My First 5K Run...

Well, I did it.  I made it.  I survived.  I loved it!!  It was cold and rainy, rainy and cold… but I still loved it!!  I ran my first 5K this past weekend.  It was a local race called the Genesee ARC Friends & Family 5K.  It was a pretty hilly run, not huge hills, but the gradual kind that tend to eat your leg muscles.  Luckily, the area that I usually run at home is also full of these hills so I don’t think that held me back too much.  I came in 3^rd in my age group and 61^st overall.  My time was 29.11 which puts me a little over a 9 minute mile.  I will take it.  Happily.  It was an extremely well organized event for a great cause that is near and dear to my heart.   I received a t-shirt for the race, a bag of goodies and coupons and free food.  My kids were there with me and they also received the goodie bag and free drinks and food after the race.  I will be doing this race again. 



The Finish Line!!




Sporting my Race Pink T for the 1st official time!



I actually enjoyed the idea of participating in the race that I am already signed up for another one!! Another local race in a couple weeks.  This one is more of a cross country type race through orchards, corn fields and woods.  I am very excited.  I am also considering a local turkey trot on Thanksgiving morning.  Yep, I think there might be an addiction happening here!!  There are definitely worse things to be addicted to!

After taking Sunday and Monday off from exercise due to life getting in the way, I knew, for my sake, and the sake of people around me, I needed to do something last night.  Who knew that I would be one of those people that got cranky if they didn’t exercise??  I am shocked.  I decided to go for a run.  I got a little bit of a late start so I was planning on running 3 miles and I actually got in 4 miles.  I was pretty disappointed about half way through because the air was very heavy and made it extremely hard to breathe.  I had to take 2 breather breaks.  My time was still great even with the walking breaks (9:03) so had I been able to do it without, my time would have rocked!! Ha! Have I mentioned at all that I love using the Map My Run app when running???  It tells you when you have reached each mile and what your time is.  For me, that keeps me motivated to try my best to not fall off that pace too much as I run on.  I even had it running when I did the 5K so I knew how I was doing and how far I still needed to go, since I was clueless on the course.

I have been pretty much horrible the last couple of weeks with planning my dinners or making anything new so I apologize for no ideas for you.  Last night I whipped up a little, well, I don’t know what to call it.  I made the kids spaghetti (whole wheat of course) and I didn’t want just regular spaghetti and sauce because for some reason, I don’t have a turn off switch when I eat that and before I know it, I have eaten enough for 3 people. So, I defrosted some shrimp, threw them in a can of diced tomatoes, added a bunch of crushed red pepper and just a little pasta.  Very quick, very easy and very good.

Moral of the dinner story, if you have easy healthy food in your house, when you are in a pinch, you can still come up with an easy healthy meal that won’t throw off everything you are working so hard for.

Running...

Let me start of by bragging a little bit… yesterday… I RAN 5 MILES!!!!!!!!!!  5 miles.  A whole 5!!! To some people, that is not a lot.  To me, it is like to the moon and back!  A little history for you… in the beginning of the year, I couldn’t have made it a half mile without wanting to die.  I have never been a runner,  I liked the thought of being a runner, but I have never been a runner.  In 7^th grade, I ran cross country.  I hated every moment of it.  I couldn’t breathe, I was horrible at it, when it was cold out my lungs felt like they would crack and explode.  I remember one race in particular where I was so cold and my lungs hurt so bad that I was crying and my coach was trying to encourage me to at least finish ahead of the group that had started after us.  I honestly don’t remember if I did.  I wanted to die.  Fast forward about 26 years to now… I am almost 40 (which is a whole post all on its own!!) and I just happily ran 5 miles.  On my own.  Without anyone forcing me to.  No one cheering me on.  AND I ran each mile in either under 9 minutes per mile or just over.  Happy.  Happy.  Happy.

Tomorrow is my first official 5K run.  I am nervous.  I know I can do it, but it is still nerve wracking being the first one.  It is supposed to be chilly, and rainy, and over all crappy.  Super.  First race, nervous, and now rain pelting me in my face and soaking my clothes.  Can’t wait.  The Dirty Girl race was cold, rainy and over all crappy.  Do you sense a theme??  On the bright side, my kids will be there again to cheer me on and my hubby is also going to make an appearance – I asked him to be there to keep an eye on the kids (one less thing for me to worry about) and I want him to be there at the end and be proud of his wife.  I will post this weekend on how things go!!

I have not been very good about letting you all know my daily food (as some friends have requested I do) and I apologize.  I did however, happen to take a picture of my lunch today that I will share with you.  Very simple, and very good.  I have gotten in the habit on the weekends of cooking up a pound of 99% fat free ground turkey breast to use throughout the week for meals.  It is so helpful.  I have made chili, lettuce wraps…anything you can think up!!  Today for lunch I made up some romaine lettuce wraps with the turkey, tomato basil feta, with a little Ken’s northern Italian dressing on it.  Very filling and easy.  Can’t beat that!!

Today is my husband’s birthday so we are planning on dinner out, tomorrow is my best friend’s birthday so we are planning on drinks out tomorrow night… I actually like these days because I can teach myself how to stick to plan and still be successful.  If you never face any challenges, then you never learn how to deal with them in the right way. 

MIA Dirty Girl....

I’m baaaack!!!  Did you miss me??  Ya, I didn’t think so.  Once again I apologize for being MIA but for the month of August, I spent some serious quality time with my kids and when I was at work, I was playing catch up from all my days off.  It was a vicious circle!  It will be tremendously hard to go back over everything for the last month so I will just start with my recent goings on : )

Saturday September 8^th, I participated in my first ever Dirty Girl Mud Run which for those of you who have never heard of it, is a wonderfully fun 5K course with obstacles.  Considering we have had a tremendously warm and dry summer, we were not that lucky on Saturday.  It rained, and rained, and poured, and then rained some more.  Which, for a mud run, is a great thing.  The not-so-great part was the 60 degree weather that went along with it.  For anyone that knows me, and for those who don’t, know that I do not do well when I am cold.  I can honestly say I despise being cold.  And I was FROZEN!! But I still had a never ending smile on my face because of the wonderful experience that I had there.  I am already planning on signing up this week for next years mud run.  For anyone considering this, DO IT!!!  You will not regret it.  It is not a timed race, if you can’t do an obstacle, you go around it, no big deal.  The big deal is the fun and the bonding that you will have with your friends and teammates!



After Dirty GIrl



Before Dirty Girl



I have also decided to sign up for my first 5K run which will be held on September 22.  I was very nervous about the thought of it yesterday since I have not actually completed my C25K program yet (as of this morning I have 1 measly day left).  My nervousness propelling me, I went for my run last night as soon as I picked up my son from football.  I was all dressed and ready to go and told them I would think about feeding them when I got back. Ha!  I am proud to say that I ran 3 miles in 28 minutes.  I was a very happy girl when I completed that day on my C25K knowing that technically, I ran further than I needed to in the allotted time.  So happy in fact that after just 3 minutes of my cool down phase, I decided to hightail it back home and I ran the rest of the way back home which ended up being another 6 minutes of running.  My plan is to get in as much running in the next 10 days or so as I can in preparation of the 5K hoping to decrease some of my nervousness of my first actual race.  I know it won’t actually help, but it is a nice thought.

I hereby do solemnly swear to get back to being a better and more consistent blogger…I actually do enjoy spilling my guts on here at times and hope you all (and hopefully more to come!) will continue to follow me in my journey.

Wishing you all a wonderful day filled with all things that make you smile J