Tag Archives: running

Carb loading works!

Thanks for the insomnia suggestions…. hmmmm…. narcotics, booze…. s*x….and kids.   😉

You know that carb loading I did yesterday led to a fabulous run today!  6 miles without even batting an eye.  How about that?  I think I might be becoming a runner…. I got on the hamster wheel and spent 2 miles getting up to 6mph.  Then I put a hand towel over the electronics and just listened to tunes.  I knew that when the album was over it would be about an hour, and when I pulled off the towel, the mileage was 5.9 – so I just finished out 6.  I almost went for more, but I need to be careful about increasing base mileage too fast (since I did 6 on Tuesday).  I had a big endorphin grin on my face when I left the gym, which elicited a nice hello from a man coming in.  Hope he didn’t think I was hitting on him! 😳

I listened to Hot Club of Detroit’s new album, which John got me for Christmas.  I love it!  Good tunes can make all the difference in exercise, don’t you agree??

Came back to a warm and wonderful bowl of Cream of Wheat cooked with a mashed banana and topped with almond butter and raspberry jam.  I burned my tongue!

It’s cold out today, but beautiful and sunny.  I do take vitamin D in tablet form at this time of year since I don’t get out in the sun so much now.  We have some nice icicles hanging from the house now:

This picture was actually taken in sun, but the back light makes it look late.

Clean eating for lunch today!  Tuna salad sprinkled with a bit of lemon pepper and FSTG chips (love these).  And an American Kiwi 🙂

I just wanted to take a minute and give a shout out to Lynn for a Weight Loss Woo Hoo!  Lynn is amazing and such an inspiration to me (as well as many others).  If you haven’t read her blog, you should.  She has a wonderful writing style, which I am envious of, as well as having an admirable control of how she eats, which I am also envious of.

Uh-oh, along with the gluttony yesterday, the envy puts me at 3 of the deadly sins this week 😯

We had forethought this morning to throw some venison into the crockpot with some BBQ sauce and let it cook all day.  I love when dinner is ready to go when I am!  I chopped some up and put over a tiny baked potato.

Having a few more carbs today since it is a longer run day.  It was so good!  Nice and tender.

I am done with work now and off to the cafe for some weekend celebrating!

Question:  Do you get enough vitamin D?

Running and movie-ing!-

A nice Saturday!  Woke up to a few inches of snow that we weren’t expecting!  Here I am in the blue snow glow of the morning (eating a balance bar):

Oh well – I waded through it to get to the car and hit the gym.  I got there right when it opened and I was the only one there for a while.  It was not any more crowded than Saturdays normally are, so don’t know if anyone new has joined with the new year.  The weather might have kept some people away.  I hopped on the treadmill and busted out 5 miles, pretty much straight forward.  I did 3 of the miles at 6mph.  For some reason, it went really fast.  John met me at the gym and then we picked up my mother to go out for brekkie.  My dad opted out today.  Hit up Panera Bread, where I got a cranberry nut bagel.

Very tasty!  Plus about 3 cups of coffee 😳   After our relaxing and chatting, we didn’t get home until after 11!  I finally got in a shower by noon.

Had a quick lunch of tuna salad on a waffle and the last of the strawberries.

Then we went out to a matinee movie.  I have not been to the theater since Dark Knight.  That’s 1.5 years ago!  I’m very picky about my movies, not to mention the expense.  Plus, usually someone ruins the movie by talking too much.  Anyhoo – we saw this movie!

I really liked it.  Disney went back to hand animation for this film and it was beautiful.  Classic Disney!  Yay!  Definitely recommend this for anyone to see, although it might be a little scary in parts for smaller children.  And it makes me want to eat beignets 😀

We realized that we hadn’t had our lattes when we got home- so we pushed back dinner to enjoy these:

Plus a bit of dark chocolate.

Finally getting leftovers cleared out of the fridge.  Stir-fry for dinner with cooked chicken, broccoli, pineapple, and teriyaki sauce.

Who says leftovers can’t be good!

Doing well with the eating this weekend, which is a good start to the year.  Tomorrow will be a test, as it starts the work week for me and Sundays tend to be problematic.  Hopefully I can get some good sleep tonight.

