Creep!

Friday night I ran my fastest mile ever! I went to the YMCA and intended to do 2.5 miles. I got on a treadmill and only lasted 0.6 because the treadmill was acting funky. I got off and got onto another one and decided that I was just going to run a mile as fast as I could. I did it in 11:54!

Saturdays long "run" was horrible. I did 3.5 miles and had to walk a LOT. At first I was stopping my Garmin when I would walk, but eventually stopped that. When I ran, it was much faster than usual. I did my 3.5 in 51 minutes... Not impressive...

I woke up this morning and intended to go for my 3 mile run. It took me an hour to talk myself into going. I looked at the forecast and the temp was 72, but the humidity was 90%! I finally decided to get my butt out of bed to go. I was going to drive the new, old Toyota that I just bought from my brothers girlfriend, but my new Bondi Band arm band that I won in Karen's giveaway was in my Saturn, so I went to grab it out. I couldn't find it, then I realized that things looked awry and I realized that someone had "broken" (the doors weren't locked) into my car. They took my Zune, my daughters diaper bag, my daughters travel DVD player, her Nickelodeon DVDs, and my brand new Bondi Band arm holder with my ear buds in it that I hadn't even been able to take on a test run yet! I was SO mad! By the time I finished looking through to see if I could figure out anything else that was taken, it was too late to go run, because Paul needed to go to work. It makes me so mad! Why didn't I lock my doors? And why the HELL did they take that arm band! That is no value to anyone! They left the two other crappy chaffing arm bands that were in there! Why did they take my brand new one! The arm band is what made me the most mad, that and the diaper bag. What are you going to do with my arm band and my 2 year old daughters books and toys. You can sell the Zune, the DVD player and DVDs, but the other stuff... WTH? Stupid creeps!

I decided that I wasn't going to let that ruin my day. When Elliott got up, I asked her if she wanted to go to the park or the zoo, and she said that she wanted to go see the animals. So we went to the zoo. We didn't stay very long. It was so freaking humid! I wore jeans that are too big and I was sweating a lot and my thighs were chaffing on the seams of the jeans.

Caution: the next paragraph may be considered TMI...We were in the chimpanzee exhibit and they have a baby (2 year old) chimp that we have seen many times. He's very cute and getting big. At one point, we were watching him and he grabbed his penis and started... you know... pleasuring himself! Do chimps do that?! Right when that happened, me and the rest of the parents standing there were like "Okay, time to go!" It was really weird! I think the zoo is going to be a source of some very awkward conversations as my daughter gets older.

We got home and Elliott starting acting like a crazy child! I feel so frustrated for her sometimes, because she will be trying to tell me something, but I just do not understand her! She fell asleep shortly after her meltdown and is soundly sleeping still, on the couch! Maybe we will go check out the park later...

I got a new old car this weekend. From March until June we just had my Saturn because Paul's old car had finally quit. In June he bought a truck from one of his buddies. Before that happened, my brothers girlfriend was telling us that she was going to Massachusetts (where she is from) in July to buy a car from her parents. I asked her what she was doing with her old car. She said she wasn't sure, but then messaged me on facebook saying that I could check it out if I wanted to. So we finally bought it from her this weekend. We don't need it right now, but in the last two years, we have had to go with one car for an extended period of time, 3 times, so it will be nice to have a back up. It's a 1998 Toyota Avalon, so nothing fancy, though she took good care of it. I'm going to drive it and check out how the gas mileage is compared to my Saturn...

Weigh In and Get Your Rear In Gear 5k Race Report

ONEderland!

Down 4.4lbs this week! Holy Moley! Finally! I made it to ONEderland! I didn't think this day would ever come! I guess working out 5 out of 7 days really paid off!

Stephanie and I went to the Y on Monday night to lift weights and we did some elliptical also. Tuesday night me and Steph did a Turbokick class at the Y. I ran walked 3 miles on Wednesday with Kim at group run. Thursday night Steph and I did Zumba. Last night Kim and I did a 5k. And then this morning I weighed less than 200lbs for the first time in 2 years!

Kim and I pre race

Our race last night sucked so bad. It was SO hot. When I had signed up I thought that since it was going to start at 730p that it would be cooler! Boy was I wrong. The race was in downtown Wichita and part of the race went on this stupid brick road that was so hard to run on! When we we coming off the first mile, we could see a further part of the course and we saw the race leaders and it was really cool! We had never ran a race and been able to see the leaders ahead before. Thomas (one of our...mentors, coaches...I don't know) was one of the leaders, which he always is. I knew that he was going to be overall winner as soon as I saw him before the race started. He always is! The course was 2 loops and when we were about 2.5 miles in, Thomas lapped us. He was going so fast and it all just seemed effortless for him. I hope to be there someday.

This is what my 100% looks like! Final Stretch

My brother and his girlfriend, Mary, came out to cheer us on with Paul and Elliott. When we looped back around and saw them, I wanted to stop so bad! It really was a tough race! We kept going. When we finally looped around to the final stretch, Kim sounded like she was having trouble breathing. She said that she was trying not to cry. See the race was for colon cancer and her grandpa has been in the hospital this past week and they found a tumor in his colon, so it meant so much more for her.

My finishing time was 43:06, so no PR. I didn't have a PR in mind, I just wanted to finish. I felt completely unprepared for the race! Kim did text me later and tell me that her mapmyrun showed a long course at 3.24 miles...

