Old friends!

This morning, I woke up feeling a little hung over, but I have to say--it was totally worth it for the fun I had last night! Once a year, at Christmastime, my childhood friends come over for a get-together. I grew up in a neighborhood that had a lot of kids my age (mostly boys), and we were all very close friends. We used to play sandlot baseball every morning at 7:45 during the summers when we were kids.

There was my best friend Sarah (now living in Arizona) who lived just a couple of houses down from me; Lance, who lived behind me, and who Sarah and I used to fight over; Spencer, Lance's brother; Joe, Sarah's younger brother, who was always in some sort of trouble; Mike and Brian, who lived next door to me (Brian now lives in L.A.); Chris and Matt, who lived a block over; and of course, my brother, Nathan.

Joe is sort of a "drifter", and since Sarah and Brian live out-of-state, it's rare that we all get together. Mike and Lance recently bought a bar together, and unfortunately, Mike had to work all day yesterday, so he wasn't able to come. Chris's son had the flu, and his baby-sitter canceled, so he wasn't able to make it yesterday, either. It ended up being Sarah and her husband, Ne; Nathan and his girlfriend, Kendall; Joe; Lance, and his girlfriend, Amanda; Jerry; and me.

Joe, Sarah, Lance, me, and Nathan

I really need to dig up some photos of us when we were little, but here is the oldest one I could find on my computer:

Christmas, 2000

We had dinner (pulled pork sliders, cheesy potatoes, Caesar salad, and buffalo chicken dip), and then did a white elephant gift exchange. We'd never done the gift exchange at our get-togethers before, and it was totally last minute, but it was fun! I wound up with Sarah's gift, which was some suckers with worms and scorpions in them--I knew my boys would love those.

Then we got down to business and played Apples to Apples, followed by Guesstures. My cheeks hurt from laughing so hard--that game never gets old! My friends always hate playing games with Sarah and I on a team, because we can pretty much read each others minds. (I will never forget one time when we were playing a game where Sarah had to describe a word to me, and she said, "Falling off a cliff..." and I shouted out, "MacGuyver!"--and it was correct. Hahaha, everyone thought we had to have cheated, but we just know each other very well ;) Anyway, I never stay up late, but before I knew it, it was 1:30 in the morning when everyone started heading out. I went to bed at 2:00, and then woke up at 7:00.

I'd had several beers last night, and my stomach was feeling kind of icky when I woke up, but I decided to go for a run before heading to Weight Watchers. Jerry got up and went with me. It was kind of crazy--I wore capris and a t-shirt, for a run on Christmas Eve in Michigan!

It was SUPER foggy outside all day. When we ran past the lake, you couldn't even see the water:

Normally, you can see the lake really easily right there, and looking across, you can see the peninsula, but it was so foggy we couldn't see anything. You could tell both of us were pretty tired, because we didn't talk much, but it was nice to get out and run off the beer (well, a little of it, anyway).

We just did three miles, because I had to get home and shower before going to Weight Watchers.

I took a quick shower and then went to my meeting. I wasn't expecting much from my weigh-in, especially after yesterday's eats/drinks, but I managed to lose 0.7 pounds this week. April was at the meeting today, and I was so glad to see that she's still going! She said right before I walked in, she and another member were just asking about what happened to me and where I've been. This coming week should be better as far as being on-plan, because I don't have much going on. Tonight, I'm going to my aunt's house for dinner, but I've planned out my PointsPlus ahead of time.

Tomorrow is going to be VERY low-key, and I'm super excited! The kids will open gifts in the morning, and we aren't going to leave the house at all tomorrow. We'll stay in pajamas all day, maybe watch a movie or two, play some games with the kids, and just have a very relaxing day.

I probably won't write tomorrow, so I hope that you all have a very merry Christmas! Enjoy the day, however you spend it :)

Continue Reading...

Motivational Monday #92

Happy Motivational Monday! This week has been super busy with Christmas stuff going on. Hopefully everyone is having a great holiday week!

I chose to go back to my Weight Watchers meetings on Wednesday, and I'm really glad I did it. It was hard to go and weigh in after so long, knowing that my weight was up quite a bit from early this year. But I'm proud of myself for sucking it up and just doing it. I wish I'd have done it a long time ago, because my leader made me feel so much better!

This week, I've been doing pretty well with counting my points. My PointsPlus are in the negative for the week, but I'm okay with that. I'm still tracking everything, and regardless of how my week ends, I'm going to go to my Weight Watchers meeting on Wednesday morning and weigh in. Tomorrow is the last day that will be really difficult for me (I'm having friends over, and there will be food and drinks).

