Countdown to the Philadelphia Half

The Philadelphia Rock n Roll Half Marathon is 47 days away, and I am starting to get very excited!

This will be the first of 3 Half Marathons I will be running this Fall in order to earn my Half Fanatic Status. The lowest level of that status is earned by running 3 Halfs in 90 days. I will actually earn it in around 65 days! My second Half will be in Staten Island on October 7th and the 3rd will be the Hershey Half on October 21st! So excited!

To get everyone excited about the Half, pictures are being posted of the course, one at a time. Here are the first 6 miles:

We start with City Hall in view:

Mile 1, passing by City Hall:

Then we pass Independence Mall at Mile 2:

Mile 3 is the National Constitution Center, a great place to visit:

Mile 4, almost 1/3 done, is LOVE Park, which is very beauiful:

Mile 5, the first place on the route that I have not visited, is the Museum of Art, with the "Rocky" statue out front. How cool is that?

Mile 6, almost halfway there, we run through Fairmount Park, and pass the Lemon Hill Mansion. I have never been here, either, and I am looking forward to this mile:

I cannot wait to see what Mile 7 will be, I love checking their website every day for the updates! Once they have posted them all, they will be sharing a picture of the medal! BLING!

Also coming up for me,  as part of my training, are the Damon Runyon 5K in Yankee Stadium, and the Color Run in NYC. Runyon gives you bling, which is awesome, considering how many stairs you take during that 5k!

I also start a few Virtual Runs this week, the Pacific Northwest Half Marathon, which can be done in several runs, and Run With Jess's Olympics

Track Star 2012

which has you doing different distances each day, getting longer each day, totalling a Marathon by the time you are done with the week! SO COOL! She will be emailing us a score card, which I will post daily!

What races are you doing in August?

MudManX

Today I conquered MudManX, a 5 mile mud run with some seriously crazy obstacles! I will be including some photos, but they are stock photos, not from today's event. When I get my photos, I will post them! At the end of this blog, I will post the 2 I got from Rugged Maniac two weeks ago!

I went to this one alone again, but I was lucky enough to meet Katie, a 21 year old college student from Howell, who was also alone. She said she would tag along and I was so glas for the company! She was a totally awesome girl, and I was proud that I could keep up with somone almost 20 years younger than me! Sometimes, she was keeping up with me!
We were part of the 10:30 heat, and it was very hot and muggy when we started off. There were clouds moving in, and we were hoping for some rain! We started off at a jog but ended up walking before long. Some of the obctacles were very easy, there was a lot of logs, some hills, a hay hill with some stanky manure smelling water in between, some watery mud pits.... the first time we got held up was at an ice cave. The floor was all covered in ice blocks and mud, and the 'cave' was black tarps.

There was also a crazy 'house' filled with smoke you had to crawl up 3 levels and then climb down a rope ladder. Crazy with all the smoke! Also difficult was the first of 3 boats we had to climb over. The second two were easier, but that first one kicked my butt!
There were several walls, some palette walls, some rope walls:

There was a rope swing, that was deceptively hard. I ended up landing in the pool, just before the ledge!

They had rings to swing across on, some girls had men with them to sort of carry them across, but I was alone so i ended up falling halfway across! I need to work on my upper body strength!

Somewhere around mile 3, the group ahead of us kicked a hornet's nest and we all got stung! The worst pain ever, to be followed immediately by no less than 20 hurdles to leap over. I kinda scrambled over them, lol, and every one scraped against my sting mark. OUCH!
There was no fire to jump over, which kinda bummed me out, but we did have a run in with electric shocks! First we had to go run through one of those tire setups, we walked through mostly so we wouldn't turn an ankle, and there was a high pressure water sprayer that kept hitting us. After that you dropped to your knees and crawled through the muckiest, thickest mud pit, under some netting.

My friend Katie lost her shoe, but manged to dig it out and get it back on. I never put my feet down all the way so I managed to keep mine. This, of course, was right before the water station, so I was covered in mud when I grapped my cup and gulped it down. Then we ran up to the wall. This was the first of two walls that we never made it over. They were just too high. We had to do 10 push ups if we didn't make it, a small price to pay, and a lot of people were doing push ups, lol.

