Run for Rhodes #Anywhere 5k

I know I keep saying I’m not running any races this year due to my knee issue, BUT… Virtual races don’t count!! Why not? you make ask…  Well, because you can run a virtual race as slow as you’d like and still participate and feel good about it!!  At least that’s how I feel about them! :)  Today I was able to participate in the Run for Rhodes #Anywhere 5k

It runs April 20th – April 21st  (There’s still time to get in on the action)
Just go to the Website and register and download a bib and run 5k then go back and submit your time and share a picture on facebook or twitter to be eligible for prizes! Simple as that!

 

Run for Rhodes #Anywhere 5k is in honor of Dustin Rhodes, a 28 year old runner who is 1 of only 200 people in their 20s in the whole world diagnosed with a severe brain tumor called glioblastoma multiforme. To read more you can click Here.  This race is to raise awareness and donations or cards for Dustin.  Like I said… there’s still time left to participate so head on over and sign up!! :)

Anyways… so I ran my race on the treadmill and did a slow 3.1 miles trying to focus on form and keep my hips from collapsing and ended up running my 5k in 33:22.  I’ll take it!! Afterwards I stretched for about a half hour (yeah almost as long as it took me to run the 5k lol) and *knock on wood* my knee feels like it is slowly but surely getting better… hopefully!  We shall see! Sorry for the boring race recap, but it is what it is ;)

Oh yeah, BTW, you can now Follow my blog with Bloglovin (check out the new social media/follow buttons on my sidebar!)  :)

Did you race today? What about tomorrow?
Have you ever run a virtual race? Did you enjoy it?

Festival 5k Race Recap

5th Annual Festival 5k Run & Walk
Saturday July 30, 2011
Start Time: 8:30am

I got my youngest sister to run this with me before she headed back to college for her sophomore year.  We got there around 8am to get her registered (I had registered in advance) and pick up our packets and warm up a little.  BTW, this year’s race shirt is my absolute favorite! Green and Blue is my favorite color combo (if you couldn’t tell!) lol… Our mom ended up coming to watch us and we got to chat with her for a little bit before we lined up. 

These small races are all gun-timed, so we lined up about 5-7 lines back from the front of the pack.  The first mile we were really bookin’ it, I kept telling her that if we kept up the pace we were at, we would both PR! lol… she really didn’t care ;)  We were going around 8:09/mile with our best pace being 5:45/mi? lol… Dont know how that happened…

Around mile 2, we slowed down… my sister has sports induced asthma and had forgotten her inhaler.  It was hot out and she was starting to have problems breathing.  We finally got to the water station and she told me to go on ahead… I was torn, because I wanted to go fast, but I didn’t want to leave her… she looked right at me and said “I’ll be fine, but I’m gonna walk so GO!!”  So, I kept running.

I couldn’t seem to get my legs back to the 8:09/mi pace, but I pushed it as best I could and came across the finish in 25:42 officially.

I ran back to cheer my sister in and then we stayed around for some door prizes. My sister won a gift certificate to a plant nursery lol… she gave it to my mom ;)  I wasn’t quite sure if my time would get me an AG place or not…  Ended up I passed a girl in my AG in the last 50 meters or so to take 2nd in my AG lol…

First time I’ve ever gotten a plaque for a race :)

After the awards were all handed out, a guy approached and asked if he could interview me for the festival, so I said sure… I don't know if anything ever came of it, but it made me feel famous lol ;) Then my mom took my sister and I to a cute little restaurant for lunch.  It was fun spending time together. :)

Here are the Garmin Stats:

Stats

Time:  25:42
Pace:  8:16/mile
AG (19-24) Place: 2/16
Overall Place:  128/313

Upcoming Race Reports

September 3, 2011 – Sweet Corn Festival 5k
September 10, 2011 – Fall Classic 5 Mile Race
October 8, 2011 – Cancer Care 5k

Upcoming Races

October 16, 2011 – Columbus Marathon

Strides for Mental Health 5k Race Recap

Well now that I have midterms out of the way and I’ve semi-stopped freaking out (for the moment), I can finally get around to posting my race recaps!!  By the way, you all crack me up!! lol… love your comments!!  Especially Pam’s!!  CLICK HERE to see it!  A couple of you were curious as to why I might be running alone Saturday… I may or may not still post about it later… if I don’t, I’ll email you!  OK… onwards!!

