Skip to main content

Today I Ran for You - Komen Race for the Cure

This morning I woke up at 5:30 am, though the alarm was set for 6:30. I decided to stay in bed and at least doze for another hour. I got up and started getting myself ready for the race. Pinning on my bib, putting the chip onto my shoe, breaking the flimsy zip tie. I really didn't want to eat much, so I just had half a banana with some peanut butter and tons more water. Then it was off to the race.

The Arkansas Komen race is the 3rd largest in the country. It's so hard to believe that Arkansas has one of the largest. There were over 45,000 women registered. This year the runners actually started 10 minutes early to help relieve some of the crazy pushing surge that happens. Usually as I'm crossing the second bridge, I can look over and see a sea of women crossing the first. It's an awesome sight that is so hard to put into words. Very emotional.
It was about 50 degrees at the start of the race with the sun just coming up. But all the bodies and energy kept me warm. I got off to a speedy start. It's easy to do being caught up in the emotional surge. I hit mile one at 7:15 and maintained that, despite the huge bridge, up to mile 2. I was so excited when I realized I had hit mile 2 at 15:30 (see the thumbs up even).

 
But that's where I lost it. I felt fine really, but that is the start of the super long incline that just kicks my butt. I slowed my pace so I could make it up the hill. Apparently I slowed too much, once again. I won't know my exact time until tomorrow because I missed the clock as I crossed, but it was somewhere around 24:30. Drats.
 

I was so pumped thinking I could hit 24 today. Maybe part of it is the cold, the hills, then just psyching myself out. Not sure. I did really just try to enjoy the race for what it meant though. It's such an awesome experience to run a race with that many women - men are not allowed to run this one. So over 45,000 women coming together for one reason is pretty freaking spectacular if you ask me.

Like I mentioned yesterday, today is a busy one. I think Jason and I are going to go do an easy 2-mile run. I say "think" because he's finishing breakfast as I type this up. He also thinks I've lost my mind wanting to run some more. But we just won't go there ;-)

Run or no run, we'll get cleaned up then head to my niece's party an hour away. Then we'll come right back and go directly to our friends' house to watch the football game. I probably won't see home again until about 6 pm. I have not a clue what we'll even do for dinner - chili sounds appropriate at the moment, but it's supposed to hit 84 so that may seem less appropriate later. So I thought I'd just do today's post mostly about the race rather than game watching or birthday parties. This race is far more important than anything else I will do today.


So to all of my readers who have been affected by breast cancer in some way, today I ran for you.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Love in Photos

In honor of Valentine's Day - Love in Photos Husband Family and Furbabies Friends Even if you're not a fan of Valentine's Day - I hope you have a wonderful day and remember the loves in your life.

Hump Day and More Pineapples

Full-Body Workout  I'll readily admit that getting up this morning was quite painful and almost didn't happen. I forced myself out of bed though not exactly excited about tackling a full-body Pyramid workout. Sort of daunting at 5 am really. I did the warm up from Shock Cardio Cardio Core Circuit (cardio only premix) then hit the weights. It was a pyramid up only so I increased my starting weight. I topped it all off with the first 2 1/2 drills from the cardio workout. I ran short on time and was basically spent. Squats into Plie Squats Step Ups (seriously hate these especially at 5:30 am) Incline Chest Flyes into Chest Press Pullovers into DB Underhand Rows Step Ups (freaking again) Static Lunges Overhead DB Press into Lateral Raises Deadlifts Kickbacks into Overhead Extensions Hammer Curls into Alternating Curls Calf Raises I am so excited to report that my new cross-trainers and running shoes arrived today. Can't wait to test both of them out. I waited way way way too

Hitting the Gym and Lazy Means Creative Tex-Mex Creation

Sunday, Gym Day Why do vacations and min-vacations go by so quickly? Just doesn't seem quite right. Anyway, we left Branson around 9:30 am to head back home. It was a pretty uneventful drive back, which is usually a good thing. We got home and unpacked, then I headed up to the gym. I started with a 10-minute treadmill run to warm up before hitting the weights for back and light legs then abs. I went with a giant set for back then supersets for legs. GS - 4x8 Underhand barbell rows Pullovers Double-arm rows SS#1 Rear-leg elevated lunges (Bulgarian Split Squats) - 3x8 Calf raises - 3x20 SS#2 - 2x8 Walking lunges Plie squats with low-end pulse Single-leg deadlifts - 2x8 I did some ab exercises, stretched, and called it quits. Lazy = Crazy Dinner I may have made it to the gym and washed a few loads of laundry, but I never made it to the grocery store - lounging in the pool trumped grocery shopping. This meant getting creative with dinner. We had another package