I SURVIVED my first 10k!

Well, I did it! And I only wish I had some pictures to show for it. :( We took a TON - I even managed to snap a few jittery ones as I was running, haha...However, when I got home and tried to download them, my memory card became corrupt and deleted every single picture on my camera. I was soooo upset, but that just means that there is going to have to be more to come soon! I even tried recovering them last night with some program online and it recovered every single photo, but the 10k photos! That doesn't help me! Grrr!

So on to the race wrap-up!

I planned on going to bed very early the night before, but we all know, when you are anticipating something (Christmas as a child, an upcoming birthday, your first 10k) how are you supposed to sleep?! So, Brian and I watched TV...I told him I probably was going to fall asleep early so just pick whatever he wanted to watch. He picked The Holiday. If you aren't familiar with The Holiday, it stars Kate Winslet and Cameron Diaz, along with Jude Law - total chick flick.
The first time I made him watch that movie, he hated it! I was a little suspicious as to why he wanted to watch it yet again, since he had such a hard time making it through the first time. Was he trying to be sweet?? Yes, folks I think he was (kinda)! I honestly think he just didn't want to stay up late Friday night by himself, so he figured if he put on something I wanted to watch, that I wouldn't go straight to sleep. Smart and tricky!!!! It worked. I was in such anticipation of the next day, and it's such a great movie, I had to stay up. Soooo I was up until about 11:30 - yikes! My original plan was 10pm.

Once I crawled into bed, 5 am could not have come earlier!!!!! I felt like I seriously had just hit the pillow. I got up, showered quickly and started to get pumped for the run!
April got to my house, we gathered are things and headed to Starbucks for a John Wayne. She now shares my love and addiction for them.

We headed downtown and I tried to navigate our way to the proper parking garage for participants. I was 99 percent sure I could make it back to the parking garage. Later in my blog, you will see that I was sadly mistaken.

We followed the crowd of people walking towards the START line and walked around a little bit to see what was going on. People were talking, making last minute bathroom breaks (saw my first PINK port-o-potty), eating, drinking coffee, taking pictures (tear), etc. etc.

April and I split her triple berry Power bar it was OK but I definitely couldn't have eaten the whole thing. It had an acquired taste. We stretched a little...took a few more pictures (tear) and joined the crowd, waiting to begin our trek. After what felt like forever, (next time we will do timed), we finally started moving. After about 4-5 mins of walking with the crowd, until we could maneuver around the cluster of people, we began our run! April told me she was going to start out really slow. Like so slow you would think "wow, I'm going really slow." Except we didn't start out all that slow, and I was thinking the whole time, "is this her idea of slow or are we really going slow? b/c this is much faster than what I would consider SLOW." Haha. (She told me later that it was not slow).

Mile-by-Mile Recap:

Mile 1:
Felt great to run with the crowd, tried to figure out what my pace should be. Bypassed the first water station b/c it was packed with people and I didn't want to be completely behind the pack.

Mile 2:
Was very confused b/c came across the second water station (positioned at every mile) so after I ran past the water station I assumed I had already passed Mile 2. Wrong. Mile 2's sign was actually about 1/2 a mile after the water station! Bummer! Very tricky!

Official Mile 2:
Feeling good. Just enjoying the scenery. Saw the 5k people split up and go a different way.
Saw a band playing on the corner. Smiled real big at them!

Mile 3:
Started getting hilly. Also started getting to be in kinda a rough area of town. To my left were two prostitutes and two my right was a drug deal. Felt the need to sprint through this area even though I did not want to be out of breath. Still took advantage of water station here.

Mile 4:
Had some hills, some flat, some downhill from what I recall. Was a bit tougher. Walked a TAD, but then could not stand that people were running and I was walking so I continued to run.
Had water - and they told me to just throw my water cup on the ground so I did. Still felt bad for not using the trash can!

Mile 5:
Started to really fly by. Couldn't believe I had already made it that far, legs started to burn a little bit but nothing major.

Mile 6:
Didn't even feel like a mile. Felt like I could run forever at this point. Legs were burning but it felt really, really good. Everyone was on the sidelines cheering "You are almost there, keep going!" Seriously felt like it wasn't possible to smile any bigger. It's hard not to smile really big at people that are cheering you on!

Finish line:
Saw people taking photos of us, didn't really know if I should sprint through or what. Sped up a little bit. It felt GREAT to finish!

