Got my First 5K under my Belt!

Well...it's official...I completed my very first 5K and lived to tell about it.  :)

One of my 409 ladies, Ali, flew down to Atlanta from Virginia for the weekend and agreed to run with me.  We got up nice and early and headed to the runner's area at around 7:30 so I could pick up my bib and race packet.  We met up with my friend and local running buddy, Sharon, and later, my old boss, Shannon, from Canada.

They had a DJ set up playing music for us as well as a photographer that was taking pictures for free!  Ali, Sharon, and I decided to partake in the fun.  (Excuse the poor photoshopping - this picture was too cute not to post) -

Yeah!

We made our way to the start line and waited for the official "go"!  There were over 1200 people running/walking

The sea of runners

Myself, Sharon, and Ali waiting for the race to start

And then we were off!  Shannon left us in her dust as she headed into the crowd, Ali and I started our jog and Sharon was behind us.  We ran out of the hospital parking lot (shouldn't the race end there?), up a road, and into the quarry.  We got lucky and ran on a dirt road all throughout the quarry so the impact did not tear my shins apart.  Running through was pretty neat - they had all the equipment, huge mounds of whatever it is that they use/get out of the quarry :)  It was a nice course.  I walked more than I would have liked, but it is what it is and I know where I need to improve.  Ali stayed with me the whole time even though I encouraged her to run ahead if she wanted to.  It was nice having someone there to chat with a little bit during the run.  I finished my first mile in 10:32!!  I was so surprised and impressed with myself!  My second and third miles both fell into the 12:00 range, but at least I know I'm capable of running faster!

When we got in sight of the finish line, Ali took off.  I maintained my slowish jog and smiled when I saw J crouched down snapping a picture of me.

I look like I'm power walking but I swear I was running!

The professional photographer was also at the finish line.  I saw him and gave him this -

Thumbs up!

And finally Shannon, who rocked out a time of 35 minutes, was right at the finish line and snagged a picture of me with my finish time -

First 5K in the books!

They had us walk up a small area, tear off our chip from the bib and then Shannon, Ali and I waited and cheered Sharon on as she crossed.  J came up and I forced him to take the sweaty kiss I had, then we headed up to get our t-shirts, water, and check out the festivities.  Thank goodness my shins were not killing me!!  I iced and massaged them the night before and they really felt great, although the Biofreeze one of the vendors was handing out after the race felt amazing on them.

Still smiling!

Later Saturday evening the stats were posted on active.com.  My official time was 39:12 - I finished 31/66 in my age category and 699/1207 overall.  Not too shabby!  Now that I've set the bar with my first 5K time, I've got to beat it, and being the competitive person that I am, I'm pretty confident I will.

I had a blast running my very first 5K and I cannot wait for my next one.  Sharon and I have signed up for The Freight Train 5K on May 20th.  They have a whole series that we would ideally like the finish.  Their last race of the series is a half marathon the week before the Princess half, so we may opt to do the 5K that weekend instead.

Ali and I rewarded ourselves after the race with a tasty treat -

Mmmmmm

We shared the Maple Bacon doughnut and grabbed J a coffee buttercream doughnut at Dutch Monkey Doughnuts.  If you're ever in the area I highly recommend checking them out!

A huge congrats to two of my other 409 ladies who also ran 5K's on Saturday morning!  Awesome job, Julie and Amanda!!

Big thanks to Shannon, Sharon, and Ali for running the race - it was a ton of fun!  Also a thank you to J's company, Hansgrohe, for covering my entry fee.

3 Years and Counting

Taking a break from my normal post on running to give a shout out to my wonderful husband on our anniversary!  It's been 3 years since we said "I Do" in front of family and friends on the beautiful sand of Pensacola Beach, FL.  He's currently in Chicago for KBIS (the Kitchen & Bath Industry Show) so I'll be celebrating with a friend at dinner tonight.  Here's a few pictures of us on our wedding day -

When he first saw me

Dad made me laugh the whole way down

Ready to do this, honey?

Such a Daddy's Girl

Sweet picture of my parents

You may kiss the bride!