Today, my dad, my sister, and I went to see Mockingjay. I'd already seen it with Jerry, but my dad and sister hadn't seen it yet. I've gone with my dad to see The Hunger Games and Catching Fire, so of course I wanted to go with him to see Mockingjay. We saw a 9:20 AM show, so it actually wasn't even tempting to get popcorn or anything. I'd just eaten breakfast ;)

Only a couple of stories to share for MM today--but good ones! Enjoy.

---

Leona (on right in photo) has lost 63 pounds since March! She's been doing 5K's throughout her journey, and at the SeaWorld Reindeer Run, she clocked 36:05--a full 4-minute PR from a month earlier. She was feeling frustrated because her weight had plateaued for about a month, but seeing her 5K time improve so drastically was just the encouragement she needed to keep going.

---

Cassie ran the Santa Hustle Half this weekend! After becoming single early this year, she searched for healthy ways to be social. She met some women through her running community in Austin, and now they are her "sole sisters". They ran the Santa Hustle together, and had a blast!

---

As you may have noticed, I'm getting close to the 100th Motivational Monday post. For that post, I thought it would be super fun to share stories of those of you who have lost 100+ pounds. I've gotten lots of emails from readers who have lost huge amounts of weight, and it's always so fun to see the before and after pictures.

If you'd be interested in sharing, please send me an email at MotivationalMonday (at) runsforcookies (dot) com, with the subject "100". Along with your picture(s), please include a short bio--who you are, how you lost the weight, maybe something that you can do now you couldn't before, etc. Whatever you'd like to share! Today is MM #92, so we have 8 weeks to compile the stories. (If you've already been on a MM post for your weight loss, feel free to send it again!)

Continue Reading...

Running again

Thank you so much for the kind comments on yesterday's post. It's nice to feel things turning around in the eleventh hour of 2014.

My foot has been feeling really good, and yesterday, I didn't feel any twinges of pain at all. I know I said I was going to wait until next year to start running again, but I was really in the mood to try it out today. The weather was nice (cold, but no wind), so as soon as the boys left for church with my parents, I headed out for a run. I wasn't sure how far I would run--it just depended on how my foot felt.

I wore my Paradigms, and my feet were feeling good. I had no idea what my pace was going to be, but I just kind of ran however I felt like running. I was hoping for an easy sub-10:00 pace, and kind of surprisingly, I was managing 9:15-9:30 ish. I didn't feel a single twinge of pain as I ran down my street, so I hoped it'd stay that way.

I ended up deciding on a five-mile route that goes around the four neighborhoods on the peninsula. The miles actually went by rather quickly... before I knew it, I only had a mile left to go. I thought it would be a big confidence boost if I ran that last mile at a sub-9:00 pace, so I worked at it. It wasn't easy, but I didn't feel like I was dying, either ;)

After I ran just past my house, and hit the five-mile mark, I stopped my watch. I was really happy with my run! I didn't have any pain at all, and I ran a decent pace the whole way through.

Just because I ran today, I'm not going to jump right back into training; I'm going to take it very easy the rest of the year. If I feel like running, I'll run; but if not, I won't. I don't want to risk overtraining again, so I'm going to take it very easy. But it felt good to get out and run, instead of feeling lethargic and lazy!

When I got home, I went to Sam's Club to buy some stuff for Tuesday. My childhood friends (Sarah, Lance, Joe, and Chris) as well as my brother, Nathan, and their spouses/partners, are coming over for dinner, drinks, and games. I decided on pulled pork sliders, so I bought the ingredients for that, as well as drinks. We get together once a year at Christmastime, usually, and I always have so much fun! My friends are way more extroverted than I am, so they have some interesting stories to share ;)

Tomorrow is Motivational Monday, and I meant to mention that I added a tab at the top of my blog for "Motivational Monday". There, I explained how to submit a Motivational Monday if you'd like to share something. I love reading about your accomplishments! I set up an email address that is specifically for Motivational Monday, to help keep things organized (for me, anyway). So if you have anything to share, please just click there and it'll explain it better.

Tomorrow, I'm celebrating Christmas at my parents' house. Should be fun! :)

Continue Reading...

Confessional

Last night was so fun! I hadn't been to my wine club meetings all year... mainly because I've been battling with my depression/anxiety SO much this year. I haven't written much about it on my blog, because it's so personal, and even one hurtful comment can really upset me, but I've been in a bad funk ever since Mark died. I'm not blaming Mark's death for causing it; but Mark was the closest person to me that I've ever lost, and I had no idea just how tough it was going to be.

