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!

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