Reactivated!

Well, I was going to post yesterday, but I was having major internet malfunctions, so now I’m just going to post a bunch of random stuff including a recap of my first run back in business!

1) I went running on Monday, which was my first run in almost 2 weeks since my health issues.  I woke up kind of expecting wanting to be back to 100% normal … wasn’t the case... duh! I still had some chest pain… but not as bad, and my breathing is getting easier… just not as fast as I had hoped.

The run itself had me feeling tired and really out of shape.  I ran for about 27 minutes… I dont know how far I went, but I wore my new shoes and used my new fuel belt handheld… you can see it in some of the pictures I took before the run I took them just because I felt like it…  (the outfit is probably my race day get up, what do you think?)

 

**I tried to flex… I dont have much muscle lol ;)  and yes, i love nike, and yes…i am a complete goofball, thanks for asking ;)  glad we cleared that up…

2)  I also ordered GU last week for my half marathon and got it in the mail today!  I was sent some GU last month to try out in exchange for a review so look for that in the near future… I have one more flavor to try.

3)  I got my bib # and corral # in my email this week… wait for it…..

BIB #2203
CORRAL #2

I’m actually kind of nervous… my race is in 4 days!!  Judging from my run yesterday, and how sore my quads are today… I don’t think I’ll be running it straight through like I had planned… I may have to run/walk it.  But, I’m super excited I get to go still! :) 

4) Also, I thought of a bunch of questions regarding my first half marathon… but now I kind of forget them.  It could be in part due to the 4 hours of TV I have watched because of season premiere night of my favorite shows including NCIS, NCIS: Los Angeles (2 new episodes!), and Glee… woohoo! What are your favorite shows to indulge in?

5) Since I forgot all my questions… feel free to still give me some advice or fun little tidbits or your favorite things about racing… stuff like that!  If I remember my questions, I’ll post them later!  But, for now, off to bed I go! 

PS – Don’t forget to enter my Clif Bar Giveaway!!  ENTER HERE!

Goodies!! Race Report too! (finally)

Well, after signing up for my first half marathon in mid-July I had a sudden urge to buy running gear lol ;) I knew that I would NEED new running shoes lol ;) and decided to buy running compression shorts (no idea why I felt that need because i HATE my butt!! I think it is too big), and a running hat as well because I always end up with sweat in my eyes and then I'm running half squinting, half crying the rest of the way home lol... Of course, I ordered from Nike! I like love am obsessed with Nike for some reason! (Nike, if you see this just know that I would GLADLY take a sponsorship from you and wear free Nike gear even if I am just starting out in my running journey tehe)

Anyways... I finally received my packages in the mail and could hardly contain my excitement!!

Here are all of my goodies

My lovely shoes

I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE my shoes :)



I haven't run in them yet because I don't want to wear them out too much before my Half Marathon on September 25th lol... Aren't they awesome? They're the new Nike LunarGlide+ 2

I am thinking about getting a fuelbelt... has anyone had any experience with one? I dont know if I should get the 2 or 4 bottle belt. But I do not like carrying a water bottle in my hand because once my hands get sweaty it starts slipping and I would like to take my camera or phone along in case I get the urge to take some pictures :D What would you guys recommend?

On July 31st I ran the Festival 5k here in the town I live in... Registration was from 7-8 and the race started at 8:30am…

I woke up around 6:30 and ate a piece of peanut butter toast and drank some water. I decided to wear my new nike compression running shorts and my new nike running hat (LOVE THEM BOTH!!) :D I arrived downtown around 7:40am and didn’t have to wait in line for registration, I just went up and told them I had pre-registered and they grabbed my shirt, tag (yes a tag, not a bib) lol, and a coupon for a free real-fruit smoothie from McDonalds. I went and put everything in my car, took a pit stop at a porta pot, and headed back to the race start area… Some random guy asked me "What time do you expect to finish it in?" I replied "um... I'm not sure, maybe 28-30 minutes" I really dont have a lot of confidence in myself in running yet, but i figure it'll come with more experience... I started stretching and realized that I still had a while before the race started so i did a little jog around the block and then started stretching again. Sometimes I wish that I had someone to run these things with instead of going by myself…

Anyways, We started lining up and I managed to start out in the middle of the pack instead of the back. (There was about 300 people) I told myself to not start out too fast cuz i didn’t want to run out of steam and i was kind of nervous because i really wanted to beat my PR by atleast 1 second! lol (my current PR is 27:27) The horn went off and I started out pretty good. I told myself that my pace for the first mile had to be atleast 8:15 and I would be happy. I started getting really thirsty before I even hit the 1 mile mark but I kept going at a comfortable “fast” (to me) pace. I hit the one mile mark and looked down at my watch to see that I had run it in 8:10! :D YAY ME!! Well that gave me a boost to keep going! :D I saw someone I knew up in front of me so I picked up my pace a little to catch up to her and i ran with her for a while.

We got to about mile 2 (at which time i was thinking i was going to die if i didn’t get water soon) and finally!!! a water station! lol… I slowed down considerably to try to get some water down my throat but soon picked up the pace. I encouraged the girl I had been running with from around mile one and told her I was going to try to pick up the pace. I was feeling good and didn’t want to look at my watch (hadn’t looked at it since mile 1) I now had about a little more than 1200m to go and it was a straight stretch from where i was to the finish. I saw about 4 people in front of me that i could easily pass so i picked it up and passed them.. then there was about 3 more people spread throughout the last 400m that i targeted and picked off the first girl, gained and passed the 2nd person and then with 10 feet left, pushed through and passed the guy right at the finish! haha, it was AWESOMELY FUN!!! :D

I always forget to stop my watch until after i give my tag to the people at the finish and take a drink of water so when i finally remembered to stop it, my watch read “26:04” i was like “what in the world?! it has to be broken!!” lol… Well the results came out a few days after the race and I beat my PR by more than 2 minutes!! my final time was 25:26! :D new PR!! lol… I was so pumped!! BTW, "haha" random guy! I tricked you! Then I got giddy when i thought what my time would have been if it would have been chip timed.. ahh! lol… overall it was a quick, relatively flat, and fun race. I really enjoyed it! I’m proud of myself! lol (is that too egotistical? lol) But, my improvement gave me a renewed confidence and enthusiasm for my first half marathon in September! :D

In training, this week is a cutback week and my schedule has me running an easy 4 miles 3 times this week... 1 down, 2 to go! Coming up soon look for a recap of my long run this past weekend and some exciting stuff! :D Thank you everyone for following my blog and for the wonderful encouragement you have shared with me!