I've been carrying around this guilt about all the things I feel I could have/should have done before he died. I never really wrote about his funeral or the details surrounding his death, and someday, maybe I will; but for now, I've just been dealing with all of the coulda-shoulda-woulda statements floating through my head.

 I sort of turned into a hermit this year, even though I may not have shown it here on my blog. I attended a few blogger events, and went on a few trips--but aside from those, I spent a lot of time alone. I neglected my friends, and I think that was partly because I couldn't understand how everyone could go on as if nothing had happened (in their world, nothing had happened). I didn't realize it before Mark died, but I think everyone probably feels that way when someone close to them dies; they feel the world has crashed down around them, and nobody should be happy.

My friend John called me when Mark died, and he understood very much what I was feeling. He said I was probably wondering how people could be so happy when Mark just died. And that, for example, how people could post such positive status updates on Facebook like nothing had happened, when I'd want to scream, "Mark just died! How can you be happy?!"

Talking with him made me feel a little better; or at least not alone. He said that pretty much everyone has those thoughts when someone close to them dies. Since I had never lost someone very close to me, I never really understood it. But the whole point is, due to my depression and anxiety, I was having a hard time being "normal".

A little over a month ago, I was feeling exceptionally down, and I told my Sole Mates Ragnar team about it. They're my "safe place" when I really need to talk. The next day, Dean asked if I wanted to get together for a run or lunch the following Wednesday. Immediately, I wanted to tell him "no", and come up with some excuse (not because I don't like Dean, but because I'd become used to saying no to everything). But I thought about how awesome it was that he reached out to me. When I told my team about how I was feeling, it wasn't to get sympathy or anything like that; I just really wanted to talk about it. Before I could change my mind, I told Dean yes, that going for a run would be great.

As promised, Dean drove nearly an hour to go for a run with me, and it ended up being really great to run with him. I started to feel like I wanted to get back to my "normal" self. That run with Dean was when I started to feel things change.

I started setting goals again, and making plans with friends. I tried to stop thinking about how my weight is over goal, and started thinking about a new beginning--that I could get back to goal before it got totally out of hand. I went out to dinner with my friend Renee, and I felt a million times better after that. She was one of the friends I'd neglected all year, and the guilt of that was eating me up inside. I apologized for being absent, and when I left the restaurant that evening, I felt like a huge weight had been lifted from my shoulders.

Yesterday, Renee asked me if I wanted to drive to her house, and then ride with her to Winers; that felt so normal. I'm sure she didn't think twice about it, but to me, it made me feel like things are really okay again. I had NO intentions of turning this post into such a confessional--but going to Winers last night made me feel like things are finally back to normal (or getting there, at least).

I drove over to Renee's, and gave her a birthday present (her birthday was earlier this month) before we left. Our friend Robin rode with us as well. We arrived at Shawna's (she was hosting), where I saw some more friends that I hadn't seen in a long time (probably since the last time I went to Winers--maybe a year ago?). It was really great chatting with everyone!

I'd planned on having just 8 oz. of wine, and no food. It was a little bit tough, because Shawna had some yummy snacks out. She had some mixed berries, so I ate some of those, and tried to pretend I didn't see the chocolate truffles ;) We sat and chatted for a while in front of the fireplace.

We had a white elephant gift exchange, which is always fun. Normally, when I think of "white elephant", I think of really ridiculous, crappy, but funny gifts. But as I learned in the past, the Winers girls always bring "nice" gifts for our white elephant exchange. The girls will find something nice around the house they don't want, and wrap it up. So this year, I played along with that theme--I brought the iFit Active activity monitor. I'd worn it for a few weeks, but I still preferred my Fitbit. Jessica had been talking about getting an activity monitor, so I thought that she'd probably really want the iFit Active.

Jessica, Renee, Stephanie, and I are running buddies, and it's tradition for us to take a picture together; Renee had just gotten an iPhone 6+ (which is huge) so she managed to get a "selfie" picture of all of us.

Renee, Steph, Jessica, and me

The gift I ended up with was pretty fun! A mix of naughty and nice ;)

A cookbook with recipes that use wine, a really nice-smelling candle, a couple of wine bottle gift bags, some cheese labels, a "ball sack" with a couple of golf balls (bahaha! I'm going to use this for a white elephant gift on Tuesday...), and a book called, "203 Ways to Drive a Man Wild in Bed" ;)  I sent Jerry a picture of the book cover, and he said, "Make sure you keep that gift!!" Hahaha.

