Pumpkin

So this has NOTHING to do with running.

But it's fall, and so pumpkins are in style.....

So here I am rocking the pumpkin look back when I was about 3 :)



That's all.

Yep.

New Gear

Rockin' the water belt! Now I really do look like a hardcore runner ;)

Don't lie... I know you're jealous and you want one.

Ran five miles today with the belt. It took me the first two miles to figure out the best way to wear it (there are a couple options)! But it's nice and handy-  holds my water, keys, phone, etc.  And you don't even notice it's there after a while.

So, I usually run on Tuesdays, but apparently it's supposed to rain a lot tomorrow, so I went today.  Now I remember why I wait till Tuesday to run- I'm still recovering from the looooong run on Saturday. My legs felt SO heavy today! But we made it :)

8 MILES

Katie and I ran EIGHT MILES this morning!!!

EIGHT MILES!

EIGHT MILES!

Can you tell I'm excited?! ;)

I'm still in shock we did that many!! We decided this was quite an accomplishment :) It boosted my confidence in that the half would only be five more miles. So doing OVER half of the race distance made me feel better about this whole crazy idea I had of running a half marathon.

My shins didn't bother me much at all until the end of the run. I iced them the past two days (and after my run today) and it made a huge difference :) So hopefully if I continue that, it will all be good!

And since Katie and I were so proud of ourselves, I said we had to document the moment :) Oh, and we matched pink shirts- unplanned!

We. Are. Awesome.
:)

Problem

I'm starting to get shin splints :(  My brother has had them, so he gave me some exercises to do, and then my exercise sports science friends told me to do ice cup massages.  Hopefully this will help.

They started over the past week or so and they'd only hurt every now and then, and going up/down stairs.  Now it's slowly starting to creep into my running more. Not good.  I did run 4 miles today, and it was a little painful.

I just have to make it through ONE MORE MONTH of training.  Thank goodness.  I've been running regularly since July, and to be honest, I'm just about tired of running during the week. It's more of the forcing myself to go run during the week nights so I can make it through my weekend long run.  Stuff at work is picking up and it's getting dark earlier... so a perfect scenario to not go run.  But I'm a person that if I don't go run, I will feel guilty, and I know I will have to pay for it the next time I run because it will be harder.  Ughhhhh.  I was warned that this feeling would surface about this time... Gotta find a way to plug through it.

Plan is to run 8 miles on Saturday with Katie and Patty.  I do know that going with them will give me some motivation.

Time to go ice the shins!

Gnat Attack

5 miles yesterday!

Two things I learned yesterday:

1)  A really bad day can result in a really good run.

2) If you see you're about to run through a swam of gnats, close your eyes and your mouth.

• I got a gnat in my eye.
• I'm pretty sure I swallowed one.
• Gnats stick to sweat.  

Yep.  It's gross.  But it's reality.

I Survived the 10k!

(That's 6 miles, in case you were wondering!)

Wahooooooooo!!! 

The race was to raise money for the Wake Med Children's Hospital in Raleigh, NC.  So the picture above is me after the race with the hospital mascot!  It's kind of cool that this is the race I ended up doing because my brother, Stuart, was at Wake Med for 2 weeks in ICU his senior year of high school after he had a heat stroke.  Everyone who worked at the hospital was awesome and all of the doctors and nurses took good care of him, and now he is back to himself 100% with no internal damage :)  God is good!

Oh, and my brother and I were both born at that hospital :)

I ran the race today with Patty (right) and Katie (middle):

This is before the race - We were glowing!

They are both running the half marathon with me, and this is the first race I had done with them.  They were such a big help because with it being my first race, they helped me with all the pre-race stuff and giving me the scoop!  We decided to run the race on intervals of 3 run, 1 walk - which is what I was used to.  Katie is like me, and is planning to run the half in intervals.  Patty is one who just likes to go :)  Patty gets EXTRA friend points today because she ran the intervals with us (and she is not a fan of intervals).   So we all crossed the finish line together :) 

Running the race wasn't too bad.  The first mile is always hard, but after that, we were on a roll.  The race was downtown and we ran around a big loop twice.  We had nice convos as we went on our way and had a good time!

And might I add..... we ran by the Krispy Kreme with the HOT sign on... not once.... but TWICE!  Ooooooooooooh the temptation was SO mean.  Smelling them, but couldn't eat them.  Not fair.

We successfully finished the race, and there were a lot of post-race activities and booths set up by various groups.  We got some water and delicious muffins (sponsored Sweet Tomatoes - yum!), and then as we were wandering around the block we found these...................

CUPCAKES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And they were delcious :)

We weren't excited at all....

Maybe if we would have known there were cupcakes at the end, we might have run a little faster ;)

I'll end this post with the picture of us with the most famous person there today:

SCOOBY DOO!  We found you!

5.2

This past Thursday I ended up running a little over five miles (5.2 to be exact).  I was at a teacher conference all week, and on our way home we stopped at a southern cooking restaurant and I ate chicken tenders, mac and cheese, green beans, and a biscuit... or two.  MMM comfort food.  I think I'm going to blame that for my run not going as well as I wanted.

As I made my way around, I was not being consistent about my intervals. I walked more than normal and ran less, haha.  I just wasn't feeling it.  I was going to stop after 4 miles, but then I get a text from my friend Patty, who is doing the race with me.  The text was about running, so it gave me the little extra push to go one more mile, which I knew I needed to do (especially with the 10k this weekend).

And then it got dark and it was time to go home :)