First up is my first 5k/race of the season!! :D

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Strides for Mental Health 4th Annual 5k Walk/Run
Saturday, April 30, 2011
Start Time:  8:00am

I ended up getting up later than I wanted to (surprise surprise lol) so I didn’t eat anything, didn’t drink a whole lot of water, and just grabbed the nearest running clothes, threw in my contacts, grabbed my garmin, and rushed out the door lol… yeah, I’m not a morning person remember? ;)

Insert Random AWESOME fact here: My bib was #25!!!  lol  (I’m getting married on the 25th of June)  I just thought that was fun :)

I knew that one of my friends from church was going to be running the race too and knew that he wouldn’t have anyone there either because his wife got called in to work, so when I got there around 7:50am, I started looking for him.  I found him and we lined up together towards the front of the pack… about 4 or 5 rows back from the fast people.  This wasn’t a very big race, so it wasn’t chip timed or anything.

The head honcho counted down and we were off… well my friend runs faster than me and I was running with him…  AKA:  starting out too fast!  I started worrying about it, but decided I could just slow down when I wanted to because I have not been running very much or training very hard so I knew I wasn’t going to beat any records or anything lol…

My friend and I (I’m in the BLUE)

I was feeling good so I stuck with him til right about the halfway point then told him to go on without me…  This race was all mental for me… thats what a lot of my runs have been lately… a mental war… anyways… I was going to slow down with half the race left, but I realized that my legs felt great, it was just my lungs that were sucking air and I blamed that on the cold I was trying to get over… so I just kept running trying to stay at the same pace I was running.

I’m not gonna lie… I really wanted to slow down a few times, but I started getting excited, because I wasn’t doing as bad as I thought I would with as little training as I’ve had so far this year!!  Well, I came up to the straight stretch with about 800 meters left to the finish and I looked at my Garmin and blinked a couple times and then said OUTLOUD  “Heck YES!!”  I didn’t have a whole lot in me, but I dug down deep and picked it up, not a lot, but as much as I could… and I kept thinking “this is why I practice negative splits and ending kicks during most of my runs!  I KNOW I can do this!!!”  and as I kept running that finish line kept getting closer and my time kept ticking away…

My friend had finished with enough time to walk back about 100 yards to the finish to cheer for me and it really helped me out… something about having your named yelled out by someone just breaks through those mental walls…  I gave it all I had at the end and crossed that finish line so happy with myself… so ecstatic…

I PR’d by 19 seconds!!!

AND….

I BEAT MY GOAL IN MY FIRST RACE OF THE SEASON!! I RAN A SUB 25 MINUTE 5K!!!

I was so happy!  AND surprised!!!

My official time was 24:55!!  I did it!! 

I probably would not have run that fast if I hadn’t started out with my friend… I would have just made excuse after excuse as to why I couldn’t run that fast the whole time lol.. so thanks David!! :)  Now, I have to reevaluate my goals for this year ;) lol…sub 24 it is ;)

 

Here are my garmin stats:

Stats

Official Time: 24:55
Average Pace: 8:02/mile
Overall Place: 32/183
AG (20-29) place:  7/22
     **If it would have been the regular 20-24 age group I would have placed 1st by about 1:30!!

Upcoming Races

May 7, 2011 – Capital City Half Marathon
October 16, 2011 – Columbus Marathon

First 5k of the Season

Race season starts this weekend!!! (for me anyways lol)

I’m running the Strides for Mental Health 5k tomorrow.  It starts and finishes right downtown … about 10 minutes away from my house.  This was the first race I ever ran!  Not to mention my sister ran it with me… it was a blast!!