I seem to struggle with sleeping late enough and it doesn’t matter if the room is dark or not (and caffeine or not seems to make no difference).  John suggested that I might need a more substantial evening snack or a later snack because I might just be waking up because I am very hungry (which I am).  So, I might try that this week and see what happens.

Question:  How often do you go to the movies? What was the last one you saw?

Au revoir 2009!

Here it is, the last day of 2009.  The year was full of ups and downs.  Overall, I have to say that I hope 2010 goes more smoothly!  I’ll post my goals for the new year on the first.

So I went to run this morning.  It felt so much better than the other day. In fact, I went further than planned!

I slowly increased my pace by 1/1oth mile each minute until I was cruising at 5.5 mph.  I stayed there until 2.5 miles.  Then I increased by 1/10th each minute to get up to 6 mph, where I stayed until I finished mile 3.

Then came the challenge!  I increased speed again 1/1oth of a mile each minute until I was at 6.5 mph and stayed there for 5 minutes or so.  Super challenge was going up to 7 mph (8:34 pace), which I just bumped up to because I didn’t think I could do it incrementally.  I stayed there for 3 minutes!  Then I backed down to 6 mph again.  That felt so good to get back to that pace and my heart rate came down enough that I decided to go for an extra mile!  I ran 6 miles today :mrgreen:   I was a puddle when I finished, but a happy puddle.

I was roaring hungry when I got home.  The pre run Balance bar only lasts so long!  Made protein waffles and taking Susan’s tip, I set the machine on high and cooked them longer.  They were a thing of beauty!

Topped with a banana mashed with a tablespoon of maple syrup and a sprinkle of granola. My tummy was the most happy of campers after this.

It’s been quiet on the work front today.  Got some shoveling in since we got an inch of snow today.  As if 6 miles of cardio weren’t enough 🙄

Had a hughjass BBQ chicken salad for lunch.  Nom, nom.

John won the football pics again this week.  I made real pity picks of the Raiders and Lions, so it serves me right.  He chose Steve’s Place for dinner (where you can get breakfast all day!).

So that’s what I had!

Have I mentioned how much I love breakfast lately??  Eggbeaters and cheese on a toasted english muffin and home fries.  It’s hard to mess up breakfast foods, and this was tasty!  I also had 1/2 a cantaloupe on the side.

John wanted dessert, so we stopped at Starbies where I got a tall skim cappuccino with honey drizzle.

And had a bite of his cupcake:

It was fresh and good. 😀

Now it’s down time, movie time, and trying to stay up to midnight!

———————————————————-

Last Hot 100 update:  Overall review.

1. Duathlon.  DONE!!! (Oct)  I am so proud of this one.
2. Limit the number of eggnog lattes this year to 2 or 3.   I had 2 at Starbucks this year.  Did have a couple at home, but those are not as caloric as the cafe’s.
3. Keep a redline of weight in mind to not go over during the holidays.  I popped 1 pound above redline after Christmas, but that will go away.  I did pretty well maintaining this holiday season.
4. Complete the New Rules of Lifting for Women.  DONE!!!! (Nov) Another achievement I am very proud of.

5. Enjoy time with family during the holidays.  Love my family! I don’t know if I spent enough time with them, but I tried.


6.  Better organization of time to be productive.  I did so-so with this.  Some days were better than others.

7.  Do some freelance writing.  Lame LOL

8.  Run at least 2 more official 5K races this year.  DONE!  I seem to have no problem hitting my fitness goals.

Thank you to Steve for challenging us to end the year well!

If any of you want a new challenge for the New Year, Steve is hosting another one.  Check it out here: Perfect 10

Have a happy and safe New Year’s Eve!  See you on the flip side of the decade 😀

Merry Christmas Eve!

It’s Christmas Eve!  This is really my favorite day of the year.  It’s the anticipation at its peak 😀

I was up wayyyyy early today at 5:30 so I got up and worked for a while before heading to the gym.  I had a Zone bar before and hit the treadmill for 5.5 miles!  It felt great!  There are those days where it is just easy and flowing and today was one of them.  John walked to the gym to meet me (brrr….) as it’s only 1.7 miles from home and took me out to breakfast afterwards.  I won the football picks last week (finally), and I chose brekkie!

