started running in June. I'm disappointed that my numbers are so low, but that's what happens when life gets in the way I suppose. I actually considered joining the 5K Santa Shuffle next Saturday just to find some motivation, but I'm not into wearing a full on Santa suit (including beard) during a race so I'll just have to find it in myself to get out there more! It can only go up from here!

Weekly total 11.5.

HBBC Week 1

So this was the first week of the Holiday Bootie Buster Challenge, a little motivational contest that gives you points for exercising and eating right. Boy, has it really shown me how crummy I am at getting all of my fruits and veggies every day! Pretty sad for a vegetarian. I'm usually good for 3-4 servings daily, but it's been a real push to get the minimum of 7 that this challenge requires. I only hit the mark two days this week! Yikes! Unfortunately time has not been my friend the past five or six days so I've not done everything that I had planned on, but there's always next week I suppose. Two trips to the gym at 5:30am have helped, but with tomorrow spent travelling to Pittsburgh for a hockey tournament, I don't see any extra points being added in there other than the walk that I'll take with Gordo in the morning. My points for this week so far go:

Saturday walk 3k run 10k (8)
Sunday rest
Monday Run 5k on the treadmill walk 3k 1/2 hr weights and 7 servings of fruits & veggies (7.5)
Tuesday Run 6.5k (intervals in crazy wind!) (4)
Wednesday Run 3.2k on the treadmill (hills) 20 min weights walk 3.5k and 7 servings of fruits & veggies (6)
Thursday rest
Friday 3k walk and hopefully there's time to hit the treadmill at the hotel........nope, no treadmill (2)
Total 27.5

I always say that I need another day in the week, and that it needs to be a day off. Maybe I'll find it next week. :o)

                                                                  My walking partner

Milestone!

I finally did it! I ran 10K! This is a huge milestone for me, mainly because it wasn’t that long ago that I wasn’t really interested in running more than 6K. In fact I think that I’m more proud of myself for running 10K nonstop than I was when I hit the 5K mark. Five was always in the cards, but it wasn’t until the last few weeks where I’ve thought to myself “today I’m going to go 1K farther than I did last Saturday”, so first I did 7K, then 8K, then 9K and finally yesterday I did 10K. And it was the first day of the HBBC so that added extra incentive!

I woke up, ate breakfast and started out on a 3K walk with Gordie yesterday morning. Usually I walk him after I run but I thought walking first may loosen things up a bit and make it easier to get into my groove. Then I brought him home, got my music and set out. There was a pretty strong wind that I was heading into the first half of my run, but I powered through it no problem. 

Usually when I run past Nelson stadium on Saturdays there’s always a football game going on, but yesterday there was no one there. It seemed kind of sad and lonely to me.

At least the rep soccer teams were still out to keep me company through Sherwood. I hit the 5K mark, had a quick drink and turned around and headed back. With the wind at my back I kicked up my pace a little, took off my sweater and counted off the K’s until I heard those musical words from my RunStar app“Distance: 10 kilometers”. Yay! I did a mini fist pump and walked the rest of the way up the street and found this guy waiting to say hello to me.

I can tell that he was proud of me too! Then to top of a good morning my son’s team won their hockey game! Go Burlington and Go Me!

Intervals + hills + joining the gym + time change = Kill me now!

Sleep. This is something that has been elusive to me for years. My trouble is not falling asleep, it’s staying asleep. It’s also the habit of getting up at the same time every single day; therefore this past week 5am has become the new 6am according to my body clock. It’s not so bad on nights that I go to bed at 9am and sleep through the night, but considering I don’t get home from work until past midnight three nights a week and staying asleep is impossible, I’m dying here.  Maybe if I have a beer after work tonight it’ll knock me out solid for a good few hours. Like I need an excuse to have a beer after work on a Thursday night, my last shift of the week! :oP

I joined the gym around the corner from my house last Friday so that I have somewhere to run when the weather turns nasty. While I would love to belong to the brand new LA Fitness with the pool, I know that I need something closer to home. I have no excuses not go when the gym is a 3 minute walk away, so off to Snap Fitness I go. I’ve been there twice so far and still have no idea how to use anything other than the treadmill. I’m sure that the guy who showed me around took one look at me and could tell from my fit body (stop staring at my muffin top!) that I already knew what I was doing and needed no guidance. Unfortunately this is not the case. While my main reason for joining are the treadmills (that are in miles and not km – what the heck?!) I would like to work my upper body more. Gotta get ready to kick everyone’s butts in the Warrior Dash next summer! :o) Hopefully tomorrow I can corner someone into a quick tutorial.  