Fun pics on the beach

My two younger brothers

Our first dance - Jason Mraz & Colbie Caillet "Lucky"

Icing right up my nose

Dancing with my brothers

My favorite wedding picture

 Sorry for the photo overload, but I wanted to share some of my favorites from our wedding day.  Photos courtesy of our wedding photographers, David and Jessica Marshall of David & Jess Wedding Photography.

Thanks for a wonderful 3 years of marriage honey.  I look forward to celebrating many more with you.  You're the icing to my cupcake and the macaroni to my cheese :)

And to all my beautiful 409 ladies - Happy Anniversary month to you all. 

Pushing Through the Pain

Today I decided to skip using my C25K app and instead try out a new Interval Timer app that I downloaded.  I hope to use this during my 5K on Saturday and wanted to give it a shot.  I programed it to run 5:1 intervals.  With the C25K it always has you start off with a 5 minute walk, but today I just stretched and jumped right into the running part.  I think I may need to walk at least the first one or two minutes just to warm myself up.

As my run went on I started to feel that dreaded pain almost all runners experience at least once - SHIN SPLINTS.  OMG it was soooooo painful to run.  I had to stop for 30 seconds or a minute here and there during my run, but for the most part I kept going.  I finished 3.08 miles in just under 38 minutes.  I was almost in tears when I got home...I think I'm going to rest my legs and not do another run until my race this weekend.  If anyone has any tips to help soothe my ailing shins please leave a comment!!

Speaking of my first race, I found a GREAT article posted on the C25K Facebook page called 9 Race-Day Tips for Your First 5K courtesy of Active.com.  It's got some great information so I definitely urge you to check it out if you're training for your first 5K.

I am headed to bed.  Along with my shins screaming at me, my stomach isn't feeling quite right either.  Hoping some sleep will make it better.

I'll leave you with this, as it's something that I have to keep reminding myself.

Until next time,

Jen

Almost "Blown" Away

So the hubs and I spent the weekend celebrating our 3rd anniversary in the place where we got married - Pensacola Beach, FL - we had a great time.  We were able to get some beach time in, and I believe this may be the first time we've come back without sunburns!  Friday was a pretty laid back day - we did the beach, then I took a nap, we showered and met some friends for dinner at The Grand Marlin (phenomenal restaurant) then we went for drinks at a local hot spot that was PERFECT for people watching.  I took some pictures but I'll spare you - let's just say it was a 50+ crowd, many of whom needed to get a room.

Saturday morning we woke up to some very dreary weather.  We headed out to breakfast, grabbed some snacks for the hotel room, and went back to just relax.  We know the General Manager of the hotel very well so I went down and chatted with her and showed her pictures of our house and Guinness (if you're in the Pensacola Beach area I highly recommend the Holiday Inn Express Pensacola Beach - great hotel, great staff, and all the rooms face the ocean).

Remember me talking about my 409ers?  Well one of them (we'll call her K) lives in Fort Walton Beach and she and her parents were hosting a spring beer tasting Saturday night, so J and I drove over and spent some time with her friends and family.  We got to meet her adorable daughter as well as her husband.  We tasted lots of yummy beer and some that were not so yummy.  It was a great way to spend a rainy Saturday evening.

Sunday morning I ALMOST didn't get up for my run - my throat was hurting and I couldn't breathe out of one nostril, but J convinced me to stick with it so I went for it.  It was WINDY!!! (hence the title of the blog post) At first I got a little chilly and then as I ran I warmed up a bit.  I had mapped out my route before leaving home so I knew how far I was going, and the run was pretty good!  I went a little over 3 miles in until 40 minutes.  I'm still kind of stuck on W5D2 of C25K but I had much less walking today.  I may try it one more time tomorrow and see how I do.

On the beach after my run

 J met me in the lobby for breakfast, where we saw dolphins out in the ocean :) We took a quick walk on the beach before we headed back up to our room, packed, and headed home.  We also saw some manta rays, and the Blue Angels flew by our hotel.  We had a great time and will be back next year for our anniversary.

So my first 5K is in less than a week!!! 