This was at Cafe on The Park and just a few doors down from the gym.  I was so ready for breakfast.  I actually brought a change of clothes with me so I would having something dry to eat in.  Couldn’t do anything about that hair, though! Can’t believe I am in public looking like this

I had an eggbeater omelet with wheat toast and home fries.

When you have worked up an appetite, food just tastes sooooo good!  I ate it all.

John had eggs and toast and a grilled blueberry muffin!  It was good.

Need to try this technique at home.

Work is slow today, so I am posting this early.  We are going to my folks house for dinner and then preparing for everyone coming over tomorrow for the Christmas feast!

I thought I would show the oldest ornament on my tree for the last feature.

This was done for me by our “Aunt Betty” when I was 13.  Everyone calls her that even though I think she would be my great aunt?  Look at the year on the other side!

Have a most wonderful holiday!  I appreciate so much all of my readers, whether you ever comment or not, and I love reading all of your blogs as well!  Stay safe and have a super day!

6-miler and surprise beauty in fall

(I forgot to hit ‘publish’ last night 😳  )

Today was a run day.  Too cold to go in the upper 20s when I first got up, so I had breakfast first 🙂

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I worked for a while until the temp hit 39 degrees and headed out.  Pre run fuel:

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The addiction is still alive and well 😳

It was sunny and beautiful (if cold!)  I did a 3.2 mile loop, came back to the house and drank from my water bottle (and shed my gloves), then did another 3.2 mile loop.  2nd loop was the hill run.  If I had though about it, I would have done the hill loop first…..

Here is my GoWear fit today:

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Can you guess where the run is in the graph??

Had the most wonderful lunch today.  John cooked up some pie pumpkins yesterday, so we have fresh pumpkin!  I mixed some with greek yogurt, pumpkin pie spice, cranberry sauce and some Hemp Plus granola.

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Tasty!

When I was outside today, I saw one of my roses actually had a bloom on it!

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Even with the frost and everything lately, and the beauty bloomed!  Very fragrant and I was so happy to see this.  I don’t know if the other 2 buds there will open or not, but it’s possible!

Decided on a burger for dinner.  I don’t bother with the lean ground beef anymore because it’s just too dry.  I don’t eat ground beef very often, so I like to get the good stuff.  The trade off is the tiny burger:

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Where’s the beef???  Good, though.

Last stop on tonight’s agenda was Starbucks!  We went with my mom.  I would have loved a gingerbread latte, but decided on a decaf skim latte.  I actually got almost 8 hours of sleep last night!  I hope to repeat that tonight.

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This last pic was taken with my mom’s Easy Share by Kodak.  She is actually trusting me with her new digital camera until mine comes back!  😀

Have a super night!

Will be productive for soup!

You know how yesterday I was saying how I didn’t get anything done? Today was a whole nuther ballgame!  I was raining when I got up (Hello Ida remnants), so I had to wait a bit until my gym opened up at 8am.  I had a Zone bar for a preworkout snackie.  Then off to the gym and hit the treadmill for 5 miles.  It felt good to really break a sweat.  You know you are on the treadmill a long time when you see people come in, watch them work out and then they leave, all while you are doing the same thing 😛

I arrived home ready to devour my arm and commenced to cooking some Banana, cashew butter, and apple butter oats.

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These were fantastic!  John was laughing at me because I kept saying “yum” while I was eating them.  Extra hunger = extra good taste.

Off to shop, passed by Great Escape on our way.

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Hit the outlet malls – serious sales going on today.

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And found a coffee mug that’s just right for me!

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We were hungry at this point and headed to Samantha’s where one of the soups of the day was Squash and apple bisque!  I just had to have a bowl with some fresh made wheat bread.

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Soooooo good.  It was a soupy kind of day.  Then it was off to the mall for more shopping.  We actually got a nice start on the Christmas stuff that we are buying.  We will make other things for people as well.

Took a break for this!

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I had a skim latte. John got an eggnog latte.   I am trying to wait until Thanksgiving before I have one, but I had a couple sips of his.  Eggnog is like crack to me.  I could bathe in its creamy goodness 😯

More productivity with grocery shopping and then a stop at the smokehouse to stock up on meat.  We got chicken breast, ground beef, turkey breast, boneless pork chops, and bacon. There are some great benefits to shopping locally if you can.  Boneless chicken breasts at $2.09 per pound!  I love that we can support local farmers and the local processor all in one fell swoop.

