Happy Monday! I hope you had a great weekend. The weather was amazing here in SGF, so I definitely took advantage! Most of my time was spent walking Mac, teaching Jazzercise, and running the typical weekend errands. But, the highlight of my weekend was the Glow Run 5K on Saturday night!

Glow Run 5K

Saturday was a bit of a whirlwind! I began bright and early with a chilly walk with Mac and then was onto teaching Jazzercise by 8 AM. So by the time I was getting ready for the Glow Run around 6:30 PM, I was not feeling super energetic! But I put on my best smile, pulled on some stretchy pants, and was out the door by 7 PM.

The race started at 8 PM, and I wanted to get there early to meet up with my girlfriend Carley to get all our glow gear on and do a bit of a warm up. We were provided the bright t-shirts and several neon glow bracelets and necklaces with our race registration. So when we met up, we quickly got our glow gear on and headed up to the warm-up area!

Carley was extra glowy with her awesome shorts and shoes! Some local Zumba instructors were leading a warm up with a fun DJ, so I kinda danced around while Carley chatted with some other friends that were running as well.

Yay for lots of glow runners! We couldn’t have asked for better weather either. It was right around 68 degrees, and the sun was setting as we were lining up in the chutes.

As we lined up, the energy was awesome! Loud music was pumping and glowing neon lights and shirts lined the street for blocks on end. We were so excited! It was Carley’s first race ever, so these last moments were filled with words of advice and positive reinforcement. The nerves were setting in!

We took off fairly slowly because of the crowds (obviously), and I thought we would pull away from them and have a little breathing room. But that didn’t really happen. We were dodging slower runners the entire time! But it was still a great time, and Carley and I kept each other pumped up the whole way.

The only major downside of the race? The 8 AM start time. Eating dinner was an issue! We both decided to eat an early dinner (between 4:30-5), and the food was fighting us the entire time! I had Mexican with Nick (stupid of me, I know!) and Carley had some light sushi with her boyfriend. We thought 3 hours would be sufficient digestion time. But we were VERY wrong! I didn’t feel nauseous, but every once in a while I could feel my dinner coming back up. We made it without having to pull over to puke, but it was a struggle.

Despite the angry tummies, we ran the entire way (she was determined to not walk!) and finished in around 30 minutes. And with all the crowds, families, and strollers, I feel like this was pretty good!

Right as we crossed the finish line, they were handing out water and some hefty medals! I was so excited to get a medal. It was my first one! My other races didn’t provide any type of award. Sad day. But now I have an awesome lime green/neon medal to display! I can’t wait to add to my new medal collection in the future.

We were slightly proud! The Glow Run was sooo much fun. It’s something I definitely recommend if they ever have a run near your town. It was well organized and very accommodating to all types of athletes and age groups.

After the race, we parted ways, and I headed home to shower and recup. I didn’t realize how rough running could be on your body when you’ve had too much to eat. By the time I showered and settled on the couch to relax before bed, my stomach was completely bloated and I was nauseous bigtime. I stayed up and dipped water and snacked on half an apple before heading to bed. I woke up several times through the night thinking I needed to puke, but thankfully it never happened!

Lesson learned: Do NOT, under ANY circumstances, eat a full Mexican dinner within a few hours of a race!

I spent Sunday recuperating since my stomach was still not back to 100%. I felt ok, and even taught my normal Jazzercise class, but had a bloated and tender belly the whole day. My whole day basically looked like this…

Carbs. And butter. And more carbs. I was in full running recup mode! 🙂 And it was delicious.

Hope your Monday is off to a great start! I’m feeling back to my normal self thankfully. I’ll catch you all later! (I have a super quick and simple meatloaf recipe coming for ya!)