30 Day Running Challenge: Day 22
Define your relationship with running.

Hate!!! Today is thriving with hate!

I’m just kidding.  I would say “love/hate” is the best way to describe it.  As I have written before, it can be your best friend or your worst enemy, it is basically the physical equivalent to my conscience, if I can just beat myself, then it will be great, if I can’t, it will be disheartening.  

But that is why I love it, even when it is tough.  Some days are easier than others, but you can never get away with less than your best. 

Let’s talk about trail running…

And the nightmare of a half marathon that I just endured this morning.

OH.MY.GOSH…  It was hell.  This race was 85% up hill, and I don’t even know how that works seeing as we finished right where we started, but these weren’t just normal hills, these were all but walls of dirt where you had to start using your hands to climb.  Just insane inclines.

And HOT!  There were long stretches through fields with no shade what-so-ever.  It wasn’t supposed to be over 80 before noon, but it was 93 when I crossed the finish line at 11.  With the humidity, it was like running through water (really fun with asthma).

I am pretty much a walking disaster on any given day, so this trail run with roots sticking out all over the place had me thinking “hello shattered ankle, I can’t wait to meet you later”.  I even started the day by forgetting a glass of water on top of the car and watching it roll of the side of my car and shatter on the street at the first stop sign.  I am hazardous when left to my own devices, much less trying to run over roots and stumps.  BUT, I made it with only getting slightly tripped up about a dozen times and not actually falling (winner me!). 

I met some really cool people along the way, though.  This was unlike any race I had ever run in the effect.  I paced a man for the first half who told me he had open heart surgery a year ago, and this was his ultimate goal.  For the second half, I paced 2 girls from Kalamazoo that were just nothing but fun!  It was such a pleasure just joking and chatting with these strangers that you are basically going through hell with.

I have never been so happy to have a race over with, and even though it was a nightmare, and I feel like I got insanely drunk and then threw myself down a hill, it is over, and I have that experience to learn and grow from. 

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Last night, I went to a concert with some friends of Paul that were in town at a local dive bar.  I had never heard of this band before, but our friends promised good music and a good time.  They were not wrong.

The headlining band we were there to see what Slim Cessna’s Auto Club, sort of a mix of goth-country, gospel, and alternative, but one hell of a show, just fun music, and a crazy atmosphere.  I was surrounded by ALL KINDS OF PEOPLE.  It was a small show, maybe 100 people, but I was overdressed in my khaki shorts, v-neck tee and flip flops.  

I mean, there were people covered in tattoos, dread-locks, mohawks, long beards, no hair, hippie sun dresses, people wearing holy shirts (I mean literally with holes), large people, tall people, short people, just all sizes.  And no one cared!  Everyone was there dancing however they wanted to dance, jumping around, doing there thing.  

It was so refreshing to be in a crowd of people that were all so different from one another not judging and not caring.  I don’t surround myself with judgy people, but being so conscious of my weight all the time, I can’t help but notice people around me.

I tried hard to stay out of my self-conscious head, and just focus on all of these people, out there, dressing how they want to dress, dancing how they want to dance, and making no apologies for any of it.  I loved it.

Tomorrow, I have my next half-marathon.  I am not planning on a PR, but it will be my first all trail race, so it should be fun!

Happy Friday!

Karma is a bitch…

So, Paul has recently been put in charge of my sweet tooth.  We don’t generally keep “sweets” in the house, but anything even remotely close, I will eat.  

Upon buying a bag of my favorite treat outside of chocolate (pull and peel twizzlers), I asked him lovingly to hide them from me, and only allow me one per day.

Now, I realize how unfair it is to make him the “bad guy”.  I’m a grown woman, I should have the sense of control to not binge on sweets… but this just isn’t the case.

So today while cleaning, what should I stumble upon, but the stash of sweets.

I immediately text Paul to let him know that security has been breached and the stash has been compromised, BUT, I am no where near a sweet tooth attack.  

A few minutes later I decide that I will have just one twizzler… just one.

2 delicious bites in the high-fructose corn syrup beauty, I start to choke.  Raw throat, eyes watering, spit up a half-chewed piece of gross, choke.

I have learned my lesson about unsupervised snacking.

Anchor Man

30 Day Running Challenge: Day 20

Have you ever followed any sort of training plan? Which ones and how did you like them?

Yes!  I would be completely lost without a training plan.  For my first marathon I was training for (then got sick for 😦 goodbye $140) I used the Runner’s World training plan from their book “Marathoning For Mortals”, but for the last marathon and for my next one I am using Hal Higdons Intermediate training plan.  I like it because it doesn’t include a required amount of hill or or fartleks.  Though I think these are very necessary, I find this training plan to be effective and not intimidating.

kitten kitten kitten kitten

This picture has nothing to do with running, but I love it.

And now it’s a good day…

I dare you not to smile at this.

Love this picture so much!

Thanks to an awesome fellow blogger, http://runningdetermined.tumblr.com/, I have discovered this amazing website called the Daily Mile where you can log all of your runs and build a network.  I love the thought of the accountability.  It is great motivation to get my last run in before my half marathon this weekend.

Check it out! http://www.dailymile.com/people/stephaniee18#ref=tophd