All of this happened by 4 pm!  We were on a roll.

Obviously had some fresh meat for dinner – chicken with a slice of bacon and laughing cow!  Yum!!!  It’s amazing how just 1 slice of bacon can add so much flavor.

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And a mondo amount of broccoli!

I am going to relax tonight with the hubby and watch movies.  One of those rainy nights just perfect for that!

Have a great night!

Running for me and beer?

Thanks for you comments on my musings earlier LOL! Back to regularly scheduled programming…..

Woke up too early again today.  It was a little after 6:00 and I went to bed  after 11:30.  I really do better with 7 hours of sleep, so why does my body persist in waking up early?  Anyway, I just got up and had an early start to my day.  Cooked up some protein pancakes.  Since I can’t be tall, I thought I would stack my breakfast high!

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Again, dark for breakfast!  Weird….

Worked for an hour and it warmed up to about 45, so it was time to get in a run.  I decided on a ‘me’ run today.  I went out without a watch, and just put on the Sweeney Todd soundtrack and let my body tell me how fast it wanted to go.   I sped up when I felt like it and slowed down when I wanted to.  I did 3.2 miles and felt very refreshed afterwards (and super sweaty).  I spent so much time basically since March having  fairly regimented fitness routines to train for all my events, so it feels good now to relax a little and just enjoy flexing my fitness, so to speak.

In my effort to get the cereal out of the house, I incorporated it into lunch 😀  Yum.  There is cereal under there, I promise!

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Kat asked for a macro of my ring – and here it is:

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This is actually now my wedding band.  John and I had channel set diamond bands that matched.  Both of us have had problems with rings being too loose, especially in colder weather.  John had taken to wearing his ring on his pinky, and low and behold, one day it wasn’t there and we couldn’t find it anywhere.  We retraced as many steps as we could think of in the previous day, but to no avail.  John was actually more upset about it than I was.  I would rather lose a ring than lose him, know what I mean?  Anyway, we had been contemplating new bands, and really wanted one with a celtic knot design.  Couldn’t afford the ones we really liked, though.  On a trip to Colorado to visit John’s folks in early 2008, we shopped at ArtMart in Boulder (which is a cool place) and we saw these rings there.  $20 each!  We both loved them and figured they would be good bands in the interim until we can get some gold ones (maybe for our 15th anniversary).  It’s so funny because we both get so many compliments on these rings than we ever got on our other bands. Go figure.

It’s my weekend starting tonight, so John and I had a little celebration:

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We split this beer – cheers!

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I look so tired in this picture.  Guess that is because I am LOL!  The beer is good.  Hints of pumpkin and spice.  Dinner was a stirfry made with a batata, which is a Mexican sweet potato.  I’ll do a GVE on it tomorrow in detail.  It tastes kind of like a chestnut, but has the texture of a potato.  Kicked it up with some chopped seranno peppers, too.  Bring on the heat! Fun!

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In true weekend decadence fashion, we ate in the living room on the couch with the TV on.  Sometimes it just feels good to be really casual.

I am so happy it’s the weekend!  It feels so great to be free for a couple days.  I am just about done with that soap order.  I’ll finish up the last 2 batches tomorrow.  Then I need to get a couple pumpkins to carve if I can still find some around.

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Pink item of the day!  Only a couple more days in October for this.

I am going to have a relaxing night with my 10 candy corn kernels, some tea, and Project Runway (if I can stay awake for it….).

I am shaking things up with the football dinner and am having John take me out for breakfast instead!  Hopefully we can bike there in the a.m.

Question:  Do you ever eat in front of the TV?