I was really tempted to eat all kinds of chocolate while I was there, but I managed not to eat anything but some fruit. I really enjoyed spending time with my friends, and I'm so glad that I went!

Like I said, I never meant for this post to be such a confessional. But I am finally feeling like things are getting back to "normal", and I love that. Winers with my friends was so much fun :)

I have a lot going on the next few days, so my blogging may be sporadic. But I sincerely hope that you all have a fantastic holiday! XOXO

Continue Reading...

14 Favorite Photos of 2014

I don't have much to write today, but I was organizing pictures on my computer, and decided to post my favorite 14 photos of 2014. I always do a "Top" post at the end of the year (like "Top 13 of 2013"); but that is more for my favorite events of the year. And I'll post that on New Year's Eve. So here, I'm just showcasing my favorite photos. I like these photos for all sorts of different reasons!

On one of Mark's better days--with a milkshake, of course!
I love that you can see on his face how happy he was.

Basically what we did for seven full days in Punta Cana

I LOVE this pic with my Sole Mates: Paige, Caitlin,
Hilary, Thomas, and me.

Impromptu family photo at my parents' house after Jeanie's first marathon. My dad
was goofing around, and it made for a good candid photo before the "real" pics.

Mid-race selfie with Jerry. We had so much fun that day! 

Noah's first 5K (Jerry got all of us making that face, haha)

I love this picture of Paolo! This was before his health went downhill.

This was such a strange thing to catch on camera! Here is where I wrote about it. 

These steel stacks in Bethlehem are AMAZING!

I had no idea just how BIG the head was going to be ;)

I liked this picture... until I realized my helmet was backwards! Hahaha

A rare photo of my entire family together: Me, Dad, Mom, Brian, Jeanie, Nathan
This was taken at Brian's wedding in September

I'd had too much wine to remember this photo being taken, but when I saw it,
I loved it! The orange hat I'm wearing reminds me of what a great time I had
that day with my Sole Mates in San Diego. (That, I DO remember, haha)

Jerry and I had a blast taking pictures underwater with the kids' cameras

I love this picture because I was laughing really hard at the very
end of a race--who does that?! 

---

This is so funny... just after I scheduled this post to go live at 9:00, I got an email. I saw the subject first, before it registered in my mind who it was from:

I saw "Not Another Best of 2014 List" as the subject, and I was so confused for a second--did my post go live before it was supposed to? How did they know? What? Ohhhh. It's a "Best of 2014" list from Hulu. Hahaha

Anyway, I happen to LOVE lists. So, lame or not, I'm still posting it ;)

Continue Reading...

Back to my Weight Watchers meetings

I had thought that the last time I went to Weight Watchers to weigh in was very early this year, but I looked at my weigh in card this morning, and it said I weighed in on May 21st. Not as bad as I thought! But I was still pretty nervous to go today.

After I got the kids off to school, I ate breakfast and sipped some tea until it was time to leave. Knowing that my weight was going to be up from last time regardless of what clothes I wore, I ended up wearing jeans, a sweatshirt, and sneakers for my weigh in. Last time I weighed in, I'd been hoping that I was still under goal (or at least close), so I wore the lightest clothes I could.

When I walked inside, I was so glad to see that my leader was there today. I had been hoping she didn't switch her meeting times or locations or something since the last time I was there. She was really happy to see me, and she came around the counter to give me a hug. I instantly felt at ease, even though I knew I'd be weighing in. I talked to her for a minute about everything that's been going on, and she even told me I didn't have to weigh in if I didn't want to--but I really want the accountability, so I said I was going to weigh in.

I bought a new 12-Week Journal. Since I have 12 weeks until I leave for Portland, it'll be a nice way to count down the weeks and (hopefully) see myself getting closer to goal. When I first started losing weight, I made it a goal to go through an entire 12-Week Journal without a single binge... and I ended up going through FOUR of them! It would be nice to do the same with this one.

I sat down for the meeting and was a little disappointed to see that I didn't recognize more than a couple of people in there. April, the woman that I used to sit next to, wasn't there. I hope she still goes on Wednesdays.

Today's meeting was about food pushers--people who push you to take foods that you may not want or you don't have room in your plan for; and when you politely say no, they keep trying to change your mind.

Thankfully, I haven't had to deal with this for a few years. When I first started losing weight, I had to stay very firm with my decisions about food, and I think people just learned that I'm not going to give in just because they want me to. They know now that if I say no to something, it's not because I don't love them or want the food they made; it's because I have to put a lot of thought into my food choices.

