Komen Race Recap - #6!

On Saturday I ran the Susan G Komen Race for the Cure for the 6th time. Here's my 2015 recap, which apparently corresponded with Triangle Restaurant week last year too. Also, here's the 2014 post. 

Looking back over the posts, I got a little bummed because my face looks a lot smaller in 2014. Grrrr... I was also a little salty because the shirt I wore the last 2 years wasn't working Saturday. I'm just a little frustrated that even after losing 11.5 pounds, I still am not where I was last year. Such BS.

This was the 6th time I've ran this race and it's special because this was the first 5k I ever did, 5 years ago. On Friday when I was leaving Jenny, my consultant told me that "nothing matters, just do your best and try to finish". I was taken aback, this is my 6th year, I've done countless 5ks, a bunch of  10ks and 3 half marathons. I might sleep in and decide not to run, but if I go to a 5k, I'll finish, Walk, run or a combo of both, I'll finish even if I have to drag myself across the finish line.

I thought back to the first time I did Jenny. I started as what Kev likes to call "a sedentary indoor gal". (He's lucky I like him.) But he was right. I never went to the gym, I didn't care about the outdoors, well, I still don't, there are bugs and hot outside.

The majority of my time at Jenny, I was finding my fitness. I went to the gym, but only walked on the treadmill or did the elliptical. Then I moved to group fitness classes in March-ish of 2015 and started couch to 2 5K. Five years ago, the first time I did this race, even though I was 30 pounds lighter there was a definite question as to if  I'd finish. This year, there wasn't a question. 

I haven't been running, I've ran maybe 10 times this year. MAYBE. But I wasn't missing this race. 

outtake

This year the race moved from Meredith College to RTP. I was meh about the change

Cons: 

• Lack of communication. I received 1 email when I registered and nothing else. 
• Getting off the exit and trying to find the Park and Ride was a pain in the ass. There weren't any signs and it wasn't easy to find
• Meredith is a super quaint campus and it's a really nice setting. This one was in a parking lot. It really lost a lot of the charm.
• In the previous years, you run through neighborhoods and there's a LOT of support and spectators along the route. This one was ran on the road, in an industrial park. I saw maybe 3 groups of people on the course to cheer us on.

Pros:

• OMG IT WAS SO FLAT. I SWEAR IT WAS THE FLATTEST COURSE I'VE EVER RAN SINCE I STARTING RUNNING.

I do love me a flat course. I could have done well if I'd been running at all.

Industrial park

Even though it had moved, and there was still a good turn-out. I heard 8,000 people? I know there were 20,000 a few years ago though.

I hope they get the planning together and there's better participation next year.

I finished in 37 min and change. It's fine, mile 3 was a little tough. Again, I should run more, but overall I was pretty pleased with my time.

I saw my chiropractor Monday after the race and we were both pretty happy that I didn't hurt myself or throw my hips out of place. I had my adjustment and asked what kind of activity I could do this week. He said that normally he'd say that spin class was fine because it's lower impact than running, but since I keep throwing my hips out of place when I ride, go run on the treadmill.

I keep asking him if I can wear a weight belt to the gym. a la Hulk Hogan and he said no. I do have my Hulkamania shirt ready for when he agrees. Oh, I'm totally going as Hulk Hogan for Halloween this year.

Boy, this post has certainly taken a tangent. I did run tonight, on the treadmill, and it was surprisingly good. I didn't cry or die or hurt myself. It's a good day.

When it's hot as heck outside, what do you do?  Treadmill, suck it up and go outside or don't run until September?

Linky!

Scenes from the weekend

Before I get started, I need to acknowledge the tragedy in Orlando. Yes, this is a mass shooting, but more than that, it's an act of hate. Hatred of someone who's not like you. Hatred because someone doesn't love what you love. Hatred that fills and grows and causes fear and distrust. We are better than this.

For the last few Monday's I've been posting my weigh-in recaps, and while I've liked it, I don't get to recap the weekends. I don't know, it seems kinda dumb to post the recap on Tuesday. So, this week I'm going to swap them and do the weekend thing first and the weigh-in tomorrow. 