Brick and duathlon

Decided on another brick today, this time the bike/run. I planned out a fairly straight bike loop to take twice of a little over 13 miles and then a 2-mile run. I drank this before going out:
pom

I have decided that this is not good by itself for fuel before exercising.  It’s just straight juice without any protein and it lasted all of about 5 miles.  POM is much better as a refuel during.  Lesson learned.  The bike ride was not really enjoyable, as I stuck to the main roads and there was traffic, school busses, traffic lights, and garbage trucks (my mother is probably freaking out reading this – sorry Mom!).   With all that, I did the 13 miles in 1:03 and I figured I was probably averaging about 13 mph.  Not bad.  Stopped at home and had some coconut water and felt super energized.  Gosh I love this stuff.  Makes me wonder if Gatorade is any different.  I did a 2-mile loop in a little over 21 minutes.  I swear I was going faster because I had pace music on in the 170s, so don’t know what is up with that.  I forgot how it feels to run after biking!  Blargh.

I was ready to eat off my own arm when I got done, and cooked up some protein pancakes.  These take no more than 10 minutes from start to finish, which I love!

panc

The app is filled out for me to do a duathlon in October!  I have sort of been training for it before making up my mind and I just decided to go for it.

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I am ready already, since I am in really good shape with all the work I have done since spring  (did I just say that??).  I’m am nervous and excited.  At least having done a triathlon, I know pretty much what to expect and there is no swimming involved!   Hope it doesn’t snow.  Have a couple 5K in October that we are thinking of doing as well.  Gotta cram in the outdoor stuff while we can.

Lunch was so, so good today:

csalad

Curry chicken salad:

  • 2.5 ounces cooked chicken, chopped
  • 7 grapes chopped
  • 1/2 small granny smith apple, chopped
  • matchstick carrots, probably 1/4 cup
  • 1 tablespoon light mayo
  • curry powder
  • 1 tablespoon slivered almonds

Mix the mayo and curry powder thoroughly.  Add all ingredients except almonds together and mix well.  Place mixture on top of a bed of lettuce and top with almonds.  Yum!

Zoomed through work today.  Software problems on their end, which is annoying, but didn’t slow me down too much.

Had another of my chewy granola bars as a snack with my latte.  For those that asked, the cinnamon chips are just little sweet bits of cinnamon.  Like chocolate chips, only not chocolate.  Hershey’s makes them and they are usually in the baking aisle with the chocolate chips, butterscotch chips and the like.  Addicting little buggers, too.  I can eat them out of hand easily.

Pixie is pretty much recovered from her declaw.  She won’t run around yet, but that might just be because she is the laziest cat in the world:

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She loves laps!  She looks kind of annoyed that I took her picture, though LOL. I also heard from the rehabber that the little kitten is doing really well and has gotten medicine, vitamins and lots of food.  Hope he finds a good home when he gets a little older.

Quick and easy dinner – feta cheese omelet!

dinI love feta cheese.  It is one of my favorites along with gorgonzola and asiago.  Well, really I won’t turn any cheese down (except super stinky ones).

After dinner sweet:

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I am now free for the evening and John has twisted my arm into going out for coffee in a bit.  😀

September challengers – don’t forget to check in here!

Question:  What is your favorite cheese?

Hot and humid and pineapple!

Boy howdy it is hot and humid!  I was feeling fatigued, so I took yesterday off from doing anything.  This morning I decided to go out for a run since it was early and hopefully not too hot.  Just 3 miles (haha – I can’t believe I wrote that! I still can’t believe I’m a runner).  It felt pretty icky for the first mile, I really do not like running in humidity.  Doesn’t matter if the temp is in the mid 60s – humidity sucks!  And then my battery died on my MP3 player after that first mile, too.  Oh dear!  It was on my pace running from jogtunes.com (episode 23, my favorite!), which I was looking forward to doing.  So, I just plodded along and finished.  I’m glad I did it early, though, because it started getting really steamy when the sun broke through!

Came back and made what looks like a boring bowl, but was really quite delicious:

oatbran

  • 40 grams oat bran
  • 12 grams chocolate PB2
  • 1 small banana
  • 4 grams dark cocoa powder

Delicious!  I let it cool down to mostly room temperature, which seemed to make it tastier.

Pixie said “Don’t bother me, it’s too hot!”

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She is so durn cute when she sleeps like this! (Yes, that is my foot – don’t you love my work attire?)

Lunch was something different.  I got some Laughing Cow wedges at the store the other day.  I forgot how much I love these (well, it is cheese, after all!).  I had a hardboiled egg in the fridge and decided to make a mini bagel toasted with the cheese and the egg sliced on it.  Really good!

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Okay, I am now in love with a new bar – the TLC pumpkin spice bar!