I will be running this year’s race alone as my sister is still away at college, but throughout my first year of running I met a few people and now I don't feel so alone anymore when I head to races by myself! :)

Heading into my second year of racing, it has made me look back on my first year… my “firsts”, my PR’s, lessons I’ve learned…

Let’s just say that I have learned A LOT!  Now, I’m not really one to really voice goals… I mean… I kinda sorta have them, but I dont really make them known… something about failing… and not really trying hard enough… BUT…

this year I WILL run a sub 25 5k!! 

I dont really think I’m up to that point yet, but the season is long ;)

BRING IT ON!! ;)

[Almost] Wordless Wednesday

Well, I was supposed to work tonight, but it’s really cold and rainy so they called me off, telling me I wasn’t needed… Bad for the paycheck, but grateful I don’t have to go out in that weather!!

So, tonight this is my perspective:

And this is what I’m working on:

While drinking this:

  

And I can’t wait to eat that pumpkin pie tomorrow!! :D  Yummy!!  What are your plans for Thanksgiving?  I have a 5k in the morning at 9am and it’s basically the last chance I have to go sub 25 because my last 5k (this Saturday) is on a cross country [grass] course. Yeah, that’s right… I have 2 (two!) 5ks in 3 days! haha… I don’t want to hurt myself pushing for a PR on grass since I’ve never run on just grass before… I’d rather run that one for fun.  Don’t forget to sign up for the 2010 Christmas Card Swap if you haven’t already!  We have about 30 people who have joined the party so far! :D

What do you do on cold, rainy nights?
Do you have any hobbies besides running?

The United Way 5k Race Recap

13th Annual United Way 5k run/ 2 mile walk
Saturday, November 13, 2010
Start Time:  9:00 am

I ended up getting off work around 8:15am and arrived at the race around 8:25ish…  The sun was shining and it was 50 something degrees so it was beautiful!!  I went into the building to pick up my packet and took it back to my car so I could prepare to run.  I put my bib on and got my ipod set up. This was the first local race that was chip timed so I put the little chip on my shoe with a zip tie, and started doing a little warm up jog and stretching.

The race director was counting down over the loud speaker, until the race started and reminding everyone to put their chips on their shoes because if you didn’t have one or if it fell off, you wouldn’t get timed.  Once the director said there was 10 minutes left until the start, I went to the starting area.  I finally spotted my parents and I hadn’t been sure they were going to get there on time or not so I didn’t give them my camera.  Too bad because they ended up seeing me 4 times on the course!! (next year they’ll have my camera for sure!!)

**All the race pictures were taken by the people who put the race on, I just snagged them from facebook**
No clue what that lady is doing or what’s up with that dude’s beard but had to post this picture! lol 

I headed over to chat with them before the start of the race and as soon as I told them “im gonna go line up on the inside” I hear a horn and everyone started running!!  Oh my goodness!! Seriously?!  The last announcement was at 10 minutes before the start of the race!!  They didn’t even have any announcements before the race like the usual run through of the route or telling you where the water stop is or to have fun or anything like that… I was very surprised!  Good thing the race is chip timed! ;)

Well, I finally got to the “start” flag and realized that there was no “mat” to start my timing… great!  my time had started while I was towards the back of the crowd and the chip is only used to record our time at the finish! ugh!!  If I would have known that, I would’ve started as far in front as I could get away with! Especially since I’m trying to go sub 25!!  (next year i will start towards the front!!)

The first part of the race we had to run around the horse track (the race was at the local fairgrounds) 1 1/2 times.  I tried to stay on the inside as much as possible, but ended up passing people on the outside most of the time. Then we ran up a little hill and around part of the fair ground path.  I saw my parents right after mile 1 and shouted “If I want it, I gotta keep this pace!”  “It” being sub 25.  I had run the first mile in 8:01 according to the guy who was shouting out times as everyone ran by.  I’m so glad that my parents were where they were, because they had stationed themselves right in front of the big hill leading out of the fairgrounds and onto the road.