Alrighty, My weekend re-cap starts on Friday. I actually weighed in Friday morning because I had a 5K at 730am and actually getting weighed afterwards seemed like a really bad idea. 

When I was meeting with my conusltant I told her that I was having the oddest craving for a Subway veggie sub. I'd wanted one for the last 3 weeks and hadn't acted on it. The last time I was on JC, the Subway veggie sub was my go-to "I'm out and holy shit I'm hungry, what am I going to eat" option. She told me to get one and that translated one to one for lunch.

You know how sometimes you haven't had something for a while and the first time you do, it's like the very best one YOU'VE EVER HAD? Yea, that was this sandwich. Good lord it was good.

Then I had my grande skinny vanilla latte (1 pump SF vanilla) because you know, milk serving. 

OK, one of the benefits of weighing in on Friday is that you have an extra day to work it off. :) The other craving I'd been having was for sushi. There were still a few days left in Triangle Restaurant week and I talked Kevin into going to Ajisai Japanese Fusion. It's in Cameron Village and I'd never been there before. I was pretty impressed.

Started with a Cosmo, obviously.

During Restaurant week you get a 3 course meal for $30.  Kev and I both started with the seared tuna that had some sort of delicious roe on top and a drizzle of a lemon oil? My brother got the Rock Shrimp which was almost like a less breaded, less saucy Bang Bang Shrimp.

It tasted a lot better than it photographed

I went with the sushi platter. I'll be honest, I don't remember what was in it, but I got the sauce on the side and it was super tasty. It was raw fish and rice and little spicy. Yum...

For dessert there was a choice of mochi ice cream or tempura banana. Kev and my brother got the ice cream and I went with the banana. Everyone agreed that the banana was way better than the mochi.

I don't like bananas. Even deep fried and covered in whipped cream, still don't like 'em.

I had a relatively early night since I had to wake up at 6am and leave for the race. it's not all that much earlier than I get up for work, so no biggie.  It was in a new location this year, and I have some thoughts on that, which I'll share in another post.

It was supposed to be in the 90s here, but thankfully they moved the race earlier this year (8:30 last year) and it was still in the 70s when we started and finished. For someone who's run fewer than 10 times this year, I did pretty well and didn't die. 

On my way home I stopped at Jenny and got my food for the week. I paid for my order the day before. I was doing some reflection when I was there, I ran my first 5k when I was almost at the end of my first Jenny loss and here I am again, 5 years later. More on that later. 

I got home, showered ate, and we all headed to the Durham Farmer's Market. I'd have pictures, but by the time we got there, everything was pretty much sold out. I got some zucchini though.

We got home, whined about the heat and later I went to the mall to look for some new shirts. I'm in an odd place where my old stuff doesn't fit yet, some does, but some is too big and I swear I don't remember what I wore last year. Maybe nothing but dresses? Because I have no shirts right now.

So, off I went to try and find something that wasn't too flowy because I'd only have a few months to wear it. I was looking for something not too tight, but would be wearable maybe after I lost all the weight. Yea, not an easy task.

I wanted to kill myself and everyone else in Old Navy and left with 0 things. I did score a top at the Limited, the NY &Co outlet and 2 sparkly tanks at Express.

But perhaps my biggest haul was at Bath and Body Works. Every year they release some retro scents from the archives. Well my friends, this year they released a staple of 90s Lara. Sun Ripped Raspberry! I went last week and they'd released it early, I bought 6 bottles and they gave me a coupon for $10 off $40. When I got there, all the retro scents were ONLY $3.75!!

So that happened.

I could finally get my Country Apple and Cucumber Melon.

I'm stocked up now.

The rest of the night was spent watching some random documentaries. 

Sunday was laundry / cleaning the kitchen / grocery shopping. 

I saw this at Target, has anyone tried it??

I have to say, is anyone else sick and tired of everyone trying to push the Target Red Card on you? I don't want it. Yes, I know I can save 5%, I understand there's a debit and a credit card. They try to overcome my objections to the card by telling me about the $ I can save and how it's not a credit card. I DON'T CARE. That's not my objection to the card, you can't sell something if you don't understand why someone doesn't want it. Target, I don't trust your security. I was effected by the breech in 2014 and it was an inconvenient pain in the ass. The absolute last thing I want to do is give you direct access to my bank account. There's no way in hell I'd get a credit card from Target either. I already have a credit card, I don't want another.