One thing I love about Glenda, my leader, is that she is very careful never to call foods "good" or "bad". She, like me, believes that we can make room in our diets for anything we want. Some of the other leaders at meetings I've been to said things like, "How can we avoid eating a piece of cake at a birthday party?" But Glenda is realistic, and says if you want a piece of cake, just deduct it from your weekly PointsPlus allowance, and enjoy it! Today, when she was talking about the holidays, she used the same mentality.

When I was losing weight in 2009-2010, I was very picky about what I splurged on. I would have no problem turning down several splurge foods in order to really enjoy one splurge that I had my mind on. I chose my splurges very carefully. This year, I've gotten out of that habit, and I've been saying "yes" to pretty much everything. I didn't want to feel like I was missing out on things, so I just always said yes. My goal for now is to really put thought into what I choose to spend my PointsPlus on. I can have the things I want; just not everything all at once ;)

This week is going to be the most challenging week ever. I could have waited another week to go back to Weight Watchers, but I don't believe in "waiting until the new year", so to speak. If I can get through this week and feel good about my choices, then I will feel I can conquer anything! Haha.

My week at a glance:
Thursday- Dessert feast at Noah's school
Friday- Wine Club (Christmas party)
Sunday- Jeanie will be in town, so I'm guessing Keno and drinks?
Monday- Christmas at my mom's house (including dinner)
Tuesday- Childhood friends coming to my house for dinner, drinks, snacks, and games

That, on top of the fact that I'm not earning any activity PointsPlus right now, makes for one heck of a tough week! But I'm feeling up to the challenge. I don't plan to eat any desserts at Noah's school; I'll drive myself to Wine Club, so I won't be tempted to drink more than a glass or two of wine (knowing I have to drive); and I requested that my mom make a healthy Christmas dinner on Monday. The only day I'm worried about will be Tuesday, but I'll probably buy some super light beer (2 PP each) and keep the snacking to a minimum. When I have time to plan stuff out like this, I usually do pretty well; it's the unplanned events that I have a hard time with!

Anyway, I'm really glad I went back to my meeting today. Glenda was SO nice and I don't even know why I felt nervous about going. Weighing in made me feel really determined to have a good week!

Continue Reading...

Real foods, foot injury, and Portland

Yesterday morning, Noah woke up with a fever. The flu has been going around here, so I really hoped it wasn't that! His only other symptom was a headache, so I just had him get some rest, and I kept him home from school.

In the mid-morning, we ended up watching a documentary called Hungry for Change (on Netflix). I'd seen it in 2012, and loved it; in fact, I even wrote in my blog that I wanted to buy it so I could watch it whenever I felt I needed a boost in motivation to eat healthy. It was fun watching it with Noah, because it opened up conversation about healthy eating. And the things I've been telling him are apparently more believable when someone on TV says them ;)

Watching the documentary made me want to read through my old "Real Foods Challenge" posts--where I'd challenged myself to eat only "real foods" for 30 days. I only made it through 20 days before I decided it was just too difficult (I was gaining weight like crazy, because I was eating too much of the real food), but there were some foods and recipes that I really enjoyed. One was homemade whole wheat tortillas.

When I first made them, I was SO blown away at how good they were. I swore I'd never buy tortillas again. Then, somewhere along the way, I forgot about them, and just bought tortillas. Yesterday afternoon, after reading through those posts, I decided to make some again. We used the tortillas to make tacos last night, and then this morning, I had scrambled egg whites and cheese wrapped inside one.

The tortillas themselves are 4 PointsPlus each, which is the same as the soft taco-size white tortillas that I buy at the store, but they taste a million times better! Here is the recipe I used.

Last night, I taught the kids (and Jerry) how to play Hearts. I've always thought of it as an adult card game, but the kids caught on surprisingly quickly. I'm sad that the kids are growing up so fast, but I do like the fact that the days of Candy Land and HiHo! Cherry-O are over ;)

I emailed Golden Harper (founder of Altra running shoes) yesterday about my foot issue. My gut feeling was telling me that my foot injury was NOT caused from the shoes, but I just wanted to see what his thoughts were. He has a degree in Exercise Science, and studied running technique and running injuries; I met him at the RW Half, and really trusted his opinion. He's very passionate about fixing the problem with running injuries. I've been conversing with him via email for a guest post/interview for my blog, and I thought I would pick his brain (I hate that phrase, by the way!) about my foot.

He wrote me back last night, and everything he said was exactly what I was thinking, and what my gut feeling was telling me. When I had done my 12-miler a week ago Sunday, I ran a different route that had recently been repaved; and the side of the road was slanted more than usual. I think that, along with the fact that I jumped from 8 miles to 12 in a week, is what caused the injury. Golden also suggested that I take some time off--he said he takes a month off each year, and that many of the Kenyans take up to three months off every year!

