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!! ;)

Go Check Out This Super Awesome Girl!!

Seriously… she’s pretty amazing! :)

1) she thinks i’m adorable ;)

2) she’s a runner!

3) she leaves the best comments ever… seriously makes me smile every time i read a comment from her!

4) she has volunteered at a race instead of running it!

5) she used to teach preschool at a deaf school… seriously!  How awesome is that?!  And since you all know that I am going to school for sign language interpreting (or now know), I just HAVE to post a link to the blog she wrote tonight because it’s all about American Sign Language… and a little bit of Deaf culture thrown in ;) 

GO CHECK IT OUT and tell her I said “hi”! :D

EASTER CAKE!!

Ok… so, I’m feeling a bit tired and lazy and still have homework to do so I decided I’m going to bring you “Wordless Wednesday” on Tuesday! ;)  *SIGH*  I’m breaking the rules of bloggy land! haha… Hopefully I don't get arrested ;)

These are pictures of my second cake… all from scratch.  It’s chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream icing.  If you didn’t know I took up decorating cakes in my “free time” you can see my first attempt HERE. I made this one for my family for Easter… enjoy!

You can click on the pictures to enlarge them if you would like

  

60 Days Left!

I DID IT!!!

I totally made up my long run that I may have just not felt like running this past weekend! lol  8.08 miles!

Can I just say that I love you guys?! Seriously… after my last post about how I’m so not ready for the half marathon coming up May 7th, you all reminded me that running is supposed to be fun and that you don’t always have to be racing for time!  So thank you for that and for reminding me that I CAN do this!! :)

I’m not going to lie to you tho, this run was brutal!  I have no clue how I forgot about all those hills!!  Thank goodness the half marathon is relatively flat ;)

I did have to walk a little on some of the hills, but I made sure I never walked up an entire hill and I was always running before I reached the top! I took a strawberry GU Chomp every mile, so I ended up eating an entire package.

Things that happened during/after my run:

~ I saw another runner and his cute collie and after petting the dog and a quick round of witty banter with the older man, I found the strength to run the rest of the hill at mile 2!

~ It was more humid than I prepared for and I ran out of water around mile 4 so I stopped at a nice looking house with kids playing in the front yard and the dad kindly filled up my water bottle after joking that he had just ran out of water and then wished me luck on my journey back

~ Walked a little more than I wanted to

~ Saw beautiful scenery that I wish I would’ve had my camera for… it was just breathtaking!!  I love living in the country! :)

~ End of my run I had the biggest snot dangler!  It started out as a rocket but didn’t quite have take off… didn’t know one person could have so much snot… and runner’s are gross ;)

~ ICE BATH!!! NUFF SAID ;)

I was a tad dehydrated so i was a tad colder than I usually am
and opted to wear a hoodie this time

But then I couldn’t breathe OR drink my protein drink, so I had to untie the hood

And my puppy thinks I’m the strangest person on the planet… what do you think? ;) lol  

 

Here’s the rest of my Garmin stats for my run:

 

2 months exactly from today I will be a married woman!! :D 
Just had to throw that in there ;)

61 Days Left!

Weekly Roundup: April 18 - 24

 

Monday:  Rest
Tuesday:  3.07 miles in 27:58
Wednesday:  5.06 miles in 52:01
Thursday:  Rest
Friday:  Rest
Saturday:  Rest
Sunday:  Pushups/Crunches [15/75]

Total for Week = 8.13 miles; Pushups/Crunches [15/75]
Total for Month = 29.34 miles; Pushups/Crunches [15/75]
Total for Year =  60.36 miles**; Pushups/Crunches [78/475]

**Starting in March since I forgot to keep track, but I didn’t run much in Jan and Feb
*** @=outside run  in=treadmill run

March 31.02 miles

Cap City Half Marathon – May 7th

 
 
Yeah… I’m so not ready… I have tons of excuses… but in the end it’s all my fault because I just didn’t make the time to commit to training properly for this…  When I registered in November I had a goal in my head to run a sub 2 hour half marathon… My last long run was about 3 weeks or so ago… 8 miles… since then, my longest has been 5 miles… I’m in trouble…

Let’s begin with the excuses:

~It’s cold
~I hate running in winter
~I got engaged
~We set a date… what? 6 months to plan a wedding?!
~School
~Work
~Being sick (more than I like to admit)
~Wedding stuff
~Put on wrong medication and made me feel like sleeping 24/7 (Finally got on the 
  right meds last week…

Yeah… all of them are excuses… and I’m taking blame… I’m still going to run it, but it’s going to be more of a “push your way thru, try to finish with a smile” kind of race… I’m not very happy with myself…

Blog Posts From The Week

Wednesday 5 Mile Thoughts
Throwback Thursday:  This One's For Q
Happy Easter!

Registered Races

4/30/11 – Strides for Mental Health 5k
5/1/11 – “I can’t afford the actual race” Virtual Marathon
               (4/17 – 5/1) [8.13 miles done/18.07 miles left]
5/7/11 – Capital City Half Marathon
10/16/11 – Columbus Marathon

Days Left Until I Marry My Best Friend:  62