This time, the lady behind me in line tried to sell me on the card. Honestly, it makes me not want to go there anymore. Me saying one time that I'm not interested should be more than enough for you.

Since I was annoyed at Target, I needed to go to yoga and relax.

Me and Biggie heading to yoga.

Now I'm blogging and watching the Tony's. Just waiting for Hamilton to slay every category.

How was your weekend?

Best retro Bath and Body scent??

Linking up with BLoved Boston!

Scenes from the Weekend

Another Monday. Oy.... This week most of the other managers are in Scotland and they left me and the HR Manager in charge of the place. Lord help them... I kinda wish  my boss had left behind an "In case of emergency" sheet, You know, with the names and numbers of the vet, next of kin and that sort of thing. 

Before diving into the weekday, let's take a look back at the weekend shall we? 

Friday night Kev and I had reservations at Bin 54 for Triangle Restaurant Week. Restaurant Week is the bomb. A bunch of restaurants have price fixed menus for $25 or $30 per person for a 3 course meal. As soon as Restaurant Week is announced, we go onto Open Table and make reservations at Bin 54. 2 people can easily drop $150 there, so the restaurant week deal is pretty sweet.

I obviously started with a Cosmo and Kev some wine. We both got the same thing, wedge salad, fillet and strawberry shortcake for dessert. I'd had a spectacularly awful week and enjoyed 2 of these beauties. The meal was awesome, as always. 

Unfortunately we couldn't stay out too late since I was running the Susan Komen Race the next morning. 

I talked about this race last year where I apparently had a pretty run. I talked about it before but this race is super special to me because it was the first race I ever did... Five years ago! It's still hard to believe that I've been running that long. That's just crazy to me. 

This year they made some changes to the race that I wasn't a fan of, The biggest is that the competitive runner's start time was moved back an hour to 8am. The last 3 years we took off at 7am and the recreational runners / walkers at 8am. There's a HUGE difference between 7am and 8am on a super hot and humid day. I've never ran in hotter temperatures. If it wasn't the Komen race, I would have stayed home.

I was glad when I got there, it's always so inspirational to see 1000s of people coming together to fight against this terrible disease.

I wanted to die most of the race. Yeah, I haven't been running consistently but I think it was 82 degrees with 90% humidity. Hands down it was my worst time ever. I think I stumbled in at 38:00. But I did stop at the water stations and walked up the hills.

Immediately after I finished I ran into the super awesome Mindy Sopher. I've known Mindy through KD since I moved here 10 years ago. She's a 3 time breast cancer survivor and such an inspiration,

I was rocking some serious squinty eye

The rest of the afternoon I watched Netflix and refused to move. I think I sweat out 10 pounds at the race. Oh, and word of advice, if you haven't been eating gluten and then have 2 rolls at dinner, your stomach might not like you very much the next day.

Since I wasn't moving, Kev and I decided to christen our new fire pit and I invited some of my friends to join us.

I figured we were not only enjoying the outdoors but doing yard work as well. I'm going to burn all of those pine cones AND all of the random sticks in the yard. We might need a bigger pit.

For a while the smoke was blowing right on Kev and instead of move, he tried to blow it away.

It didn't work. Because we are fancy people we drink La Croix sparkling water beside the fire. Well, I had a cosmo in a solo cup.  I'd like to make a suggestion to the makers of marshmallows that they make single serving packets. I just need like 6 marshmallows. I have 3, Kev has 3 and we're good and no stale marshmallows. We didn't burn the house down so the fire pit was a huge win, Except I'd advise against having fire when it's 88 degrees at 7pm. It's stupid hot here.

Sunday morning woke up and Kev and I had breakfast before he had to leave. I headed over to the mall to see if I could find a black knit blazer for convention. Yes, I'm still looking for the last few pieces. I CAN'T believe I leave in less than 2 weeks! Convention packing post coming soon.