He said it would be helpful to rotate my shoes as well, in order to strengthen my feet and even out any muscle imbalances (which are the cause of most injuries, along with upping mileage/intensity too quickly). He agreed that since I was running injury-free with the shoes for two months, he highly doubts it was the shoe switch that caused the problem. I'll probably post his interview later this week, because it really is very interesting!

I decided to go back to my Weight Watchers meetings. I'm not a "free" Lifetime member right now, but I think that paying the weekly fee and weighing in once a week will help keep me accountable. I've been doing well this month, and I really want to keep it going and get to my goal by the time I go to Portland in March. I'm nervous to go to my meeting tomorrow, because I know the scale will show a gain (I think the last time I went was in early 2014?), but I love my leader, and she's not at all judgmental. I'm looking forward to going back, and seeing some of the people I'd gotten to know at my meetings.

I leave for Portland 12 weeks from Friday. To keep myself focused on my goal, I even bought a Trail Blazers hoodie.

Interestingly, the day I arrive in Portland, the Blazers are going to be playing the Detroit Pistons in Portland. If I was a sports fan, I would like to go! But we're going to go to the Shamrock Run expo instead, which is definitely more my style ;) By the way, I know several of you mentioned meeting up... the expo on Friday night would be a great time/place to meet if anyone is still interested! My flight arrives at 5:00 pm, and then we're going to head to the expo right away--so maybe 6:00 or 6:15.

This post is all over the place, but here is one more random picture that I just had to share. Chandler cracks me up!

I guess that's one way to fit on the new cat tree ;)

Continue Reading...

Motivational Monday #91

Happy Motivational Monday! I have lots of great stories to share with you today, so I'm just going to get right down to it...

---

Hilary, a dear Sole Mate of mine, has been dealing with IT band issues since September, and her rehab has been slow. She had to significantly reduce her running mileage and speed, but instead of completely blowing off working out altogether, she decided to put more effort into her yoga practice. She started practicing yoga in January 2014, but didn't start doing it regularly until the summer. It helps her physically and emotionally, and helps her stay focused and grounded. Since increasing the yoga, she's discovered she can do things she never thought possible, and she's noticed some serious muscle definition! She is most proud of being able to bend over and put her hands flat on the ground--when she started, she couldn't even touch her toes. She encourages everyone to give yoga a try. You don't have to be flexible or strong when you start out; you just have to have willingness to practice!

---

In October, when Sarah mentioned to me via email that she'd be doing the Runner's World Half in Bethlehem, I told her to make sure and get a picture for Motivational Monday. She kept forgetting to send it, but she had a great race! It was her first race together with her sister, and she was a little intimidated going into it--she assumed since it was put on by RW, it would be a very competitive field. She'd done three 5K's this year, but couldn't get her time under 40:00; at the RW Half, then, she was thrilled to finish in 39:53! She has a funny story about the finish line:

"In your race report you mentioned the announcer being really great, and I totally agree!! In fact when I accidentally stopped after the arch that was ON FIRE (so cool!) because I thought it was the finish line, he ran up and was saying, "keep going Sarah!! You're almost there!!" I was trying to figure out what he meant and why everyone on the sidelines was waving their arms at me and then I looked up and behold the REAL finish line!!! One of the race photographers actually got a picture of the look on my face when I realized I still had more to go. :) sooooo I gave everyone a good laugh and ended up with one of those pictures that's worth a thousand words!!"  (Sarah's race report)

Best finish line photo EVER ;)

---

Christina, along with her son, have run 5K races over the past two weekends. They have had a blast running together! This past weekend, her son PR'ed and took second place in his age group. She is very proud of him for getting out there and run/walking alongside her.

---

About six weeks ago, Diane was asked by someone in her local running club if she would consider running for the club in the USATF National Cross Country Club Championships (they needed another 60+ woman to round out their team). Her first instinct was to say no--she would have to join the club, join the USATF, and register for the race ($100+). She would also have to get shoes, because she didn't have appropriate shoes for a grass course. But then she thought, "What the heck--this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!" She increased her runs and distance each week, and on Saturday, she completed the 6K course in 29:16, finishing 9th in her age group! (Diane is number 2265 in the photo).

