My Body Hates Summer

I did it!  I went out for a nine mile run on Saturday.  Yes, I know I promised you the thrills of a double digit run but it just didn't happen.  Let's just say that I didn't get myself out of the house to run until 10:30am and at that point it was starting to warm up.  I felt like the sun was beating down on me with every step I took.
Not only that but I've been pretty awesomely bad about doing laundry so I was stuck running in black socks...

I'm pretty sure it was psychosomatic but I was convinced that my feet were melting inside of my shoes.  Not only that but the soles of my feet were hurting from lack of cushioning too.  (I hope you stopped by for a healthy dose of whining because that is what you are getting today!)

So anyway, I nearly died of heat on my run and then decided to head off to the Healthy Kid Expo at the Pnats Stadium.  For the next three hours we walked around in the sizzling sun.  It was actually only in the mid-80's and I'm pretty sure I will spontaneously combust once July rolls around.....I really wish my body would adjust to these hotter temperatures already!

On the plus side, Kara gave me a great idea for the VA Wine half marathon and the Team in Training predicament:  Wear a purple shirt!  So simple and yet so genius.  I picked up a purple tech shirt at the thrift store a couple weeks ago so I think that's what I will wear.  It's a long sleeved shirt so I will need to bust out my Sally  Seamstress skills but let's hope it pays off in fan adoration and extra water along the course ;)

Are you more whiny in the winter or the summer?

Two weeks until 13.1 miles

So it just dawned on me that I only have two weeks left until the VA Wine Country Half Marathon (eek!).  I have been running but I haven't been doing much in the way of distance.  I have mapped out a lovely little route for today that will be a nice ten miles under my belt.  Isn't planning half the battle?

Even though I have been signed up for this race for months, I have only recently started researching it.  It turns out that not only will I be getting a medal for finishing BUT that medal will also double as a wine stopper!  Literally, this is the best news of my day :)

source

Finally, I medal that I can actually use!  For next year's race, I think they should have it double as a wine holster.

I'm pretty sure I could wear this
while running

Anyway, I read some reviews and it turns out this race starts out downhill and then continues to roll after that.  I guess my previous admission of wanting to do hill work should come to fruition if I want to be mildly successful in this race.  I also read that the participants in this race are largely Team in Training.  Some of the complaints were that the volunteers and spectators were blind to anyone not wearing a purple shirt.  I'll admit this won't encourage me during a race but I don't think it will kill me either.  Possible famous last words? 

If you could design a twofer medal, what would it double as?

Full moon at the May Day 5k

Or is it a new moon since it is covered in black spandex?



Let's just say, it's not the most flattering picture of me.  Well, I managed to run the May Day 5k, win third place AND make a new PR for myself.  Woo!  Official time was 28:28.  I'm pretty sure I have never ran a 5k in under thirty minutes so I am pretty excited about my time.  Winning third place in this race was actually a sweeter victory than third place at the Turkey Trot 10k because there were ten people in my age group as opposed to four.

I really enjoyed the May Day 5k.  It's a smaller race, I believe we had about two hundred people running it, and the running group that hosts the race is awesome!  My parent's music studio was one of the sponsors for the race so my dad played the harp for the national anthem before the race began.  Seriously, what other race kicks off with a harp performance??

Anyway, I grew up on the street that the race started on but that didn't make the course any easier.  Within the first mile of the course, we had to climb a ridiculous hill and then three quarters into the race there was another killer hill. Ashamedly, I walked a good portion of the second hill.  Doing hill sprints is always something that I think I would like to do in theory because it would help increase my speed and potentially make me less fearful of hills but is something I never really get around to doing.  Shocking, I know.

Any embarrassing pictures of you out in cyberspace for all time and eternity?

What should you do but don't?

Apple Blossom 10k

This past Saturday, I made Alex and Julia wake up at the crack of dawn so that they could watch me huff and puff 6.2 miles and then enjoy a day of carnival food and fun.  I really don't love driving more than an hour to a race the morning of but we had some serious bowling to do the night before so that's what we ended up doing.

The race took place in Winchester, VA and the drive out there was beautiful.  It really reminded me of my drives back and forth to JMU through the mountains of VA.  Anyway, not many people were out on the roads at six so the drive was quick and painless.  Once we got to Winchester, it was pretty easy to find some parking although we paid $10 for the day.  I have heard of the Apple Blossom Festival from an old roommate in college that was from Winchester but I didn't realize the magnitude of the event.  There were hundreds of chairs lining the streets along the parade route that you had to pay certain groups for the privilege of sitting there in a folding chair.  Whatever, I guess it was worth it because AC Slater was the grand marshall.

The race only had race day packet pickup which had me concerned but the process was actually seamless and enjoyable.  It took me five minutes to stop at one tent for my packet and another tent for my t-shirt.

Did I mention that the official colors for this festival are pink and green?  Seriously, We all stood out like sore thumbs since we were not pink and green clad from head to toe.  Anyway, after I got all my goodies, I walked fifty feet over to the start line.  The race is fairly small so there was no worry about getting in the right corral and there was hardly any congestion once we started. 

My favorite part was getting a
good luck hug and kiss from Julia

The course started off going downhill briefly and then turning uphill for almost the next mile.  There were lots of spectators along the course but I'm pretty confident that a lot of them were just holding their seats for the parade later that day as they weren't very encouraging.  I didn't love the course but I think that's because it was unusually hot and muggy and I felt like I was dying.  One thing I did enjoy was that we looped by the start/finish line three different times so my own personal cheerleaders were able to see me at the beginning, middle and end of the race, which I thought was really nice. 

I walked parts of the 10k because I felt like the heat was killing me and therefore, I only finished in 1:01:51.  This is only an approximation as I forgot to stop my Garmin when I crossed the finish line and they haven't posted the official race results yet.  Come on, it was chip timed.  Shouldn't it be pretty easy just to post those?

After the race, we continued on to the fair and paid enormous amounts of money for food.  I had a pretty delicious smoked turkey sandwich and topped it off with some chocolate covered bacon :) 

After eating, we decided to head out of town and get back home.  Our friend Tim was celebrating his 30th birthday at the House of Bounce and we didn't want to get stuck in Winchester since they were closing all the roads down for the parade. 

Luckily, we made it in time!

What is your favorite carnival food?

I'm turning 30 in a month and loved House of Bounce, do you have any other suggestions on how to celebrate?