As I was looking I came across this Jessica Simpson military jacket at Belk on clearance. I had a gift card from an old return and ended up spending $3.17 out of pocket. Oh, and the Summer GYPO challenge starts tomorrow! I have my capsule all ready to go!

I think it'll be pretty versatile when it isn't as hot as the surface of Satan's ass here. Seriously, it's too hot to go to even go to the pool. 

I was browsing though H&M when a pair of leopard pants caught my eye. "Soft Pants" are in this season and even though I'm pretty sure I last wore "soft pants" in high school, I have a pair that I kinda love.

OMG, DO YOU SEE HOW LOW THE CROTCH IS?!?! THESE ARE HAMMER PANTS!!! 

No no no no no no no... These do NOT need to come back in style. No one looked good in them. No one.

I've been talking a lot about convention and how I'm pretty excited about it. I advise at both a national and local level and a lot of people think I'm a little insane. It gets a little hectic at times but I wouldn't do it if I didn't love it. I got this text from my advisee the other day and it made me smile.

How was your weekend???

Linking up with BLoved Boston!

AND

21 Day Detox Recap

It's been a little over a week since I completed the 21 Day detox and I'm finally getting around to sharing my thoughts.

Fist of all, this was by far the most challenging detox / diet program I've ever attempted. The first  days was especially difficult, only being able to eat fruits and vegetables. After 3 days I started to hate quinoa, like really, really hate quinoa. I wanted it to be rice and it just wasn't. No amount of clarified butter, salt or pepper made it delicious. Now, I'm sure that everyone has an amazing, life-changing, quinoa recipe, and that's awesome for you. I will continue to turn my nose up at the thought of it. blegh...

By day 8 I had to add in some protein. I couldn't last the last 2 days. In my defense my doctor said that I could eat protein during the entire detox but would have better weight loss results if I followed the plan exactly. I couldn't look at another lentil after 8 days and I've never been so happy to eat a piece of chicken in my life.

In the end, I made it 19 days, mainly because I was traveling up north for Kev's reunion and eating on plan just wouldn't be possible.

Thoughts on the process: It's not easy. The first 10 days is really restrictive and if you aren't terribly creative with vegetables, like me, there will be a lot of eating the same old thing. Also, dry salads with no protein are super difficult to eat after a while. (Like after day 3). Adding back in the protein really helped, I can eat meat/fish and some sort of vegetable every meal, and I didn't really miss the dairy. I also added decaf coffee with coconut milk on day 14 and it was glorious.

Results: I definitely lost weight and inches. I didn't weigh myself before the process but based on the way my clothes fit, I would estimate that I lost between 6-8 pounds. I wasn't doing it specifically for weight loss but that certainly was a nice side effect.

Fitness: I didn't work out the first week, simply because I was really tired as my body adjusted to the lack of sugar and caffeine. I went back to the gym in week 2 and felt really good. The biggest difference I noticed was in my running ability. I did the Komen 5k during the detox and ran a few times and felt amazing. Since my return to running at the beginning of the year I've felt really slow and sluggish and haven't since the detox. During the 5k I saw a sub 10 minute mile for the first time in 18 months and when was running in NY at a casual pace it was in the low 10s and that just hasn't been me, ever. It might not all be a result of the detox but I really think it helped.

What happens next? Well my transition away from the detox kinda sucked since I was away and finding approved food was difficult. Since I've been home, I'm back to a modified detox. I am drinking caffeinated coffee with a little bit of half and half, and will continue with 1-2 smoothies a day. Mainly because I still have an entire container of the protein powder and that -ish wasn't cheap. I'm trying to stay away from grains and am watching my fat intake, especially since I think that I was under counting my cheese and nut consumption. Honestly though, when I eat this way my stomach feels better. I have less pain and that's always a good thing.

Would I do it again? Probably. I really liked the results and I'm stubborn. Once I start something, I want to finish, no matter how difficult.

Have you ever done a detox? How did it go?

What do you do with a bag of swag?