My parents are GREAT at spectating races… especially this being their first year to do so ;)  I destroyed that hill!  I was passing people going up and down that hill and I was feeling great! After the hill came a really long straight stretch and I kept looking for a mile 2 marker, but I never saw one… I was getting thirsty and hadn’t brought along my handheld.  Since there were no announcements at the beginning of the race, I had no clue if there was a water station or not. But I picked out a girl in front of me and focused on passing her…and I did!

A couple minutes later and I found out there was!!  Thank goodness!! I grabbed a cup and thanked the volunteers.  I didn’t look before I tried to drink some, but the cups were filled to the top with water and somehow I choked on the water causing me to swallow my gum causing me to throw up in my mouth, which in turned caused me to pull over and stop on the side of the road to let it all out… talk about disgusting!  Also, disappointing because I had no clue how much further I had to run but that little incident kind of zapped the remainder of my energy!  Also, that girl I passed had passed me back big time!

I started running again as soon as possible and focused on running strong and catching back up to the girl I had picked out.  We were rounding around a couple of side streets and now me and the girl were running side by side.  as we came to the road that would eventually take us to the finish line, the girl and a guy that was running with a dog pulled ahead of me.  I started thinking thoughts like “I might as well give up, I’ll never get sub 25 now”  and “I really haven’t run much at all the past couple weeks, why am I kind of expecting to run good today?”  I shook my head and pressed on telling myself I only had a little ways left. 

I could finally see the finish line a little ways in the distance.  Stay strong Zaneta!!  Just finish strong!!  Well, that girl and guy were only a little ways ahead of me now and I told myself I had to gain some ground.  Except I wasn’t so sure I could.  That is when I spotted one of the guys that runs all of the local 5ks (and he is mr speedster).  He had run back to stand across the street of the finish line.  He was cheering and then he saw me and started cheering for me and the one thing he said that pushed me to run as hard as I could was “Girl, you’ve got this!  You have to pass them!  You’re almost there!”

Bill, if by some chance you happen upon my little blog… thank you so much!!  You really pushed me and were the reason I crossed that finish line strong!  For some reason I just felt like I didn’t have it in me, but you helped push me along!!  I ended up passing the girl AND the guy with the dog to come in to the finish chute with a time of 25:16.  Not my best, not my worst BUT not a sub 25 either.  So yes, I was a tad disappointed.

I found my parents, grabbed a bagel and orange and some gatorade and told my story to my parents… IF I would have started in the front and IF I would have not had to stop somewhere right after mile 2 and IF I would have run more the past couple of weeks I SO could have gone sub 25! 

I ended up getting first in my age group which I was surprised by… I’m always surprised when I place in my age group… but especially 1st place…. Instead of a medal I got a blue ribbon and $10! lol… I joked with my parents that I’m a pro now because I got paid to run! ;)

All-in-all, this was a great race, great course, great volunteers, great shirt… my only complaint is that there was no warning that we were starting the race and that I was led to believe that “chip” timing meant that the chip would start timing once we crossed the start, and stop once we crossed the finish.  Instead, we had a gun time with fast web results.  It was fun, and I’ll definitely do this race again next year!

 

Stats

Time:  25:16
Pace: 8:07/mile
Overall Place: 105/343
AG Place: 1/9

Upcoming Races

11/25/10 – B.P.K. Scholarship Run/Fun Walk
11/27/10 – 4th Annual Turkey Trot 5k Run/Walk

Grace Race 5k Recap

First of all, can I just say that this was the worst race experience I have ever had!  BUT it was all my fault!  I was up til 1am the night before doing laundry and eating buddy bars and then had to get up early to get ready for work.  I was hoping to be done working by 9 so I could head to the race that started at 10am.  Well, I didn’t get off work til 9:23am so I booked it to the race which was about 25 minutes away… I was stressing out!!  Then, I went past the road I was supposed to take so I had to turn around.  I called my parents who were meeting me there and had them pick up my packet and as soon as I got there I had enough time to tie my shoes, put my bib on and get to the start… I was so stressed out!  No warming up, no potty break, no nothing lol…  We prayed and then we were off!

