Category Archives: Running

Dear God…

Daily Life!, Running, , , , ,

That’s how my morning run went this morning. Dear God….please don’t let it rain on Sunday. Dear God….please don’t let there be another mid-race cancellation. Dear God…please don’t let me die.

Seriously. On my 4 mile run this morning, I prayed the entire time about my marathon on Sunday. I’m not sure why it’s really giving me anxiety today! In between my prayers, I would try to visualize myself doing well during the race. I tried to visualize myself charging up the daunting hills with ease. And I tried to picture myself crossing the finish line in a super-awesome victory pose. All of which I did, but it didn’t make me feel any less stressed. So then I just continued to pray. By the time I made it home, I was feeling kinda better and kinda worse about it. Why am I freaking out?!

I know I’ll be fine once we get to St. Louis and everything starts to fall into place. But this week of taper madness is hitting me hard. Maybe it’s because my first race was a little traumatic and I’m not sure if I’m ready to face it again. But I do know that this race cannot be any worse than my first one. There is a 0% chance of precip with a high of 60 degrees on race day. There are no thunderstorms with dropping temps in sight, and for that I am thankful! No more thunder-sleet racing for me!

Define Bottle

So my boss saw this super awesome bottle on the show Shark Tank (do you watch it?), and decided to go online to order one for herself. She also got me one as a surprise gift! IMG_3658 IMG_3656I was skeptical at first because fruit floating in my water kinda freaks me out. I don’t even get the lemons at restaurants because I hate the seeds getting in my water. But this fancy bottle takes care of all of those problems!

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I’ve been experimenting with my Define Bottle this week with new fruits and veggies. Halo oranges, cucumber slices, and strawberries have made it into my bottle so far. My fave? The cucumbers. Now I just need to get some fresh mint to add with the cucumber and it will be amazing! And as an added bonus, I haven’t been craving my normal packet of Crystal Light addition in my water that I usually have every afternoon. ‘Clean’ drinking at it’s finest!

This Week…

So far, this week has consisted of Jazzercise mostly. And carbo-loading a little. Carbs come in some very yummy forms at this Eastery time of year!

IMG_3671 IMG_3677I haven’t been home much to pack and focus on the weekend ahead (maybe that’s why I’m stressed?). Tonight my packing for the marathon will start, and I’m getting my haircut!

IMG_3680My hair is out of control right now, and I’m thinking a good cut of 3-4 inches will make it look healthy again. My love my long locks but my split ends are yucky. Maybe I should get my haircut more often than once every 6 months?? 🙂

Then tomorrow will consist of only 1 Jazzercise class, followed by me frantically finishing my packing. Luckily the forecast is making it easy to pack: crop running tights, a tank top, and rain jacket (just in case!). Done!

Friday, Mac is getting his summer haircut followed by his annual shots and checkup. He’s going to have all this done while mommy is at work, so he may not be very happy with me when I go to pick him up during lunch. But I’m just praying that they say he is healthy like usual!  Then right after work, we’ll load up and head out to STL for this fun weekend. I’m thankful the race is on Sunday so we will have Saturday to hit the expo and rest before my main event!

I got an email from the Go! STL Marathon yesterday telling me that my bib number will be 919. There’s no live steam video, but if you see any photos, watch for me! 919! They also offer athlete tracking for free – exciting! So Nick, my mom, and Nick’s mom will all receive text messages as I hit the splits during the course. I’m hoping this helps Nick to find me better throughout the course to keep any confusion at bay. Little Rock was confusing for him to say the least, so this one will be smoother!

Well have a great day everyone. Think of me while I carbo-load and prepare for the Go! STL Marathon weekend!

Dark Morning & Marathon Prep

Daily Life!, Running, , , ,

Happy Thursday everyone! I hope your day is going well. It’s rather cloudy and dreary here in Springfield. I would have much preferred to stay in bed today than come to my office. Oh the joys of adulthood. 🙂

I woke up this morning thinking it would be raining so I would go to the gym instead of run outside. It wasn’t raining but the wind was blowing around 25 mph, so I decided the gym it would be! Side note – if you are a runner, you know how annoying it can be to run on a windy day. Running against a strong wind is one of my biggest pet peeves.