The sign alerting motorists of the run

I'm a little nervous about it, and my goal is to finish in under 45 minutes, so hopefully I can still stick with that.  I downloaded an interval timer app onto my phone to help me with my run/walk method so we shall see!

Until next time,

Jen

8 minutes never seemed so long...

Last night I flew down to Pensacola to meet J for our annual anniversary trip. We got married here in 2009 and come back each year to celebrate. He coordinated it with a work trip and drove down, so I flew down and will drive back with him on Sunday. Our actual anniversary isn't until next Wednesday, but he'll be out of town and we have a friend coming into town next weekend. I was determined to keep up my running even though I'm on vacation, so after hitting snooze a couple of times I got up, got ready, and started my run. Today was Week 5, Day 2 of C25K. I had mapped out my run yesterday so I knew what I was going to do and wouldn't be running in areas I wasn't familiar with. After a 5 minute warm up I was to run 8 minutes straight...I was soooo not prepared to do this! The first interval I think I only walked once in the 8 minutes and made up for it during the walking interval. During the second 8 minute run interval I walked a little more (only about 2 minutes total) and again made up for it when I was supposed to walk. I'm not sure if it had to do with the weather (it was 70 degrees at 8 a.m.) or running in circles around the block, or maybe I just wasn't ready to move on...but I'm proud of the fact that I got myself out of bed and did my run. I will probably repeat this day on Sunday though. As soon as I can get J moving, we're going to grab some beignets at a local place (where we had our wedding reception), grab some drinks and snacks at the grocery store, and head over to the beach to catch some rays. Hope everyone has a fantastic weekend! Until next time, Jen

Running on Mother Nature's time....

Bleh.  After getting only 5 hours of sleep Monday night, I was DRAGGING by the end of the workday and really didn't want to run.  But...skipping a day wasn't going to help me improve (and the forecast calls for rain for most of the day Wednesday), so as soon as I got home, I quickly changed clothes, took the pup out, and started my run.

Remember me talking about my 409 ladies?  Well...we decided that we are going to do a "virtual marathon" in a month.  We are recording our runs/walks and in a month, we should all have done a marathon.  Wednesday is the official first day, but some of us started a day early.

I decided to forego the C25K training today and just see what my time would be if I ran a 5K tomorrow.  I chose to run up into the neighborhood next door, then back down to my neighborhood.  As I got about halfway through my run, I heard a clap of thunder.  Great...I'm gonna have to cut my run short and have my neighbor come pick me up, I thought to myself as I was running.  I kept pushing through and made it back into my neighborhood.  At least if the rain comes it will motivate me to run faster and get home!  I pushed on and by the time I started the last leg of my run, the rain started to come down - just a little drizzle, which I could handle.

I made it home and no more than 5 minutes after I walked in the door, the bottom dropped out of the clouds and it began to pour.  I felt good about pushing myself to run the distance of a 5K.  I was able to finish it in just under 39 minutes...not too bad! 

Today is an off day, and I have a lot to do - work my 8 hours, run to get G some more dog food, home for a few, then off to Taco Mac to say farewell to a coworker that's leaving.  Then back home, do some laundry, and pack a few last minute things...I'm headed to meet J at the beach tomorrow night for the weekend! 

Happy running guys!

Until next time,

Jen

Sunday Runday :)

Sharon and I were supposed to meet up and run at the park at 8 a.m. yesterday morning, but she's on a new diet and wasn't feeling the energy, so we didn't do our weekend run together.  I must admit, it was nice to sleep in and lay in bed with my boys.

Yesterday was filled with laundry and packing, but I REALLY wanted to get a run in since I hadn't run since Wednesday and I didn't want all my hard work to go to waste.  So I laced up, told J I would see him soon, and hit the pavement.

Today was Week 5, Day 1, of the C25K program, and I felt pretty good through the whole run!  I decided that since I felt so good, I wanted to keep going a bit even after my training was done, so I ran/walked down to the end of our street and back up to the house.  I had gone 2.96 miles in 36 minutes, so I was pretty pleased with myself!

Tonight is an off day from running, so since J will be out of town, I plan to go home and relax with the pup.  For now, I leave you with this thought -

Until next time,

Jen