I was just not feelin’ it this race… Since I was late I had to start in the back and it’s not chip timed.  It was a hilly course and I passed a few people on the first couple of downhills then came the monster hill… I tried to run up the entire hill but had to walk the last 10-15 feet or so and then I started running again on the downhill and passed a couple of people that had passed me while I was walking… I was so disappointed in myself for giving up and walking part of the hill… it is only 3.1 miles afterall…surely I could’ve pushed through it!

After the hill it was pretty uneventful and there wasn’t any crowd support but then with about 400 meters to go I saw my parents and they said “Come on Zaneta!! Pick it up girl! You’re almost there!”  Well, I shook my head at them like I was done… I just didn’t care anymore, but I’ve always had a finishing kick… even in high school, so I picked it up and pushed it home.  There were a few of the fast guys that came in around 18 minutes that were clapping and cheering, I barely noticed… I was just disappointed in myself for my bad choices the night before, running late, and walking up the hill.  BLEH! Here I am at the finish…

Can you find me?  NO?  Here… let me help you…

  

lol, can you tell by that face that I’m disappointed?  Well, I walked up to my parents and we hugged and then they proceeded to tell me that when they were walking to where they were going to stand to wait for me, they saw a pancake breakfast across the street for donation! HAHA! So they ate breakfast while they were waiting for me to come back around!  How silly are they?  I wish I would’ve joined them!  We stood around talking to a few of the other runners and then headed inside because it was cold!! Then, they had the kids race and then awards.

I knew I probably placed and I could remember only 1 other person at the out and back that was ahead of me that could possibly be in my age group… she wasn’t! lol… I ended up getting 1st in my age group (20-24) with a time of 25:47.  haha, it was a small race with only 79 runners! lol… The time wasn’t as bad as I thought I had done, but it’s not my best time either!  haha, but I told my boyfriend when he called that even though I was disappointed in myself, I GOT FIRST PLACE BABY!! haha…glass is full right?! ;)

I really like the shirt we got in the goody bag!  I love that they put the verse on the back of the shirt too! :)  Here’s a picture of it (you can click to view a bigger pic):

I’ve got 2, maybe 3 more 5ks this year depending on if I want to run Thanksgiving morning or not so ATLEAST 2 more chances to meet my goal of sub 25 before the end of the year!  Any tips from all you speedsters?  I do know that next week I will have to work less hours than I have been so I will definitely be running a couple more days and focusing on hills and speed. 

Good luck to everyone racing this weekend!  I can’t wait to read all your race recaps!!

Three Things Thursday

Wow what a long week!!  I’m so excited though!  Tomorrow I have the day OFF… 100% completely – no work! :)  It might be spent catching up on blogs mostly in bed as I’m feeling a little under the weather but, we’ll see… the medicine I’m taking is good at it’s job!   Oh, and btw… thanks for all your feedback on my Garmin Quiz post!!  I’m seriously really wanting one now!!  Too bad my bank account is telling me no at the moment!

1.  It’s November!!  I love this time because it’s kind of the between seasons season… make sense?  It’s still fall, but it’s starting to show signs of winter and I love this time of year!  Don’t get me wrong, my favorite season is still summer… but this is a good time of year too!  Especially since we just put our candles in the windows!  That, and I just signed up for a turkey trot ;)

2.  I’m thinking about doing THIS RACE, but it’s 2 hours away from where I live and in December. (brrr)  It’s only 30 dollars though and it’d be my last race of the year… go out with a bang?  hmm… I don’t know if I’m in half marathon shape though… I haven’t been running as much as I would like due to work, but I have a 7 miler planned for tomorrow… any opinions on this?  (PS – Blue and Green is my favorite color combo… is it meant to be? or just wishful thinking?)