---

This weekend, Amber completed a big goal she'd set for herself: to run three half-marathons in 2014! The funny thing is, prior to this year, Amber wasn't a runner. She decided she wanted to challenge herself with something she thought was nearly impossible--running half-marathons. In February, she ran the Disney Princess Half in Florida; in April, she completed the Run Like A Diva Half in South Carolina; and just yesterday, she completed the Santa Hustle Half in Tennessee. She said she would not trade this journey for anything--she's learned so much about herself over the past 400 miles of running. She's already planning to do the Run Like A Diva Half next year, and looks forward to improving her speed.

---

Brittany just ran her first 5K! She had tried doing the Couch to 5K plan, but, like me, found it too difficult. Instead, she tried out my plan, and her goal was to run the entire 5K. The race was Saturday, and she did it--she ran the entire thing! She finished in 45 minutes, and it looking forward to working on improving her time now that she knows she can complete the distance. She said they ran the race nice and easy, and really had a lot of fun doing it!

---

Summer just completed her first half-marathon! She had signed up for the 2013 Dallas Half-Marathon, but after all that training, the race was canceled due to an ice storm that weekend. The participants were offered a discount on the 2014 race, and were told that if they completed it, they would be given their medals for the 2013 AND 2014 races. She wasn't thrilled at the thought of training all over again, but she did, and the weather was much better this year. She crossed the finish line in 2:45:44!

---

Congrats to everyone!! Great stories this week :)

Continue Reading...

Santa Hustle Half-Marathon Cedar Point race report

My foot was feeling 100% back to normal yesterday, and for that, I was so grateful! I still ended up having a really lazy restful day--I worked on my new puzzle, and even got it finished before I went to bed. I decided to stop posting my food logs, even though I'd planned to do it for the whole month. It was causing me too much anxiety--and that was on my "good" days! Christmastime is stressful enough, so there was no point in adding to that stress. (I'm not going to quit tracking--just posting my log).

Anyway, my younger brother, Nathan, drove over to my house this morning so we could head down to Sandusky, Ohio for the Santa Hustle Half-Marathon. Sandusky is about 90 minutes away, and the race was being held at Cedar Point, a huge amusement park (which is closed for the season). The weather was supposed to be great for running--43 degrees and overcast. I wasn't really sure what to wear, though. The race requested that we wear the shirts they give us for registration, which is a Dri-Fit hoodie. We hadn't picked up our packets, so I wasn't sure if the hoodie would be too warm or not. I just ended up bringing a smorgasbord of options to change into if needed.

The drive was uneventful. When we got there, we parked and then went to pick up our packets. I love the shirts we got! Lately, I've been requesting a men's small shirt, because I like the fit of them better than women's shirts (I have no boobs to speak of, and an undefined waist). I'm really glad I did that, because I was told that the women's shirts ran two sizes too small this year, and there were a lot of upset women about it. The men's shirt was a little big, but I like sweatshirts to fit loosely. Nathan and I changed into our "uniform" for the race, and ended up deciding to wear the race shirts, even though we'd probably get too hot.

As much as I wanted to be festive, I just couldn't get on board with wearing the hat and beard during the race. The hat was really tight and the beard was uncomfortable, so I just stuck with the shirt.

After we changed, we headed over to the porta potties. There weren't any lines, so we were in and out really quickly. We were going to head back to the car, when a blog reader recognized me! (I wasn't wearing the beard at that time, haha). Her name is Sarah, and she was going to be running the 5K. We stopped and chatted for a few minutes, and then Nathan and I went back to the car to wait. (Hi Sarah! I meant to ask you to email me the picture of us, if you could? It was great to meet you!) The race started at 9:00, and it was only around 8:00, so we had a long time to wait. Finally, at 8:35, we went to use the porta potties one more time, and found that the lines were crazy long.

We figured 20 minutes would be enough time, but when we finally got to the front of the line, my watch said 8:59:32. Cutting it close! When I got out of the porta potty, I didn't see Nathan, and wasn't sure if he went to the starting line or was still in the porta potty. I called his cell, and there was no answer. The announcer was counting down to the start of the race, so I just booked it over to the starting line, and as soon as I moved my way into the corral, the race started. As I got closer to the line, I noticed the big start/finish line balloon was falling down, and it cut us off from crossing the line. We were told to stop and wait until they fixed it.

Nathan called me then, and I didn't see him, but he said he was in the back, and he'd try to catch up with me once we got moving. About three minutes after the official start of the race, they let us go through. I started running, and my foot felt totally fine--no issues at all! I decided to try and run a 9:30 pace, but if I had problems with my foot, I'd just run very easy.