Me and Kim post race

After the race, Paul, Elliott, and I walked and had Gelato with my brother and Mary. I'd never had Gelato before. I first chose Blood Orange flavor, but decided on Mint. It was really good!

5 days until the 10k. I'm super nervous!

Stephanie at her bachlorette party

We played LIFE at the Bridal Shower

Today Paul , Elle, and I went to the zoo with my mother-in-law and niece and nephews. It was fun. We were there for about 5 hours! It has been a busy weekend! I had Stephanie's bacherloette party on Friday night, Elliott had pictures on Saturday morning, Sunday was Stephanies Bridal Shower which I had completely forgotten about, so I was super late, and today we went to the zoo. Next weekend is the RiverRun 10k on Saturday and Stepahnie's wedding on Sunday.

Elliott is normally TERRIFIED of these statues, but she has started to warm up to them!

Long Runs

In our running group, we always do our long runs on Saturday mornings. I've attended every single one up until last weekend. I had the GOTR race last Saturday. I was going to do both when I thought the race started at 9am, but it started at 830a and I wouldn't have had time to make it their in time. Then I also missed yesterday.

Kate, Kara, and I at the concert

Kate's AWESOME photo of Mr. Church

Friday night we (Kara, Kate, and Kate's husband) went to Topeka to see Eric Church in concert. It was originally going to be Kim and her boyfriend Kevin instead of Kara and I, but Kevin couldn't go, so Kim invited me to go, then Kim got sick and we asked Kara to go. It was kind of a big fiasco because we all work together and we were needing to leave work early and then Stephanie called in sick. But we ended up making it work. Well, we didn't get home until about 2am and I didn't get to bed until even later. So, waking up to be running at 7am then working after wasn't going to happen.

On a side note, the expo center the concert was in had a bunch of stairs that we had to go up. In my old life, I would've looked at those stairs with dread, but now, I looked at them with excitement! I ran up those stairs and I wasn't even out of breath when I got to the top!

Anyway... When Kim got to work on Saturday, I asked her if she had run with the group and she said that she hadn't, so I asked her if she wanted to run tomorrow (which is now, today) and she said she did. So we made plans to meet Sunday at 7am. We met up for our 60 minute run and we ran the outside perimeter of the park, which we never do. I really liked it! We started our run next to the zoo and you could hear the animals in there going crazy! It must have been breakfast time! When we got about half way, I needed to walk for about 10 seconds, and then we were back to running.

At one point in the middle of the path we saw a turtle! It was so cute! Kim said "There, now it feels like we're going fast!" We also saw a beautiful butterfly fluttering around! I love seeing stuff like that while running! We got back around and crossed the wooden bridge to get back to the park and we realized we were not at 60 minutes yet, so we did the small loop and ended at 62:35 and we did 4.49 miles! It felt great! It really gave me confidence in our 10k that is now less than 2 weeks away!

It was also my first run with my Garmin and I loooove it!

Paul is changing the brakes on my car right now and afterwards I think I'm going to take Elliott to the zoo! It's so nice out and we need to renew our membership anyway. She is finally at an age where she will really enjoy it! She loves looking at her animal flash cards and making all the animal sounds!

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

A shout out to Karen who ran her first 5k yesterday, Jen who is also doing a 5k today, and Katie who is running her first marathon today! You ladies are great!

Does The Zoo Count As Cross Training?

I was getting ready to go run with Kim this morning and I was getting Elliott's outfit ready (otherwise, who knows what Paul would put her in. Once I didn't put out clothes for her, and when I picked her up from her babysitter, she had on jeggings and an ugly Elmo shirt that was 2x too big for her...) and I went in to lay it out on her changing table and check on her and I woke her up. I tried to back out and close the door, but it was too late. I got her out of her crib and tried to go lay her with Paul, but she wasn't having that either. I finally left while she was still crying hysterically and I got a text from Kim canceling cause she is sick. I'm kind of glad, because I really hate leaving her crying like that. She had just calmed down when I came back in the room. Now she is sitting with me on the couch. She is so emotional lately and it stresses me out!

Yesterday I was having some pain in my... my... my groin? The inside of my thigh where my leg attaches to my pelvis. It started Monday night and it still was painful yesterday. I was scheduled to cross train yesterday, which means I usually would go to the Y and do my mobile fit workout (strength training and cardio). Well, yesterday morning we were taking the dogs out to potty, and it was super nice outside! I decided to take Elliott to the zoo. I pulled her around in the zoo in the wagon for about 3 hours, so I counted that as my cross training. That's cross training, right?

We have a zoo membership so we go pretty often. Or at least I thought we did when I was at my heaviest. I anticipated obstacles before we left. There is a restaurant in the zoo that sells all kinds of fried foods that we usually go to to have lunch.  I usually would've spent around $15 or more on hamburger, fries, soda, and a similar meal for Elliott. Then I would've eaten what she didn't eat because I hate to see food thrown away. Instead we ate lunch before we left and brought snacks and water with us. I remember going before and having to take many breaks to sit down because I would've been so exhausted. This time we took very few breaks. We had a good time. Here are a few of pictures from our day.

She was calling the flamingos ducks!

She is almost as big as the biggest penguin!

These statues are all over the zoo and she HATES them!

So, no run this morning and tonight we have our group run tonight. I also have my WW weigh in today! I hope I lost at least a pound!