I mentioned yesterday that I wanted to save the Komen swag for another post, No reason other than I see other bloggers with bags of goodies and you NEVER get to see what's inside. It's like peaking in someone's medicine cabinet or in their fridge. Not that I would ever do that but come on, who isn't curious of what's in there?

So, one of craziest parts of the Komen race is the sheer volume of swag one can collect. After running races for the last 4 years, I've accumulated more than my share of crap. I have everything from shirts to hats to bandannas to shoelaces, to meatballs, you name it, someone's given it away. 

By far, the biggest haul can be had at this race and I had to post what I collected. Now I'm sure there were things I missed and I didn't grab any of the candy or popsicles. I can't eat them on the detox anyways.

First up, Walgreens, and it was a pretty nice spread. A reusable bag, water bottle (did I mention that I might have hundreds of water bottles at this point? Kev saw this one and told me to get rid of it because we've reached maximum capacity) a little pill key chain thingie where you can hide a few pills or whatever else you can stuff in there. A mirror compact, face wash and chapstick. Well done Walgreens, well done.

Belk also gave you a drawstring bag with a koozie and some gum. Koozies are always nice since I'm building my collection.

The rest of these were one offs from different places. Here we have another reusable shopping bag, 2 pairs of ear buds, an arm band for your phone and a Duke Cancer drawstring bag. The ear buds are new this year. I haven't seen those before. I like having junky ones at work for when I want to keep people from asking me questions. No, no, I love all of the questions, I really do.

Moving on, we have a bag of dog treats that Cleo already enjoyed, a bandage holder, a Warrior bandanna which I think would look fabulous on Cleo if she would wear it and a WRAL towel. There was an on-air guy passing out the towels and people wanted him to sign them. WFH? A towel signed by the weather guy will never increase in value and in the end you just have a dirty towel. I do think this would be a great spin class towel. Nothing worse than a sweaty spin class and no towel.

Then we have ANOTHER reusable bag. Maybe I'll actually put them in my car and take them to Trader Joes with me. One can dream... What else, there's a pen, plus an un-pictured pen, a flat water bottle that I can hook to hiking equipment? and a plastic braided bracelet.

Then  came the food! Plenty of bottled water, a grape drink from Whole Foods, apple, banana and a fruit bar. Oh, and the pen I forgot to photograph above.

Overall, a pretty impressive haul! It's all still in the bag which is now sitting on the bakers rack in my kitchen. I have no idea what I'm going to do with it all, but yay swag!

What's your favorite piece of race swag?

A Tale of Two Races

Saturday Morning I ran the Komen Race for the Cure 5k. This is always a special race because it was the first 5k I ran, 4 years ago. I must really love this race because I was up at 520am to get ready.

The race is held at Meredith College but it's impossible for the 1000s of people to park there, so off to PNC Arena we go. The great thing about doing the competitive race is that it starts at 7am and you can get a parking spot fairly close to the bus pick-up. Always a good thing because I lose my car. If it's not nearby, I walk around waving my key in the air clicking the lock button and hoping I hear the faint sound of the horn. Remembering landmarks, never gonna happen.

The sun was barely up when I headed to the buses.

Bus selfie. Glad to see I brought those eye bags with me.

I got off the bus and started walking towards the starting area when I ran into this awesomeness. That's Alvis. He serenaded everyone and passed out candy.  I loved that his jumpsuit was covered with jeweled ribbons. Love this guy.

Walking towards the starting line.

I was a little early so I hit up the porta potties. Another nice thing about being in the first wave? Being the first in a porta potty. No one ever wants to use those but at least no one was in there before you. No awful potty stank, I'm a fan.

While I was waiting I was thinking about the last 4 years and how so much had changed while others remain the same. I don't know, I guess a got a little nostalgic while I was waiting. Since I needed to shake it off, I took another selfie. This time with headband. So many of my running accessories are pink I usually look like a Komen poster child. This is the one day I can rock all of the pink and not look like a freak.

Before I knew it, it was time to start! Interesting fact, I start every race listening to "Welcome to the Jungle" by Guns n Roses. Try it. It's the BEST way to get pumped at the beginning. I also listen to "Hearts on Fire" when running uphill. It's the song in Rocky 4 when he's running up the side of the mountain. DRAAAAGGGOOOO! Rocky 4, Best. Movie. Ever.

