Hot BAM

I did it!  I finally did it!  I actually went to HOT YOGA.  It only took me a few months but I have now attended class one of four that I purchased through Groupon.  I have three classes left and they expire on December 6th so it looks like I will be doing a lot of hot yoga in the future!  At first, I didn't think the room was that hot but the heat seemed to build over time so by the end of class it was almost unbearable.  The absolute best part of the class was the chilled, lavendar-scented washcloth they handed out at the end of the class.  It was the best feeling in the entire world.  Although I enjoyed the class and only found some of the poses to be challenging, it begins my list of things you shouldn't do before a race.

Things NOT to do before a race:

1. Try a new fitness class the day before (Hot Yoga will help you find muscles you didn't know you had)
2. Go out for dancing and drinks the night before (Magner's is full of carbs, right?)
3. Dance like a crazy person for three hours (droppin' it low is a great pre-race stretch)
4. Go to bed at 2:30am
5. Have a pre-race breakfast of a cup of coffee and an expired Power Bar gel
6. Arrive to race approximately two minutes before start time, use the port-o-potty (because it's a non-negotiable) and run directly from the potty onto the course because the race has already started

Needless to say, this race was not my most shining moment.  The cherry on top of my poor decisions prior to the race was the race course itself.  Holy Hills.  My quads have never been so sad :(  At about halfway through the 10k, my legs felt like they were made of lead and I was contemplating just telling my dad to leave me for dead and walking the rest of the way.  He refused and continuously told me that he was just out to have fun.  I'm not sure what "fun" he was having because I was not experiencing the same. 

While running this race, I got a side cramp.  It was very similar to the cramp that I got while wearing the heart rate monitor last week except for the fact that I wasn't wearing the heart rate monitor.  I stopped to walk for a minute and then began running again.  I tried to really focus on my breathing and it ended up going away after a while.  I'm really confused as to what that is all about.  I used to get cramps all the time when I was younger but have been totally fine until recently. Any ideas?

Here's the good news:  I finished!

Not only did I finish but I was third in my age division!  This truly speaks for the size of the race, haha!  I was third out of four girls in the twenty-somethings age group.  My overall time was 60:36 3/4.  Like I said, I was running from the POP onto the course so the Garmin actually had me completing it at 59:13 (-1:14 from official).  My goal for this race was 1:08:21 and I beat it!  This is also a 10K PR (personal record) for me.  Woo!

I'm so thankful for goals.  It's very exciting to accomplish them :)  I'm also very thankful for my dad because I would have wimped out and run much slower if I was running by myself.  I'm also thankful for those people that didn't sign up for the Turkey Trot, which enabled me to come in third place in my age division!  I'm also thankful for giveaways!

What mistakes have you made before a race?