Welcome 2014, starting the year the right way!

Happy New Year everyone.  I hope you all had a fun, safe New Year's eve!  My husband and I had a great night having dinner with some friends and playing games with them and their two teenagers.  we all knew we were getting old when at 11pm, we decided to call it a night.  My hubby and I had been up since 5am as we both worked and it was just too long a day.  It was not fun to realize that not only are we getting old, but we were feeling old as well!

I don't like to make resolutions as to me they are never realistic or defined. ie.  I want to lose weight,  want to exercise more, etc. They are good for some people but I need to be able to set parameters around it so that's what I have done instead.   For my birthday in December my husband got me a medal holder to hold the medals I have been earning from my races, as well as a gift certificate to a local run store.

It reads "Pain is Temporary, Pride is Forever"

This past week, I redeemed that gift certificate for a running clinic.  I have joined the learning to run 10K clinic. 

That's right a 10K clinic!  Besides continuing on my weight loss journey in 2014.  I also set the goal to participate in 14 races. I know crazy!  But that's the goal I have set and barring any injuries I should be able to do it.  So why a 10K Clinic and not a 5k?  I have signed up to do the BMO 8K in May.  With that goal in mind the man at the running store suggested I do the 10K so that I would be completely ready to do it.  Training for a 5k is different then going out there and doing 8K so that's the reasoning behind it.  Whether or not I actually sign up for any 10k races is yet to be seen :)

For the 1st time in my life, January 1st dawned and I was up bright and early and joined about 300 other crazy people for a 5k race in a local park.  It was a cold and foggy morning when I first arrived but before long the fog was rolling out and it was just cold and damp.  But it was a beautiful run!

Motivational sign on the path :D

                                          

Crossing onto the docs that go over the water connecting the paths.

Not quite a full 5K but I'll take it!

I  am so excited to see what 2014 has in store for me.

Santa Shuffle recap.

It was my birthday this weekend and when my husband asked me if I would like to have a party I told him no.  I would rather have him and as many friends as possible join me for the Santa Shuffle 5K and then meet up for brunch afterwards.  I sent out a facebook message to all of my friends in the area and started an event page.  There were a few people who did sign up for the Santa Shuffle, but in different cities.  It turned out to be just me and my hubby for the race although there were 10 of us for brunch.

We had a cold front move down into the Lower Mainland/Fraser Valley area during the week and when we got up on Saturday morning it was -9 before the windchill.  Considering we had winds of about 20kph I'm sure the wind chill was significant.  We did talk about perhaps not doing it, but this would be the first race that I've signed up for that I didn't complete, and I just didn't want that.  I bundled up as best as I could, leggings under the pants, long sleeve shirt under a short sleeve shirt with the warmest jacket I own, a toque and mittens and we were off.

I knew as soon as we got out of the car that I was under dressed.  I should have brought a scarf as well and maybe worn another pair of pants!  It was so cold that by the time we walked across the parking lot to the race start line, my toes were numb and my legs were stinging from the cold.  We did a lot of bouncing up and down in an attempt to keep warm, the speeches at the beginning were kept as short as possible and it was time to start the 5K Santa Shuffle and the 1K Elf Walk.    I knew while doing the warm up, there was no way that I would be running this event.  It was going to be walking only.  I was already so cold it wasn't funny and by the time we were ready to start my feet and legs up to my knees were completely numb and stinging from the cold. (I guess that's what happens when you wear summer weight pants as that's all that you have)

I guided my husband towards the back of the pack as I didn't want to be responsible for slowing down any of the runners and we started off.  As we were walking we were talking about getting to the restaurant to get a table for our group as the restaurant doesn't take reservations.  Although the race was scheduled to start at 10am, it was 1020 by the time we started.  It normally takes me an hour to walk 5k, add in how cold we were and we knew that there was no way we would be able to walk the whole 5K, and be across town to meet up with everyone by 1130.

When we came to the split for the 1K to head to the finish line and the 5K to head to the road, we agreed that we would just do the 1K this year for times sake.  I was delighted to find out that even though we did the 1K we still got a medal!

I was so cold, this was the biggest smile I could manage.

 Although I was disappointed to not do the actual 5K distance, it just wasn't feasible, and we know for next year we will make it a 1230 lunch instead of an 1130 brunch.  That way we can do the 5K, without being worried about the time.  I will also be investing in some cold weather gear for next year so I don't freeze my butt off again!

Boundary Bay 5K

The Boundary Bay 5K was on Sunday.  I was so relieved when the alarm went off at 545am, to silence.  Yes silence.  No rain beating on the roof as it had been when I went to bed on Saturday night.  I had already packed my post run bag with pants, shirt, socks and shoes.  Just in case it was raining I thought I should have dry clothes for the drive home.  Thankfully, I didn't need them.  It was still dark when my awesome husband and I got in the car at 620 to head out to Boundary Bay.

My wonderful husband picked up my run kit for me on Friday when he was on his way home from work, it took an hour to get the run kit but it was worth not having to drive in any earlier!

Run kit ready to go Sunday Morning.