Right after the wall from hell was the electric shocks. You had to crawl through water, under a platform, and when you came out there was calf deep water and all of these little strands of wire hanging all around. It reminded me of the jelly fish in Finding Nemo. I was fully going to slither through the water, and try to avoid them, but the Army guy started yelling to suck it up and just run. I saw an opening and ran through but still got zapped twice. Katie managed to get through with no zaps!

There was another wall, and some tunnels, barricades, and other stuff to navigate. Less than half a mile to go now, and the thunder had started. We climbed over another net wall, and there it was. The finish! We had to climb over a huge metal shed, which we did with help from some really nice guys. And then there was the ramp. Sounds easy right? The line was huge and people kept sliding back down and having to try three and four times.

It started raining and by the time it was my turn it was pouring. Katie got up with the help of some random guy, so after 2 failed attempts, I asked a random guy for help. Good thing, I barely grabbed the rope when he shoved, giving me the momentum I needed. It was really hard to pull myself up, but everyone was cheering and Katie and the Army guy pulled me up. So great to finally be at the top! We slid down the slide into the pool (should have held my nose, ugh!) We got our pic taken, hopefully it comes out nice!

And then we were done! So great to cross that finish line, pouring rain, thunder, and all! We grabbed our tee and sweatband and headed toward to shuttles.

I am so glad that I tried, and succeeded, at MudManX. It really is an amazing feeling to cross that finish line. As I type, the rope burns on my hands are starting to stiffen, and that sting really...well...stings! I cannot wait for the pics to come out! I do know that it took me 1:50 to finish, although we waited for at least 15-20 minutes total at a few obstacles, so it probably took me about 90 minutes to actually finish. Next year, maybe I can beat that time!

As promised, the pics from Rugged Maniac:

Crawling under the barbed wire

UGH can't get it to flip. That is the finish line, so tired, giving five to some random guy!

Virtual Races

Have you ever heard of a Virtual Race? Up until June, I never had either! I stumbled on an amazing group of ladies and gents, Bling Whores, and they host all kinds of fun Virtual Races for charity. How does it work?

• You go to the website or event page for their race.
• You donate to their charity, often via paypal, but not exclusively
• On or near the date they chose, you run their race, whether it is 5K, 10K, Half Marathon, etc
• They mail you bling!! Some order it in advance, some order after therace, so it may take a few weeks.
• DONE!

The best parts of a virtual race? You have helped an amazing cause
(Cancer research, diabetes, autism research, etc), you get to run the race on your time, instead of the time chosen by a race director, no driving to some far off location, and bling!bling!bling!

Another great place to find Virtual Races is this great facebook group, Virtual Runs! Check out the events tab at the top!
Some upcoming events to check out:
Mine is called Barking Mad About Breast Cancer 10K
This Fall I am also hosting  Barking Mad Turkey Trot 5 Miler
Run Find Your Happy Pace is a great facebook page for runners, and she will be co-hosting 2 races with seriously cute names very soon!
LADYBUG Love Run has multiple distances and includes bling for your pup! It also benefits a great charity for dog lovers!

There are so many more, I don't even know where to start! Check out some of those great groups and get *your* bling!

This is the Barking Mad About Breast Cancer bling, just one example. Check out the Bling Whores and Virtual Runs pages for lots more events, most with pictures of the bling!

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Pint for a Pint

On Monday, I had an appointment to donate blood outside our local Ice Cream store, Hoffman's. Donate a pint, get a pint of ice cream. Everybody wins, right? WOOT!
I arrive a little early, and there are a few people ahead of me, but since I have an appointment, I get to skip ahead. They are still a little behind, so I wait a few minutes, giving me ample time to think about how much i hate needles and the sight of blood, and needles, and blood, and blood. Did I mention the blood? :::shiver:::: But it is for a good cause and I am O+, which they just *love*.
So now it is my turn, and Manny (his tag says Manny, Person in Charge...I want a tag like that!!) calls me in.He asks where I went out of the country (Bahamas). Where in the Bahamas? (Nassau)
So far so good! 
 He checks my ID, and sticks a little wisp of minty paper in my mouth to check my temp. No lie, it tasted like those minty toothpicks, awesome! And it takes your temp? Magic! LOVING it so far!
Then he pulls out the little pokey thing and with a gleam in his eye, says "You know what comes next?"
With the little paper thingie still in my mouth, I make a jabbing motion, and he laughs and says "that's right. All you crazy people make appointments to come here and I get to poke you in the finger"
Oh yeah, Manny has a lovely almost Jamaican like accent. LOVING him so far! Picture the shrunken head on the Night Bus in Harry Potter, just not quite as thick of an accent. AWESOME.
So he is laughing and poking my finger, and taking my blood to test it. He sticks the tester in the machine and pulls the strip out of my mouth and I tell him "Manny, I think you like being the person in charge just a little too much".
This of course amuses him to no end, and he is laughing and laughing...and then the machine beeps.
"oh nooo" he says, "your iron, it is too low. It needs to be 38 but it is 37. I cannot take your blood".