I waited for April to finish (she was only a couple mins behind me). I even got two pictures of her coming towards the finish line and running through.

After the race, April hurt her foot pretty bad, so she had to go sit down. I went and got us some post-race drinks and snacks and sat with her. The first aid people suggested she ice it and elevate it so I went to go get the truck. Of course, everyone knows, I am pretty short and find it very hard to drive big trucks, or any truck for that matter, haha.
I was sooooooo nervous b/c I was going to have to navigate my way back to the race to where the first aid station was so I could drive in and pick her up. I thought that would be the hard part, but no, I could find the truck for about 30 minutes. You would think since I work downtown and am near the Capitol quite frequently, I would know my way around. But no, there are about 3 parking garages on 14/15th & Trinity that look identical and I went in the first two and ran up the stairs - mind you, we were on the 5th floor and could not find the truck anywhere. A woman drove by me and asked if I was lost. I really thought she was going to help point me in the right direction or even offer me a ride. She said "Oh the same thing happened to me! I had to re-trace my steps." Thanks lady! You were a big help! So I dug deep and tried to backtrack. I went in the last resort parking garage and FINALLY found her truck. I think I sprinted towards it, and felt more out of breath running up all those stairs and trying to find it then the actual 10k. Driving it was an even bigger adventure! We were already parked in a compact car parking spot so pulling out was fun! Then driving around and around down the parking garage 5 floors was so nerve wracking b/c I seriously felt like I was about to take out the back end on a pillar. B always tells me "swing wide, swing wide" and I never paid attention to what that means! Sooooo needless to say I FINALLY made it out safe and sound and found my way back to April. The nice cop let me through to pick her up, he said they had been waiting on me a while. Poor April hobbled her way into the car and I drove us back to Buda.

I got home and after wanting to stomp up and down on my memory card with my running shoes, I decided to take a nap instead. I crashed on the couch for about two hours until B got home from work. When he called me on his way home he could tell by the tone of my voice I was not happy with my camera and so disappointed. He even brought me a card with a trophy on it that said #1 and some flowers. Super sweet - he really scored major points.

Can't wait for the next run - and even more so, the 1/2 marathon! It feels a little bit closer now, but I know I have a lot of work to do!

T-1 day to 10k, kinda!

The 10k is quickly approaching on Saturday morning...
I got up this morning at 5, ran to starbucks, had a double espresso shot, (aka as a john wayne and my favorite pick-me-up) and went to meet April to run by her work.
We ran about 2 miles and it felt great, definitely could have gone longer, we were just limited on time since we both have to work early in the morning... so we'll see what happens on Saturday! I just want us to finish, we're not really concerned with time!
I pick up our packets tomorrow..Here's to hoping parking won't be a nightmare at the convention center...I'm going to walk around a little bit, I've never been to a Health & Fitness Expo...

Tomorrow's Friday! It doesn't get any better than that.

Of Fishing, the Texas Round-Up & Bootcamp!

I've been a bad, bad blogger again!

When I go out of town, I come back to mountains of work, so I'm back!!!! We had a FABULOUS time at the coast!! Let me just say..Fishing on a boat is MUCH different than fishing on the Packery, pier, jetty, etc. We actually CAUGHT fish, excuse me, I actually caught fish!

I set the alarm for about 7 am, got up, made coffee (necess. when you are going to be on a boat for 12 hours!!!!), woke Brian up and we started getting ready.


We were staying with Robin's family for the night since Robin's dad was nice enough to take us out on his boat. We picked up some live shrimp, got our rods and reels and were off to Marker 37 marina in Corpus.

I got in full fishing attire, columbia fishing shirt, even a PINK pfg visor, can you believe? HA!

There was lots of laughing and drinking involved.

My favorite spot was on the front of the boat. Even though I was nervous about missing my step and falling into the water since I can be a bit clumsy! Especially when I get too excited when I get a fish and start reeling it in.

My first trout of the day! It was also the first one I had ever baited with live shrimp. All day I had Robin's dad and Brian doing it for me and that got old, quick! For them and for me! So I decided if I really wanted to catch something I was going to have to suck it up! Haha

It was also nice because if we weren't catching fish after a few casts, Robin's dad would move the boat and we would find a new spot. I caught my first trout ever! I caught about 4 more throughout the day, and the guys caught many keeper trout as well!