3.  The results of last weekend’s 5k are up so I’ll be posting a race recap finally …  let me just warn you… probably the least fun race I’ve been to… but it was mostly my fault lol… stay tuned! ;)

Festival 5k Race Report

Saturday morning, I got up at 7am and made a piece of peanut butter toast.  I’m always really nervous race mornings for some reason… so I ended up only actually eating part of that toast and my mouth is always so dry when I’m nervous, so I started drinking tons of water!  The race didn’t start til 9am so I had plenty of time to let it out if I needed to!  I put the clothes on that I had laid out the night before and grabbed my bag that I had packed and got out the door and to the race around 8:15am. 

I headed to the pre-registration packet pick up and took it back to my car and my mom and dad met me at my car.  I handed my camera to my mom who said she would love to take pictures and we headed back into the festival to take a potty break and I jogged a bit and did some stretching.  Then I saw my aunt and uncle and cousin and his wife!  This is a record for me of most spectators at a race!! lol… usually I go to my races by myself!  We started lining up and I was quickly aware that this was a record of the biggest race I’ve run in to date!  I noticed this on my own, before the guy told us there were about 500 racers there that morning!  I guess that was the largest turn out for this race up til now too.

Seeing that my mom was taking a picture, I quickly made a face!  Also, a quick shout out to Running Diva Mom because that ladies skirt made me think of you! (Too bad it’s not pink!)

Me looking at all the people and getting more nervous

I lined up between the front of the pack and the middle of the pack just because I have the goal to run sub 25 (also part of the 100 day challenge) and the race wasn’t chip timed.  See the lady in the white on my right?  Her name is Cynthia and we talked as we were waiting for the gun to go off… she’s also running in the 5 mile race next weekend that I signed up for!  She was really sweet and had a few tips for me on the race next weekend!  Then the gun went off! **BOOM**

I took off and reminded myself not to start too fast, but ended up feeling like I started a little too slow, so I picked up the pace a little bit.  About a half mile in, I saw a girl that usually beats me and decided that I would use her as my pacer, so I tried to run with her without making it weird lol…   I actually ended up passing her and not seeing her for the rest of the race! 

There were water stations about every kilometer I believe because there were 5 of them!!  Another record!! Most water stations yet in a 5k! Another record (what is this, the fourth now?!) was the number of hills!  They weren’t huge hills… but they were enough to notice!  I felt really good the entire way, like I was strong and not pushing too hard, but just enough.  My parents were yelling for me with about 800 meters left to go, and I tried to pick it up a little bit because I was close to the finish but my time was getting up there.  Then when the finish line was in sight there was a really animated guy cheering for someone that was ahead of me.  He was yelling and doing motions saying “Come on _______, you’re almost there!  Pick up the pace!’  So I pretended like he was cheering for me and saying my name instead of the other person!

I sprinted ran as hard as i could to the finish line and remembered to stop my ipod and watch almost right after I crossed the line.  They both said 25:22 … so even though I didn’t run a sub 25, I still got a new PR!!!  So I was super excited!!  I knew that it wasn’t my correct time so that made me even more excited because I new I was faster that that even!!  As we crossed the finish line we were put into a single file line that was hardly moving and I just wanted to hurry up and get thru the line so i could get some water and not feel  like I was gonna die from my sprint hard run at the end! They took our little slip that we had pinned to us (it wasn’t actually a bib number) and then handed us an index card to fill out and put in our age group by male or female for the random draw prizes.  I filled mine out and went to put it in the tin and noticed there were already 3 or 4 cards in there which means I didn’t place in my age group… but i was still excited about my time and having family members there to share the experience!

I went and grabbed some gatorade, a bottle of water, half an orange, and half a banana and talked to my family and stretched while we were waiting for the awards.  Even though I dont win or place or anything like that, I like hanging out to see who actually did… I think its fun to see the faces of those who are better than me and who better watch their backs as I train more-and-more!! Only kidding… sort of!