As I pulled out of garage to head to the gym, I noticed something was odd outside. It was oddly…. Dark. Like super dark. All of the street lights were off! What the heck?! It was creepy! So moral of the story – go with your gut feeling. Since I decided to go to the gym instead of run outside, I saved myself from having to run solo on some very dark streets! Now tomorrow morning they better have those babies back on for me, or the city will be getting a very angry call from me!

Marathon Prep

As of today, I’m 10 days out from the Go! STL marathon. I’m getting excited! And also nervous. But it’s a good thing. My nervous energy helps me get lots of prep work done! Last night I cleaned, did laundry, made dinner, and even had some couch time afterwards! It was glorious and gave me some down time to send some emails. My Jazzercise ladies are awesome to help me out with my classes when I go out of town. I just have to remember to ask them first! So I’m a little more stress free today as I got all my classes for next weekend taken care of. Whew!

Now I just have to worry about packing, getting mine and Mac’s haircut next week, traveling, carbo-loading, and the weather on race day! I’m thankful my Jazzer team makes things easier on me when I already have a lot on my mind. 🙂

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I’m ready to go make some more awesome memories like this one! Haha I love how optimistic I was at the beginning of the Little Rock Marathon. I feel like I learned a lot at the race that will help me get through this upcoming one.

1. Don’t panic. And just keep running. No matter what.
2. If something bad does happen, find a buddy. And stick with them until mile 25.2 when you can try to gun it to the end. 🙂
3. You’re going to be emotional, and that’s okay. The stress of 26.2 miles makes it acceptable to cry multiple times on race day.
4. Remember to have fun! It’s actually possible to enjoy yourself during a good portion of a full marathon.
5. And once again, DO NOT PANIC. Everything will be okay. But you must use your heart, mind, and legs to get yourself back to the finish line, your family, and your car. 🙂

I need to print this list and commit it to memory in case everything doesn’t run super smooth on race day. Something else I learned? Don’t drink too much coffee pre-race. And use the porta potties at the start line at least 2x before lining up. No more peeing at mile 2 for this girl!!

Well it’s going to be another busy night. I’m teaching 2 classes to help out an instructor that is traveling for work this week. Then I just have to make it through work tomorrow and 1 more class tomorrow night before Saturday is here! And my momma is coming to see me and do some shopping! It’s going to be a good weekend. I’m also going to squeeze in one last long run of 10 miles to help ease my mind before the week of tapering and carbo loading begins!

Have a great evening!>

Pitter Pat 10K

Running, , , ,

Hey there! Hope you’ve had a great weekend! It was a fun one around here.

Saturday morning started out with a split long run and Jazzercise! I woke up around 6 a.m. to get in the first part of my mileage for the day. I ran 9 miles as ‘easy’ as my legs would let me before I headed home to clean up and put on dry running clothes for the Pitter Pat 10K!

The race started at 10am, but I got there early to help Katie set up our Jazzercise booth in the expo area.

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Katie, myself, and Kim were ready to lead the warm up for all the runners! Once we were setup, we headed out to the courtyard to lead the runners in a couple songs pre-race. I have no pics because Katie’s husband was busy with their 1 year old son! But we had a couple runners that were brave and decided to dance with us. 🙂

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Adam (Katie’s hubs) and I were actually running, so we headed to the start line right after we finished the warm up. We took off shortly, and it was a great little race! The sun was shining. The temp was around 40, so I comfy the whole route. And I felt pretty good minus the long hill at mile 4!

I finished in right around 52 minutes (I haven’t checked my official time yet!), and I won’t first place in my age division!!!

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Woohoo!! I was pretty shocked to be honest. My average pace was around 8:18, and usually there’s at least one person in my age group that runs those crazy 6 minute miles. But that person must’ve stayed home on Saturday.

After the run, I headed back to the mini expo to help at our booth and have some snacks. They had quite the spread! Granola, fruit, yogurt, Krispy Kreme donuts, beer, bagels, and lettuce wraps. It was amazing!!

Anywho, the rest of the weekend was spent being lazy and eating after my 15 miles and race win on Saturday! Food was definitely my friend. Haha. Back on track tomorrow!

Have a great night everyone. I hope you have a wonderful week!!>