We took off and the first mile was AMAZING. Do you ever have that feeling like you could run for days? I don't. Not ever. Seriously, all of the stars and moons and planets have to align perfectly for me to enjoy a run and I swear they all did. For the first mile. We hit mile 1, I looked at my Garmin and it said 9:58! I haven't seen a 9 in at least a year and a half. I might have even threw up a fist pump.

Then at 1.25, the hills came. Now I can handle some hills, and I routinely run in some hilly areas but I have been staying on the relatively flat for the past few months. I swear, the last 2 miles was completely uphill. I remember the course being hilly but they added some new ones this year. As awesome and amazing as mile 1 was, mile 3 was equally as crappy.  Between the hills and humidity I finished in 34:32. Meh. I was on pace for a much better race and I'm a little disappointed.

At least when I finished, these guys were there to serenade us.

One of  the best things about this race is the sheer volume of swag to collect. It's seriously epic and I think it deserves its own blog post.

This year I had pleasure of joining the "Mindy's Angels" Team. Mindy is a great friend, fellow KD and 3 time breast cancer survivor. After my run I stopped by the survivors tent to chat with hear while she waited for the rest of the team to arrive.

Regardless of the hills, it was still a fantastic race and I was thrilled to have the opportunity to race it again. I did just realize that my race schedule is completely empty. Hmmm, might have to remedy that.

Why I Run

The other day I picked up my bib for the Susan Komen 5k. This race has a special place in my heart because 4 years ago it was the first race I ever ran.

Four years ago I was nearing my Jenny Craig goal weight and was looking for some sort of physical challenge. I'd recently switched gyms and started going to Body Combat (kickboxing) and Body Pump (weight lifting) classes. One thing about me is I'm super competitive. Granted, I'm not that jerk who's always trying to one up someone but I definitely love a competitive challenge. I guess that's part of the reason I'm in sales. I LOVE the thrill of seeing your name or your team's name at the top of the leader board. Mmmmm salesy goodness.

Alright, back to the story. My brother runs marathons and has for years. I figured that if he could run 26.2 I could run 3.1. Like so many people I used the Couch to 5K app and trained entirely on the treadmill (bad idea). Growing up I was the opposite of athletic. I was a sedentary, chubby child of the 80s and would rather sit inside than play outside. I remember hating the Presidential Physical Fitness challenge every year. Running the mile was absolute torture I remember my best time being 20 minutes. Thanks for the trauma Regan. Starting the C25K I was pretty sure I was more physically fit than I was as a child but I didn't have very high hopes this time around. I tried to run before and I always thought I was going to die.

I remember that I hardly slept the night before, I was so nervous. I didn't even sign up for the competitive race, I did the walk/run and tried to bypass most of the walkers. By the way, I wouldn't recommend training exclusively on the treadmill. Bad things happen when you get outside, like hills. I had no idea NC was so damn hilly until I started running. I hate you hills. I think I ended up finishing in 37 minutes and I immediately wanted to improve that time. I guess I caught the bug.

No pix of the first 5K but this is the 2nd. I wasn't the best at picking out decent races back then. I'm pretty sure we ran around a soccer field and out on a green way. At this race I also learned that men put band aids  on their nipples.Yea, never knew that was a thing. Later I volunteered at mile 17 of a marathon and saw the consequences first hand of what happens when men don't guard their nipples.

 

I swear I'm running here.

That first year I ran a few more 5ks, an 8 and 10k. Near the end of the year I remember sitting across from Kev and saying that I thought I wanted to run a half marathon. And the next April, less than a year after I started running, I completed my first half marathon.

I'm not fast. Far from it. I also don't have any illusions about my running skill. I'll never qualify for Boston, I'll never win a race or my age group. But I'll compete and collect my pile of race shirts and bibs and at each race I'll remember that chubby kid who couldn't run a single mile. Fitness is a gift that we shouldn't squander.

On Saturday I'll run the Komen race for 4th time and I'll continue to run it every year I'm able and I'll never take it for granted.