Me stretching

Me with my parents (It was my mom’s birthday)

My Cousin and his Wife and my Aunt and Uncle

Some other pictures of us standing around talking… Me and my dad

 

Me talking to a guy I know… he pulled his hamstring midrace and didn’t finish in a time he would have liked to :(

Well, the awards started out with a whole bunch (another record of “most”) random draw prizes… I didn’t win anything, but it almost seemed like there were enough prizes for almost all the people who ran! (ok, maybe not quite, but there were a lot!)  It was getting really cold (it was about 62 degrees and the sun had been replaced by nothing but clouds and wind).  I’m just glad it was sunny for the race!! My aunt went and bought me a hot chocolate at one of the festival’s booths.

Then the guy announced that since there had been so many racers today, they were going to acknowledge the top 4 in each age group! Well my dad and Uncle kept saying “There ya go, you’ll still get acknowledged!” even though I kept telling them that I really didn’t think I placed still!  He got to my age group (20-24) and announced the 4th place time and name, and it wasn’t me and then I started to realize that… “and 3rd place, with a time of 25:14, Zaneta (insert last name) of (insert town)!!”  OH MY GOODNESS!!!  MY PR WAS BETTER THAN I THOUGHT AND I PLACED!!!  I’m pretty sure I couldn’t stop smiling!

Then, Cynthia (remember the lady at the beginning of the race?) came up to me and she had placed in her age group too!! Congrats Cynthia!!  She was so fun!  She kept hugging me and telling me how proud of me she was and that I did a great job… she made me smile even bigger than I already was!  After one last hug, we parted saying we couldn’t wait to see each other next week at the Hospital 5 Mile Race!

After the awards ceremony, all my spectators/fans/loving family members and I walked around the festival eating and having a grand old time… the big thing at this festival is the corn so we had to have some yummy corn on the cob!!

My parents at the corn crossing lol… gotta love them!  they’re so cute!

Me and my dad, my mom, and my aunt chowing down on corn!

View Full Album

 

All-in-all it was a great race experience and I will definitely be doing this one again next year!  It was definitely a plus to have my family with me!  It made it all the more fun and not so lonely! 

**all the pictures were taken by my wonderful (birthday) mom, isn’t she great?!

Happy Birthday to my Mom!

Today is my mom's birthday! To start out the day, my parents and aunt and uncle and cousin came to watch my 5k race this morning (I'll do a RR early next week!) and then walked around the festival for a little bit... it was a blast! It was so much fun! I laughed so hard all day! It was rather chilly though with the wind! I think the high temperature was 68!

After we got home, my mom decided that she could do whatever she wanted on her birthday and took a nap for a couple hours, and then got up and started making dinner because my youngest sister is home this weekend from college so my mom made her favorite dinner and my boyfriend came out to eat with us. After dinner, I got out the peach cobbler I tried to make last night for my mom's birthday! I think I shall name it "Fail Cobbler" ... Disclaimer: I have never made cobbler in my life and am just discovering that being in the kitchen can kind of be fun if you're not a kid being made to do the dishes and actually want to be there! Here's the recipe I used just in case you guys dont know how to make cobbler either!! So, here's the story in mostly pictures:

I found a recipe and got the ingredients



Skinned and sliced the peaches (I only used 6 out of the 10 I bought) and combined them with sugar and water to boil for 10 minutes





Made the dough with sugar, flour, and milk





Melted the butter in the pan



Combined them in the pan as the directions said and put it in the oven with cinnimon sprinkled on top



**Here's where I realized that I failed miserably!! I noticed that the dough wasn't rising like it should and looked at the recipe again because I was pretty sure I did everything I was supposed to. "Self-rising flour" WHOOPS!! I used all purpose flour and didn't add any baking powder!! MAJOR FAIL! Well I guess it wasn't quite a major fail because everyone really liked it still, especially my mom which is what really counts since it was her birthday afterall!

So happy birthday to the best mother ever and I'm glad your day wasn't a fail like my cobbler!