I.was.devastated. I really wanted to give, and I joked and ,said can we try again? Can we lie on the form?
Manny says "noooo, you will pass out. And after that Person in Charge remark I was gonna march you in there and take your blood myself."
I offered to give back my coupon but he said I could keep it, for being cute and amusing him. He even shook my hand and thanked me for making his day. So cute!
I went in and picked out some ice cream for my kids:

Cool, huh? It is aclled Cookie Monster. I don't even know if it is vanilla, I just loved the color! I give the girl my coupon and she says:
"Oh, he gave you two, he must really have liked you! (I was telling her the story). You can get more!"
I felt bad enough about taking the first pint, so I told her to keep it. She was thrilled, lol. Everybody is happy.
Except me. I wanted to give blood so badly! Maybe next time!

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Useable Bling!

Everybody LOVES Bling, right? That bright, shiny medal they give you after some races, the occasional trophy, I even got a red rose once. (That really made my day, lol)
Last year I found a use for the other bling: the t-shirts. Tech shirts are not really good for this, but the cotton ones that you wear a few times and then sigh every time you cannot shut your dresser drawer. I made them into a blanket. The pic below is unfinished, but I back them with a full-sized sheet and use lovely satiny trim to finish them off. No padding needed, they are toasty warm all by themselves!

Every time you curl up with it, you will be reminded of all the races you finished, the sweat and the tears and the joy of crossing that finish line!
Here is my first quilt, finished with pink satin trim. I sewed every other square to the backing instead of using corner buttons like I did below. I also used sweatshirty material that was crazy hard to work with, lol.

I recently made one for a friend, using her collection of  (mostly) Hard Rock Tees:

This is also unfinished, I used buttons in every corner to stop the sheet and the quilt front from sliding around. There are lots of sites online that sell kits, or charge you (usually a *lot*) to make them for you. I sew mine by hand (I have a sewing machine, I just hate using it!!) so it takes awhile but it is so worth it in the end!
I also saw somewhere that you can make tote bags out of your race bibs, but I put mine in an 8x8 scrapbook along with pics from the race. I love flipping through them. My fave bibs are the muddy crusty ones from mud runs I have done. What a story they tell you!!

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What have you done with your race bling?

Week 3 of Training...check!

I just finished week 3 of training for the Disney Marathon! So far, traning has been very easy, all 3 milers, but next week it moves up to 5 miles as my long run. I have run that distance many times, so I am not worried! I am training to finish, not to finish well, so I am right on track. Today I added in some walking, to make it as real as possible, and my time for the 3 miles was 35:20 with an average of  11:46 per mile. I remember when i was running my fastest and was thrilled with a 13 minute mile. Ahhhhh those were the days!
I was able to mark on X on the last day of week 3 today, with no missed runs. Woot!

This week coming up i have Summer Series, week 3, and MudManX: 5 miles of mud, water, and obstacles. SO excited about that! I have also ordered the pics from Rugged Maniac. They are *not* pretty, but I will share them when they arrive! I only ordered 2, it was too expensive to order more, but I will scan and post when I have them!
I still have 3 mix-ins in my Pounds Lost cup, woohoo, and will hopefully be posting my 5 pound update soon!
Remember, if you liked my blog today, please vote by clicking on the button at the top right. It says Picket Fence above it. I will be adding  a giveaway soon, so keep checking back!

My cool new running decal!

I previously mentioned my awesome new running decals from www.runnerdecals.com and I finally put the one on my car! I have my cool new weight loss cups, some cute runner girls on my laptop and some flowers that still have to find a home. I might one near my runner girl for every Half I finish.
Anyway, here is a pic of my new car decal:

Cute, right?
Now we are finaly off to the Jazz Fest. So far I have done yoga, walked around the Cape May Zoo for over an hour, and now we will bike to the Fest and back. A good day for exercise, and my eating has been amazing! we brought lunch to the zoo so that we could eat well. A great day all around!