We were aiming to be at the run site for 730, an hour before start time as I needed to exchange the shirt that I received.  Somehow they had me down for a much smaller size than I wear.  I love dealing with Try Events, they are awesome and so easy to deal with.   We were really surprised when we arrived to see how full the parking lot already was with more than 45 minutes to go before the start of the race.  I had to wait about 20 minutes on site to change my shirt as there were a lot of event day registrants and people picking up their kits.  I was so lucky to get the last shirt in the size that I needed.  When looking at it I thought it may actually fit, so I went into the washrooms and put it on.  Low and behold, a tech shirt actually fit me!  Yeah!

A quick trip back to the car to grab my stuff and I was ready to head to the start line.  There were a lot of people there and I have to admit I was a little nervous as I know that I'm slow and having so many true athlete's around me, really intimidated me for a few minutes.  I had a lot of those "what do you think you're doing here" thoughts going through my head but I quickly overcame my self doubt.   It helped to have my husband there for support,  before it was time to get ready to go.

Wearing my Boundary Bay shirt, ready for warm up.

At the start line, a lot of runners at this race!

After warm up it was time to get in line to start the race, the race was full marathon, half marathon, relay marathon, 10K and 5K.  They asked us 5ker's to stay towards the back of the line to let the others get away.   After the start gun it probably took about 2 minutes to get to the actual start line but before long we were off.  It was a gorgeous day and the trail is along the bay, the tide was out but there were still some beautiful views to be seen.

Yep, just me on the trail, with a few people walking behind me.

As I started out at the back of the pack, and I always walk the first five minutes or so it wasn't long before there were just a handful of us on any section of trail at a given time.  There were a couple of ladies in front of me that I managed to pass but I was still at the back of the pack, which is fine with me.  I'm not running the full races yet, although I figure I ran about 1/4 of the way.

Heading back, still the only one on the trail with a couple of people behind me.

It was great to see quite a few people in the community out cheering people on, especially when we reached the end of the trail and were on the road for a little bit.   The energy of the crowd as you got closer to the finish line was great and as some of the 10k runners were passing me towards the finish line there was a lot of energy to carry you through.  I crossed the finish line and saw my wonderful husband standing along the finishers chute cheering me on, it always gives me such a sense of accomplishment to hear my name as I cross the finish line.  My Garmin Finish time was 54:29,  my chip time was 54:16  a new Personal best for me  I'm going to work on getting that time down some more as I really do want to do the BMO 8K in May.

Love my finishers medal for this race!

Next up is the Santa Shuffle on December 7th.  I'm working on getting some friends to join me, so it should be fun for everyone!

Being out of town...not making the best decisions

I haven't been feeling well this week and I'm a little worried about my weigh in tomorrow.  I haven't had a lot of activity as I've been fighting a head cold and I'm simply exhausted.  I took the dog for a walk this morning, just around the big block and it seemed to take me forever, my pace was 15:30 a kilometer and I was so hot, sweaty  and exhausted when I got home I just wanted to lay down. 

This is not good after being out of town last weekend.  My husband and I went up to Kamloops on Saturday to volunteer at the CBCF booth at the Run for the Cure.  We picked up the rental car around 11am and hit the road after dropping Angus off at my parents.  Shortly after hitting the road we were hungry so we stopped for lunch, McDonalds a wrap, some fruit that I picked up and rice cakes.  Not too bad, but I knew that we would be having dinner with friends and I wouldn't have any control over the points.  We ended up having Lasagna with Caesar salad and garlic toast.  Although I was conscious of my points, I was still over for the day.

I had a rough night sleeping, the hotel room next to us seemed to be having a party going on and off until almost 3am, I had to be up at 630 to be ready to head to the Run site.  I wasn't feeling good, my throat was sore and I had a stuffy nose so I didn't eat breakfast before heading to the field.

It was a true pleasure to be at the Kamloops Run site on Run day.  The Run committee and directors did an excellent job of putting the run together, everything seemed to run so smoothly for them!  It was great.  When we wrapped up around noon, I was starving so we went to Tim Horton's for lunch.  I chose a paninni and soup, the WW app on Gary's phone wasn't loading so I didn't know how many points I was spending on lunch.  By the time we drove home, dropped off the rental car and picked up Angus it was past dinner time.  We decided to cheat and order in dinner.  Big mistake for me.  I was hungry when I ordered so instead of just ordering my personalized pizza, I also ordered the restaurants marinara sauce and bread sticks.    Yep...not the best decision considering I had very little activity over the weekend.  I spent all of my daily points and half of my weekly points just on my meals on Saturday and Sunday. 

I woke up feeling sick on Monday and I just haven't had any energy to do anything more than take Angus around the block.  No long distance walks, no intervals, no nothing.  Which is so not good for me.  I have  the Rubber Ducky 5K in 8 days and the way I'm feeling I don't know if I'll be able to walk the full 5K let alone run it, which is what I had originally planned!

Needless to say, I used a lot of weekly points this week, didn't get in hardly any activity, I've only earned 12 activity points, I usually earn between 50-70 so I don't have much hope for weigh in tomorrow morning.  Part of me wants to just skip weigh in, call it a draw and work really hard next week but I'm not going to do that.  I'm going to suck it up and go to weigh in and let the chips lay where they fall.