This is week one on a new training program that I’ve started. I’m adding intervals into my Sunday evening runs, and hills into my Tuesday afternoon runs. These are ideal times for me to do these, except we had a family dinner this past Sunday night so that run went right out the window. The intervals went to Tuesday night and the hills went to Wednesday afternoon, a few hours before work.  To say that my body was exhausted by the end of my shift last night is an understatement. Of course today I’ve woken up with a cold sore from it all, I’m barely able to keep my eyes open and I have to work tonight. Look out patrons, I sense one bitchy server coming to your table in a few hours!

Who really looks hot when they're running?

This picture always makes me laugh. While I’m sure that I don’t look like the top runner at all, I hold out some hope that I don’t look like the bottom one either. Some days I’m not 100% sure on the latter. Take today for example. I left it all out on the trail this afternoon. I took whatever stress I had in me, and pounded it into the ground through Sherwood Park. I kept thinking that I should slow down, but my body would have none of it. Better out than in I suppose.  By the tail end of my run I was just trying to keep it together to finish. I was tired, I’m pretty sure I had that Nadal thing going on that I once saw in myself in a race picture – and I don’t mean picking my shorts out of my bum, I mean that funny half squished face he makes, and I was counting the meters to the light at the end of the tunnel, aka the top of my street. But I persevered and made it. Some days after my run it’s a big Yay Me. Today was one of those days. I wonder why that is? Why isn’t’ every run the same. Some days I feel like I could go on forever, others I’m just hoping that I can make it home. But in the end the one thing that counts is that I was out there trying to do my thing, just like all of the other runners that I see on the streets and trails who resemble the bottom girl. And Nadal.

Saucony Trek or Treat Night Trail Race

So back when I did my very first race this year, the Waterfront Trail, my friend Ryan was supposed to run it with me. Unfortunately, God love her, Ryan’s grandmother passed away the day before. Disappointed that she didn’t get to do the race I told her to pick another and we’d do it. Ryan chose the Saucony Trek or Treat Night Trail Race.

My training the week before the Trek or Treat was a bit spotty so I was nervous.  During Saturday’s run I ended up getting a cramp after 4.5k and had to come in early. I know that I didn’t eat much nor drink a lot the day before so I’m thinking that was the problem. I have been very careful with my water intake since then. Sunday I ran with the dog. While I love running with Gordie, he stops for far more poos and pees than a person would. He also likes to stop and say hello to anyone else out there....not something that I do much. Tuesday I went out and killed 5.5k at an average pace of 5:29! I’ve never been able to get my average below 5:33 so I was super excited. Unfortunately with the crap weather we’ve had this week that was it for my prerace training. Let’s hope it’s good enough and that I’ve figured out what is causing my cramps, the very thing that doomed me in the Waterfront Trail.

Ryan and I arrive at St Volodymyr Cultural Centre and it’s crazy. Cars everywhere, decorations, people running all over the place in costumes, it’s totally nuts. We even see some guy in a big Pikachu costume! Not sure how he plans on running in that, but I’ll tell you one thing- I’d better beat him! With this being Ryan’s first race, and my third, I lead the way. LOL Up to the table we went to get our bibs (they were Halloween themed), and then over to the chip station, and then over to the....wait a minute! No goodie bags?! What kind of cheap ass race has no goodie bags? Oh wait, there’s the t-shirt table.....oh.....only the first 200 registrants get a t-shirt, but if you’d like one it’s only $15. Seeing as I’m coveting race t-shirts I fork over the cash and stuff it into my pocket. Off to the starting line we go. I am hoping to see some kind of bag/coat check on my way out there. Due to the 8* temp I wore my vest, but obviously don’t want to run in it. Guess what? Along with no goodie bags there’s no coat check. This could be a problem because I really overheat while running. Oh well, not much I can do now. At the start line we put on our sexy headlamps and get ready for the gun.