Yoga on the Beach

Today was a beautiful morning for yoga on the beach! The rains brought in a nice cool breeze and the temps are perfect! Waves crashing, birds singing, breeze blowing. Very chill and perfect!

I even rode my bicycle there and back, a total of 2 miles, and the neighborhood was very quiet and calm, almost unheard of in this part of Jersey, so close to the shore! I loved the class today, as always, loved the flow and the stretching, which I never seem to get enough of!
Today is Jazz Fest here in town, so we will also be biking there, and checking it out. This is the first year, so we are curious. Plus, it's Jazz! We love Jazz music, although we rarely get a chance to hear it live, which is truly the best way to hear it!
The scale is moving back in the right direction! I had to remove a mix-in yesterday from the pounds lost, but today i got to put 2 into it! Woot! 3 pounds down, 24.2 to go, lol.
Happy Saturday to all, what will you be doing today?

Summer Series, week 2

Today was week 2 of the JSRC Summer Series, 5 weeks of Thursday night 5Ks. Last week was rough, and this week wasn't much better! The weather was nicer, a little cooler and there was a nice breeze. I am still getting used to hills, though. My first mile was amazing, but each subsequent mile slowed down! I kept it up though, and beat my time from last week. By 2/100 of a second lol. I also was NOT the last runner. There were 4 people behind me. WOOT!
Hubby took a pic of me approaching the finish in my cute running skirt. I really need another one, this one is getting over-worn lol.

I turned in my time, and found out I was 4th out of 5 in my age group. One step up from last week's last place. My friend Cheryl came in 3rd this week. Her cute daughter ran the mile and knocked a whole minute off her time. SO CUTE!

I am hoping to see more time shaved off at week three!

I have just joined a bolg group called Picket Fence Blogs. Clicking on the icon to the right is a vote for my blog. Feel free to vote, if you like my blog today!

I will be posting updates on my quest to Lose a Marathon soon. I have moved another mix-in to the pounds lost cup, and will update when I have moved over 5 total!

I also joined an Olympic Challenge that involves running a different distance every day until you total a marathon, I believe over the course of one week. Once I get my scorecard emailed to me, I will post updates about that as well!

Losing a Marathon

I have mentioned before that I joined a challenge to lose a marathon... which is 26.2 pounds. They set a time frame of 13 weeks, but I have set my own time frame...by January 13, 2013, the day of my own marathon in Disney!

I saw a great idea at the facebook page, to use 2 mason jars (or Solo cups, lol, as you will see soon) as a visual aid. One holds the weight you want to lose, and one holds the weight you have already lost. Cool, right? And a really great company sells the decals to make these cups! They also have some cute running girl decals, among others. I got a great one for my car, pic to come as soon as the melting hot temps cool off so that I can apply it! You can check them out at RunningDecals.com

For now, I am using Crystal Light mix-ins lol, but I am going to change that as soon as I can find something I like better. I only just started this challenge, as you can see by the lonely mix-in that is in the 'pounds lost' cup. The decal company also sells 'Lose a Half Marathon" decals, in case you don't need to lose a whole marathon. Once I lose the whole marathon, I will be back to my WW goal weight, more or less. 10 pounds *less* then I weighed on my wedding day!

Any ideas as to what I should use to represent the pounds in my yellow Solo cups?

Post Maniac Run

Ever have one of those days? All sorts of annoying little things happening to make up one big crappy day? That has been my day so far. Add to that, I am still sore from the Maniac. Not crazy sore, but just enough to be, well, annoying. I was so happy after I finished that race though, so I will try and hold onto that!

There is also a chance I may not be able to do MudManX because they assign you your time slots, and like a bonehead, I told my daughter I would take her to a play at 2 o'clock that day. UGH.

So of course, I don't want to run the scheduled 30-45 minutes for the day. It is sooooo hot and sticky, but I get dressed, grab my ipod, and head to Gold's. It is even sticky and hot at the treads! Yay. Oh, and my ipod isn't charged. Bonus. I am determined to run so I get the machine ready for a 45 minute run, and off I go. After 5 minutes I am sweating like a pig, and my shins are hurting. No worries, stop. Stretch. Back on the horse. Now my calves hurt. Really? UGH. Stop. Stretch. Back on the horse. After a while I realize my right foot is hitting wayyyy harder than my left, because I am overcompensating. By now I have about 18 minutes in, averaging a 13:30 mile. Cool down time, not worth possible injury.