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It’s not a protein bar, so at least it isn’t packed with soy.  The topping is made from dates, I can tell the flavor, plus pumpkin and spices on a softish granola bar.  Yum.  Paired with my latte.

John grilled up some chicken for dinner, and I was cutting up the pineapple while sauteing my broccoli.  I had a great idea to add the pineapple to the broccoli, then chopped up the chicken and added some Country Bob’s sauce.

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Can I tell you how amazing this was??  I swear that fresh pineapple and canned pineapple are almost 2 different fruits.  They taste so different.

Pretty flowers I got from the garden.  I am trying to clear a path so people can actually walk through the path LOL!

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I liked the pineapple so much that I am having a snack with it while I write this post 😀

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Tomorrow I start my first day at my new gym.  Went today and got signed up.  It was a little testosterone heavy while I was there in the late afternoon – so I for sure know to avoid it at that time!  I asked when the least crowded times are, and  I should be safe around 7am.  This gym has a definitely different feel than the Y.  Guess they need a lady around there to show them how it’s donelifter

Storms are rolling in, so better sign off!

Don’t miss the Fullbites giveaway post here!  Ends Thursday!

Question:  What do you do different for exercise when it is really hot out?

Silk & Satin and swag!

Race day for the Silk & Satin. There were 1000ish runners for this race!
Got up at 5:15 (ugh??) to get breakfast and coffee. Decided against showering.
Breakfast of champions!
brekkie

Oat bran with banana topped with cashew butter.  I didn’t add any protein powder today, maybe I should have.

Got to the race sign up around 7 or so.  The Saratoga Race Track opens this weekend so there were already lines of people waiting to get into the track.  The race organizers were nice enough to have a separate parking lot for runners only (free) which was right across from the registration.  Sweet!  It rained a lot yesterday and was cooler, so there was a lot of fog.  This picture cannot really give justice to how beautiful the warmup track was with all the horses going around.

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John pinning his number (he isn’t a pose-person)

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I am a poser, however!  Squinting in the bright fog – I look irritated, but I’m not.  Wearing the Triscuit – love it!

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We started at the end of the 8mile pacers.  Reason being is that the ‘corrals’ only go to 9 minutes, so all walkers and everyone else slower is there which creates a lot of backlog.

The gun went off and it took us 20 seconds to actually get to the starting line!  Lots and lots of people.  You know, a lot of really slow people were in the lower time corrals, since John and I were passing people right and left (literally).  That was mildly annoying because it slows you down and makes you weave around (wasting energy).  But, it doesn’t matter, really.  It was a nice day to race, mid 60s and the sun was not out all the way due to the fog.  It came out about 2/3  of the way.  This is a nice flat track through town.  I found I did not have any sprint in me.  Since I stopped speed work, I lost my sprint! LOL!  John and I kept pace for most of the race, then he got a bit ahead and I used him as my pacer.  Couldn’t miss him with that bright orange shirt!  He crossed the line about 25 seconds before I did.

Bravo to John for a PR of 28:59!  I did 29:22.  I was quite happy with that as the first mile was somewhat slower with the clog of people.  I assumed that they started the timing when we crossed the start, but John started his stopwatch and it showed  time of 20 seconds faster than official, so maybe not.  A lot different than the 45 minutes from last year!

Anyway – we were both enormously pleased and happy!  This race really treats you special, too.  They had muffins, donuts, bananas, oranges, bagels available from Price Chopper.  And then the swag bags!

We forewent the bagels there and had oranges and took home a muffin so that we could get an even better bagel at Uncommon Grounds!

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Oat bran with light cream cheese.  Yum!

Got home and took the best shower ever!  I love how great it feels when you are all sweaty and sticky and step under the shower head.  One of those simple things that I love to appreciate.

This is the contents of the swag bag:

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Can you believe all this stuff?  It’s worth the $25, really.   I can’t remember the last time I had poptarts. The sponsors are very generous.  Although I did just get a new toothbrush on Thursday at the dentist!  Pixie was very interested in everything, too.

Party for John this evening.  Just finished baking his cake with chocolate buttercream frosting!  Will probably post all that tomorrow.

Enjoy your Saturday and touch base with your loved ones!

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