And here we go........wait. There’s some sort of technical error, false start. Ok, here we go for real this time. The beginning of the race is very bunched up because there’s not a lot of room on the single lane road, but after about 500m we lose the dead weight and fall into our pace. I quickly realize that my stupid sexy headlight isn’t tight enough because it keeps slipping down. It seems every 10 steps or so I have to readjust it. This is going to get old fast! Somewhere around 2k I lose Ryan and focus on passing all of the angels, cheerleaders and super heros ahead of me who’s costumes are slowing them down. All of a sudden my phone starts ringing! WHAT?! Who is calling me right now? I let it go to voice mail and carry on. I pass the water station, grab a cup, accidentally spill it all over myself and keep going. Around 3k my legs start feeling heavy. EEK! I feel like I’m slowing down, but my RunStar app is telling me that I’m keeping the same pace so it’s ok. I am really regretting this vest now too because I am SO HOT! The sweat is pouring off of me. Fortunately the headband for this stupid sexy light is collecting it all. The course is a bit hillier than I had planned; they said that it was flat, but it’s not that much unlike the trail that I run through Sherwood Park on so I’m ok. I plod along on my heavy legs, sweating and adjusting and then look UP and realize at the top of this hill is the finish line! YES! I can see illumination from a headlight behind me so I put my head down and run for all I am worth. This person is NOT passing me on the home stretch. And it had better not be Pikachu! I blast through the finish line (with my phone ringing again! WHAT?!) at a clock time of 26:46, give up my chip and wait for Ryan. She comes in not far behind me at a clock time of 27:48. We walk it off for a little bit and look around for water and see that there isn’t any. It must be inside.......nope. They are serving coffee and hot chocolate to wash down your complimentary slice of pizza (no thanks). WTH? I know that it’s cold outside, but who wants a coffee right after they run. I’m realizing that this race is totally ghetto and won’t be doing it again next year. All in all, I’m happy with my performance and Ryan says that she wants to do another race, so apart from all of the things that this race didn’t have it did give us the taste of competition and sense of accomplishment that we were seeking so at the end of the day not a total waste.

Next up....Resolution Run on New Year’s Eve with my running mentor Sarah!

Oh, and if you’re wondering, it was Noah calling to see if he could sleep over at his friends house. Did I mention he also called in the middle of the Run for the Cure? Kids!

Our Full Results

Sam: Place52/299  Clock Time26:46 Class Placing(40-49F) 5/64 Gender Place25  Average Pace5:22      

Ryan: Place67/299 Clock Time27:48 Class Placing(30-39F)11/76 Gender Place33 Average Pace5:34

These two pictures are ripped off from the official photographers website. I thought the bottom one was cool with all the headlamps.

My First Post

How exciting! My first post. What will I say? Should I be witty or insightful? Talk about serving or running? My options are wide open. I'm tired from work last night where I kissed countless butts all in an effort to keep my kids fed. Much too tired to roll out of bed and run this morning. This afternoon was rainy and tonight I'm just looking for excuses. Let's just chalk this day up as a loss and plan on working hard tomorrow.

I'm getting excited for next Friday's Trek or Treat Run. Gotta make sure that I keep myself signed up for races to keep that motivation going. As the weather gets crummy I may need all of the motivation that I can get. I only started running in June and I'm super proud of how far I've come. Starting with week one in the Running Room's Learn to Run program I could barely do the walk 2; run 1, now I can run 5k in less than 30 minutes! Last weekend I did my farthest distance yet, 7k, and I could have kept going! I've got 2 races under my belt with 2 more to come before the year is out and I'm already combing the lists for more. To say that I'm addicted to races is an understatement. The feeling of accomplishment that I get when I cross that finish line, or meet my training goal can't be beat and it's what will keep me motivated as the weather turns nasty.