During the day we stayed around the Laguna Madre, took a lunch break at Whataburger and then went and got more shrimp to go fish in Baffin Bay - which is quite a long boat ride from Corpus! But well worth it! It's where we caught the most fish and had the best time.

This was a car in the Whataburger parking lot - so funny I just had to take a picture! Hoping the guy inside eating wouldn't see me snapping a quick photo! Look very closely and you can see what someone keyed onto the hood.

This was right next to the Whataburger - Whatachurch! I mean, have you ever seen anything like this before? I didn't realize I would have two great photo-ops at Whataburger!

The wind really picked up on our way back in, and on the way back we saw another boat that had broken down, so we had to tow them in. Needless to say, it took us a LONGGG time to get back!! We were so exhausted by the time we got back we ate dinner and went to bed!!

The next day, the weather was awful!!! Cloudy, rainy, just gross!! We were able to go to the beach for only about 10 mins. Happy 30-th birthday to my sister! Even though the weather didn't cooperate with us - we managed to have a great time!

We spent the rest of the day sitting inside, playing cards, drinking, eating! Can't complain about that though!

Sunday was gorgeous!! It made us sad to leave. My sister and her boyfriend and friends headed out, while we ran around Port A. a little bit and took a stroll on the beach in the sunny weather. I enjoyed my first margarita of the whole trip. Very refreshing!

In running news!
April and I registered for the Texas Round-UP 10K.
Can't wait! We pick up our packets on Friday. I have been running this week to prepare, and while I don't think I'm fully prepared as I could be, I think it will be a great experience and good practice! I hope to do many more 10k's by November before we take the 1/2 marathon plunge!

In other fitness news!

I decided to join bootcamp again!!! As we know, when I joined bootcamp last year - actually about the same time last year - I saw the BEST results.

I'm keeping my fingers cross that April is going to join with me and we are going to do the 5:30 am class.

Can't wait to start getting fit again!

Best Friends

I know this is my running blog, a big, new interest of mine, but everyone knows we still have other important things going on in our lives as well...

This Saturday will mark the second year that one of my best and truest friends passed away.

We met in second grade and became instant friends. Over the years our friendship grew almost into a sisterly-way and each other's familes became our own. There wasn't a day when she couldn't run down to my house or me run up to hers and feel completely and totally comfortable.

Her parents became my parents too and I developed a friendship that I didn't think was possible. My friend Lauren would drop anything and everything to come and help me out, even if it was just to talk...and I would without a doubt do the same for her. She truly was a special friend. I still think of her daily, talk to her parents as much as possible, and try to remind myself that she's watching over all of us. I miss her more than anyone could ever imagine and hope she knows she will never be forgotten. My heart is heavy this week as I think about how much I miss her.

This is something I wrote to her last year, one year after she passed:

Today is especially hard. Not a day goes by when I don't think of you and all of our countless memories together. I have on my fridge a picture of us that your mom gave me..And every time a friend sees it they always ask the same thing. "What a great picture, who is that girl with you?" And I tell them it was a girl who I will never forget - someone who was a true friend to me and that I miss greatly. I tell them how we had so many funny/amazing/sad/crazy/unforgettable experiences together and that I can't believe that you are gone. But you're not gone - every day I thank God for putting you in my life and for helping me to realize what a TRUE and LIFELONG friendship is. I hold each one of my friends so dearly now and will ALWAYS tell them how much they mean to me. And I will continue to tell you how much you mean to me. I find comfort in being able to talk to your parents about you - you meant the world to them - as you do to so many others. I love you. Brittany

Here Fishy, Fishy

Next weekend, B and I are heading down to the coast again to celebrate my sister's 30th birthday!
We all went down there in October for my birthday, so I could not object to spending hers down there as well - And you know we never pass up a trip to the coast! I'm hoping I can get away for a little bit early morning or late afternoon and get a nice jog in on the beach! I've heard running in the sand is great for your legs- and the view is gorgeous!

B and I are going to take two kayaks with us so we can do some fishing in the bay while we are down there. I'm sure I will have plenty of pics to post of my big catch while I am down there! Ha!

My dad sent me this picture yesterday. If you don't already know, my dad and I are super close and so I am always happy to see what he is up to and glad that he is getting some time to do what he enjoys doing - fishing!