Thursday night is Summer series Week 2, and I hope to beat last week's time. This won't happen if I hurt myself, and won't help my Marathon training. Week two? No worries.
On the weight loss front, my quest to lose 26.2 had stalled, so I am regrouping and starying fresh. I am not concerned with the time limit imposed by the challenge, I can continue long after that time has passed. Just want to get there!

Next big stop? Philadelphia Rock n Roll Half, my Susan G Komen Marathon for the Cure race, just 2 months away (from yesterday, actually!) so I will leave you with this:

Rugged Maniac

This was hands down, the toughest thing I have done to date! Give me a Half anytime! I was suppoed to go with my friend, but she wasn't feeling good, so off I went by myself. The check in was pretty easy, got my tee, my number and my shoe tag. Checked my bag, which took a little longer, and headed off to my heat. I didn't have to wait long, and made friends with a group of girls and their moms who were so nice! You couldn't see much of the course except the last obstacle and the *fire* WOOT!
We were off! We started off running on a race track, very slanty and uncomfortable! Then we moved on to a twisty turny hilly dirt track with sprinklers shooting at you and making it a little muddy. There was also a calf high mud pit to run through that made my feet very very heavy! Then we were in the forest, with some over/under logs across the path, and some short 4 foot-ish walls to get over, a couple A Frame walls to climb and a tire jungle. Tires on the ground and tires hanging all around.

I am not sure, looking back, about the exact order of all the obstacles, but this is an approximate idea, lol. These are official pics, not necessarily from our race. I will have pics in a week or two!

There was a muddy hill, and at the top we had to climb a wall, and then you slid down. It was crazy funny, I ended up hitting a guy, and one of my new friends then hit both of us. There was a lovely muddy puddle at the bottom!

The only obstacle I had crazy trouble with was the bounding one. There were six pillars, small medium tall medium small, and they were too far apart for my stubby legs. One of my new friends held my hand and talked me over them (she completely skipped it lol) but the last one I totally missed. Oh well!

There were two sets of mud pits with barbed wire over you. It was crazy muddy and unavoidable, sometimes watery mud and sometimes thick nasty mud. Followed by an over/under type water pit, water was waist high, with floating poles. I just slid over them two at a  time, the water felt great, but getting out was tough. Luckily, there were ropes!

There were also some crawling tunnels. You slid down one, maybe 8 feet long, into some lovely muddy water and then you had to climb up the next one, using rope. No footholds, water half filled the opening. YUM! Mud and barbed wire at the top. Hooray!
There was a group of 4 walls. The first wall was 8-10' high, and I needed a boost to get over. One of my new friends boosted me over (she was skipping it) and then it was a really high upright palette wall. Then another wall, where someone from one of my high school friend's group boosted me over. I had just met up with them at the barbed wire crawl. Then another palette wall. WOW! Was I ever tired now!
Next was another mud crawl, this time under cargo net. Some random dude behind me started telling me I could do it, no worries, just keep going. I apologized, thinking I was slowing him down, and he said no worries, he was just cheering me on. So sweet!!
We came upon a fence tunnel after that. No big deal, right? It was very low, and I ended up crawling at some point. It was very rough on the back! There was lots of tamped down high grass that ended up covering my legs when i got out.

After that we ran through some grass and track, and came to the tunnels. Sounds simple, right? Wrong. It was like crawling through a really long coffin. Lots of people were freaking out, but it wasn't too bad. It was very rocky, and very dark, and I got up halfway through and sort of stooped through it, lol. Sweet sunshine on the other end, and the finish line is in sight!

We ran on some more track, and  jumped over 2 rows of fire. It wasn't super high flame, but it was HOT and I could feel it both times. It made me feel like She-Ra!

Final obstacle: a palette wall, with a cargo net you had to half roll down, and half climb. Then you climb down a palette wall and you are done!

EXHAUSTING!

I bypassed the line for "showers" and used my 3 gallons of water to hose off in the parking lot. I ninja-dressed in my car, not easy to do, let me tell you. Gross where the mud ends up, let me tell you! An actual shower at home, a quickie because I was late for a Sweet 16 Party.  I am pretty sure there is still mud in my hair, lol.
Crazy good time, and i cannot wait til MudManX in 2 weeks, which I believe is 5 miles, not 5K. Actual pics to come, I hope. They had photographers there, but no guarantee how the pics will come out! Stay tuned...