I kept hoping to hear Nathan, but it wasn't until nearly a mile in that I saw him pass me. I called out to him, and he said he didn't recognize me, because everyone looks alike with the same shirts on. I ran with him for a couple of minutes, and then told him he should try to place in his age group. He was feeling good, and wanted to try for sub-1:40, so I told him I'd buy him a beer if he placed ;) He ran ahead, and then I just tried to enjoy the sights.

The first three miles was through the inside of the park, and it was awesome to see all the roller coasters as I ran. I tried to get some pictures, but the pictures don't really do it justice (also, I was running, so they're a little blurry):

That yellow roller coaster in the background is the Top Thrill Dragster.
I'm almost as scared of that as I am of the thought of skydiving.
It goes from 0 to 120 mph in just 4 seconds!

Once we got out of the park, we ran to Soak City, which is Cedar Point's water park. We also ran around a campground. I liked this part of the race, because it was almost like a big maze--there were so many turns that everyone was going different directions, so I spent most of the time looking for Nathan, who I knew was ahead of me. You can see my path in red below:

My pace was great--average pace of 9:30 as I hit the 10K mark. However, I noticed that the mile markers were showing the course as really short. When I would reach a mile marker, my Garmin would read consistently 0.10-0.15 less than that mile. That's happened before at races, but it usually evens it self out at the end, so I wasn't worried about it.

When I hit mile 6.5, I started to feel a little pressure on the side of my foot. Ordinarily, I would've just ignored it, but I was worried about it, so that's all I could focus on. I decided the race wasn't worth pushing myself through injury, so I slowed my pace way down. When I got to mile 7, it was a long, straight, out-and-back until mile 12.

Running along the side of the road made me feel a little more pressure on my foot. The road was terrible, with a big slope and a lot of potholes. It was the sloped asphalt that was making me feel uncomfortable. I still wasn't in pain, but I knew that something was going on with my foot.

The out-and-back part felt like forever! I saw the first place person run past, and then I started watching for Nathan, which was a nice distraction. I was even counting people, to see how far back he was--he was number 102 to run past me. When I saw him, I thought, "Oh, please let the turnaround be just ahead!" but I kept running and running, and it felt like it was never going to end. I saw a sign that looked like it was pretty much made for my eyes to see:

Finally, I turned around at about mile 9.5, and then started running back. The change in direction was nice, because I wasn't on the very edge of the road anymore, and I had a tailwind. When I reached mile 11.5, it was like a switch just turned on the pain in my foot. And not only my foot, but the side of my leg and even my IT band. I wasn't sure what to do--I was a mile and a half from the finish, but the only way back was to actually finish (there weren't any shortcuts).

I took a short walk break, which helped a little, but then as I ran, it kept building up. Ironically, I saw this sign as I was taking a walk break--hahaha!

I reached the park at mile 12, and took a quick picture of the roller coaster skyline.

As I ran/walked/hobbled through the parking lot, I realized that there was no possible way that the course would be 13.1 miles. When I reached the finisher's chute, my Garmin was reading nearly a half-mile short. My official finish time is 2:07:59, but my Garmin read 12.77 miles, so I don't even really count that as my time. But at that point, I didn't care at all about my time! I was regretting running a half so soon after my foot issue.

When I got my medal, it was just the medal--no neck-ribbon attached. I was told that they ran out of the medals with ribbons.

It's a really nice medal, and I emailed the race to see if they'll send me a ribbon for it. Nathan's had a ribbon--he finished in 1:39:59! That was his goal time; but like me, he doesn't really count it, because the course was short. (He finished 71 overall, so he passed a bunch of people after I saw him at place 102).

My foot was absolutely killing me by that point, so we walked (slowly) to the car for the long drive home. We took a different route, which was about two hours, but a nicer drive. When Nathan left, and I thanked him for going with me, he said, "Yeah, that was fun!... ish". Hahaha! That's exactly what races are: fun...ish ;)

When I got home, I decided that I really need to take a break from running and let my foot heal properly. I'm going to take the rest of the year off, even if I'm feeling better. I'll start slowly again in January, but if my foot feels at all sore or tender, I'll give it some more time. Now that I'm home, and I've been resting it all day, it's not bothering me very much; but I would rather just play it safe and make sure it gets better. I think it's a good idea to take a week or two completely off every year anyways; usually, I've done it after my marathons, but since I didn't run a marathon this year, I haven't really taken a break. I think it'll be good for me (although mentally, I may go a little crazy...) ;)

---

Don't forget, tomorrow is Motivational Monday! If you have a photo of a health/fitness accomplishment that you're proud of this week, you can email it to me at Katie (at) runsforcookies (dot) com, subject "Motivational Monday", along with a short description, and I may include it on tomorrow's MM post.

Continue Reading...