JSRC Summer Series, week one

Our local running club holds a Summer Series, 5 weeks of 5K races on Thursday nights, for only $20! They give prizes away every week, and then a grand prize at the final race. Weekly prizes turned out to be hats or sunglasses for all the first place category winners. Sounds fun, right?
Holy heck these people were *fast*! They left me in the dust!

So let's start at the beginning. A cute 1/2 mile kid's race, and then a 1 mile kid's race, where every kid who ran got a medal. They used past race leftovers, super smart, and super cute. These kids were so proud! My friend's 5 year old ran for the first time, did the whole mile! It was the cutest darn thing I ever saw!
Now it is our turn. 85*, slight breeze, Wall Municipal Complex course, *lots* of hills. It is part of the course we ran for the Firecracker Five on July 4th. We stayed in the Complex though, and lopped around twice. NO problem, right? UGH! By mile one, I was one of the last runners, and by the finish I was the last runner. Seriously. Last. The only 2 to finish behind me were geriatric walkers. Luckily, they finished 10 minutes later. My time was just under 35 minutes, which is great. I averaged 11:09 minutes per mile, which is *amazing* for me on hills, and amazing as a training run time.
The whole time I was running, I had to positive self talk:
Holy Crap! These are huge hills, Kim, you are doing so great!
You train at the shore, this is so much harder!
You were not even running this time last year, and now look at you!
Your first hilly race, you barely squeaked in under 40 minutes!

It really did help, but seeing how few people ran in after, me, really killed me.
I feel much better today, and my goal is to beat that time next week! I am only racing against myself!
Oh...the good news? I got third place in our age group (of 3 ladies lol) and my friend Cheryl got first. She let her daughter pick the prize, and they got a JSRC Bucket Hat. If she wins next week, she can get the sunglasses!

SOOOO, now for my second review of my Active Head Band!
I wore my green sparkly one for the race, and it *didn't budge*. Not one millimeter. I was so thrilled! I got them at a Half Off sale, so I got 2 for the price of one. Right now they are about $10-$15 each. Check them out at
www.activeheadbands.com
They are not paying me for this review, they do not even know I am writing it lol.
Editing to add that on honor of her 35th birthday, the owner is having 35% off until July 15th, use the code bday35. What better time to try them out? I am going to order 2 more today, some non-sparkly ones!

Week 2 of training, and a product test!

Today is the start of week 2 of Marathon training. It is a rest day for both Higdon and Galloway, and I planned on doing Pilates, but I just felt like running! Neither kid wanted to give up the TV so I could do Pilates, anyway, so I decided to make use of the day and test out my new Active Bands. They are cute sparkly headbands, elastic, that are reputed to be the world's best. Since I never have any luck, I decided to try them out when they had a 50% sale. I got sparkly green and sparkly gold, although they have non-sparkly ones as well!
I took a before-pic of Morgan and I, with my Active Band firmly in place.

Off we went...Morgan was willing to give up the TV to ride her bike alongside me, lol.....towards Bay Head. The breeze was just enough to make the run bearable, and it didn't even suck too bad going over the bridge (it was actually very cool at the top). We stopped at the halfway point to take a second picture, to see if the band was staying in place. I was sweating alot at this point, and was surprised to see that it was still in place!

Hardly slid back at all! The run back was just as easy as the run in, a little sweatier though, and when we approached the house, I decided to cut it off at 3.75 miles instead of rounding the block again to make it 4.

UGH I look cross eyed, lol, but there is the band, slid back a bit, but still there! I will test them a few more times, and see if the immense amount of sweat contributed to the slippage. THRILLED that it was still there, as I was sure it would slide right off!

For those who are still reading, I want to take a minute to mention my Virtual Race again. During the month of August, you can walk, run, or bike a 10K (6.2 miles) and for a $20 donation ($15 goes to Komen and $5 defrays cost of medal and shipping) you get this awesome bling!

I have already signed up 41 racers and raised $640, and would LOVE to raise more! This $640, added to my other fundraising over the last 3 years, totals over $10,000 to Cancer Research! Holy Heck! For details, give me a shout at kimmiepcft@hotmail.com

Marathon Training, Day 3

DONE!
I hemmed and hawed, and stalled, and lazed, and decided to just git er done. I was afraid that attempting the gym would hinder my getting the run in, making it feel like too much work, so I decided to run outside. There was a nice breeze, how bad could it be?
BAD!
It is 93 degrees out there, dry heat at least, but still crazy hot. I brought a bottle of water with me, and by the time I finished, the water was HOT.
I ran to the beach club, beautiful scenery: kids playing, umbrellas, sparkling water, kayakers, the breeze....wait! Where did the breeze go? UGH! Stretched my achey shin and moved on. I was run/walking at this point, super sweaty, super hot, water warming up, no breeze. Stopped for a few minutes to talk to my friend Cheryl, who agreed it was too hot to run, and tried to convince me to go to the beach.
On to Community Park, and let me tell you: As I passed the turn off for home, I almost took it, but the Park is sometimes breezy so I talked myself into continuing on. No breeze. Not too bad though, a little shady, not as hot.
On towards home after one lap at the park, making it 2.75 miles in 34:12, a 12:30ish pace. Not bad considering all of the walking I did, and day 3 is over! WOOT!
I have both Higdon's and Galloway's plan, and my plan is to attempt Higdon's and settle for Galloway's. Higdon's has one extra day of running per week, so we will see how each week goes!

Good news! I registered for the Hershey Half in October! SO excited, what better place to run than that? Disney may be the happiest place on earth, but Hershey is the yummiest!

Firecracker Five

What a beautiful day for a race!


NOT!
It was muggy and hot when we arrived and it just stopped storming. I got there just in time to get my cute tee and my number and line up.

The sun did come out briefly at the start, and I regretted leaving my sunglasses in the car. The race started, and the clouds moved in and soone it was raining. The rain felt amazing...until it stopped! Then everything got sticky and miserable again!
There were water tables every half mile, which was great. I drank dome and dumped the rest on my neck at every stop.
There were also hills. Lots of them. Everywhere. I was on track to finish in about 57-58 minutes, until the last hill. I had to walk part of it, and then I just couldn't get my groove back. I finally got back to running, when I caught up with a dad and his son. The dad was trying to push the son to finish in under an hour, so I told the boy that he had to stay ahead of me, he didn't want to be beaten by an old lady in a sparkly skirt. That spurred him on, and I slowed a bit to let him finish ahead of me.

Aren't they cute?
I finished on 1:00:20, a nice 12 minute pace (my gps said it was closer to 5.1 miles, making my pace 11:50) which is on track for my 2nd marathon training run. My calves ache and my head hurts, but overall I am mostly happy. And when I crossed the finish line, I got my "bling", which all the ladies were getting <3

Oh, and the cute sparkly skirt? That is a Sparkle Skirt from SparkleSkirts.com, and it was very comfy to run in. It is part of my costume for the Disney Marathon Weekend 5K and I was testing it. I have one in light green as well, for my Tinkerbell costume. The aqua is for Jasmine. Cute, huh?

Marathon Training Started Today!

Where did the time go? 190 days until I am Disney Bound for the marathon weekend! Holy Crap!

Today was the first run, 3.1 miles in a little under 33 minutes. Felt super fabulous to be running again, but I am a little achey now, 8 hours later. Tomorrow is the Firecracker Five in Wall, gonna be a hot one, and I may have to walk some of it, but I am excited to be racing again!
Two mud runs this month as well as some Virtual Races, and next month is the Runyon 5K in YANKEE STADIUM!!!! So psyched for that one!

I also plan to earn my Half Fanatic status this Spring with 3 Halfs in 90 days! I will be running Long Branch Half, Runapalooza, and the Allstate 13.1 in NYC.
Yeah, I am nuts! It's all good!

The Skinny Rules (which I stole from RAD)

Totally want to get this book, and it is now time for me to take a hard look at the rules! I am starting Marathon training tomorrow, and just joined a 31 day ab challenge, so it is time to start eating well again!
I have #1 and 2 totally covered already, ingrained since my WW days! #3 I do most of the time, yay me!
#4 yikes! I need to watch that one!
#5 and 6, no probs but #7? I am training. for a marathon. I eat carbs. before and after lunch. Sorry Bob!
#9 and 10, no probs but #11, I use artificial in my iced tea. Again, sorry Bob. But is in small doses.
#12-20 also got that covered.
All in all, not bad.
AND
I only gained 1.5# on vacation. Not bad considering that i couldn't exercise when I wanted to, due to the high altitude!