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Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Log Off Shut Down Go Run Virtual 10K Recap!

Disclaimer: As a Gone For a Run ambassador I was given a complimentary race entry. No other compensation was received. All opinions are mine alone.

This past weekend I ran a virtual race by GoneForARun.com! You may remember me telling you about it a few weeks ago.


My friend Jenny was going to run with me. The night before the run the forecast was calling for rain. So I was prepared to run in the rain. Around 5 AM I was woken up by a thunderstorm....and a tornado watch. We were planning to run at 6:30 AM. I quickly looked at the radar and it looked like the rain would be gone by then. So I attempted to get a little more sleep before I had to get up. Of course I couldn't sleep anymore! Finally the alarm went off. I got ready and headed out...into a thick, humid, and hot morning. I knew those conditions were going to make it a tough run. But I was excited to run with a friend.

I met Jenny at her house. I wanted a different route than from my house since I run that 6 times a week! Jenny's route was an out and back route in the country!

Of course we needed a post run picture of our non sweaty selves! (Thanks to Jenny's sweet husband Eric for taking all our pictures for us!)


We started our run and right away it was hard to breathe. Plus it was windy. We wouldn't have to endure the wind until we turned around to come back home. None of that stopped us from talking, laughing, and smiling the entire time!

And we had great scenery as well! Who doesn't love running next to a cow pasture?! (And yes...I know I was supposed to "log off" but I couldn't resist one mid run picture...please forgive me!)


Before long we had made it to our turn around point. We headed back into the wind. By mile 4 I was pretty much done. I was so ready for the run to be over. Luckily Jenny kept my mind off of it and we conquered those 6.2 miles!


We had done it! It was a tough run in the 100% humidity! We were drenched with sweat!

That's our "You so stinky" faces! Lol!


And of course being the awesome friend that she is...Jenny awarded me with my medal! :-)




After the run we recovered the best way we know how...with coffee of course! And since we had just run 6.2 miles we totally deserved the big one! ;-)


It was a super fun way to start off my Saturday!

Be sure to check out the next virtual race that GoneForARun.com is offering...Bad Ass Runner Virtual 5 Mile Race! This one is May 29- May 31!

QOTD: Do you like to run virtual races?

Monday, April 27, 2015

The Weekly Chase #120!

The countdown is on! Only three more weeks of school left! I have a ton to do to get ready for my preschoolers' graduation. It's a fun but super busy time of year! I've had some of these students for two years so it's going to be bittersweet watching them graduate!

I had a great weekend! Friday night me and the hubby had a date night! We went out for pizza...because I was running a virtual race the next morning and NEEDED my pizza! ;-) I'm so glad he puts up with me! We had so much fun together!


Saturday morning I ran the #LogOffRace 10K virtual race by GoneForARun.com! My friend Jenny ran it with me! As always we had a blast running together! It was super humid but it didn't stop our laughter and smiles! I'll have a recap for you on Wednesday! After our run we headed to Starbucks so we could recover with some coffee! ;-)


The rest of the weekend was spent at my sister-in-law Katie's house! The boys love going over there to spend the night. So we did just that on Saturday night. On Sunday we picked blackberries and made homemade jelly...yum!

Now it's time for the Weekly Chase! It's a new week and I have new goals to achieve! I hope you will link up your own goals with me too! And feel free to use the badge below in your post too! You can grab the badge HERE! :-)

Road Runner Girl

Here are my goals from last week!

  • Goal #1: Run every day! Yes! I reached day 337 yesterday. That means I am less than a month away from reaching my goal of running every day for a year! :-)
  • Goal #2: Roll, stretch, and ice daily. Yes! I've been very diligent in doing this.
  • Goal #3: Maintain my weight by logging my calories. For the most part. I missed a few dinners. But I knew I was on track so I didn't worry about it too much. 
  • Goal #4: Work on t-shirts for preschool graduation. I got half of them finished. 
  • Goal #5: Get pictures uploaded so they can be printed. Yes! Pictures have been uploaded and printed for my preschoolers' memory books!

Here are the goals I'm chasing this week!

Goal #1: Run every day! Oh yes...too close to a year to stop my streak now. I can't believe I have less than a month to go!

Goal #2: Roll, stretch, and ice daily. So important for a runner...especially a run streaker!

Goal #3: Maintain my weight by logging my calories. I need to log everything! Even those Rolos that I can't keep my hands off of! ;-)

Goal #4: Finish t-shirts for preschool graduation. I'm halfway done. I need to finish the rest this week because graduation is next week!

Goal #5: Take one more professional development class. I have one more hour to earn. I can do it online...it's just a matter of taking the time to do it. 

Goal #6: Start working on preschool memory books. This is going to be quite the tasks. But I'm excited to capture all my student's memories from the year into a memory book for them. 

So that's the plan for this week! Good luck with your goals too! 

QOTD: What goals are you chasing this week?

Friday, April 24, 2015

Fitness Friday...April 24th Edition!

Another week has come and gone! The countdown to summer break is on....only 3 more weeks of school for me! But boy do I have a lot to do!

This week consisted of some selfie photo sessions...



Lots of coffee...



And a field trip to the farm with my boy!


I also got back my free race photos from The Biggest Loser Half....but I wasn't very happy with the quality. Most of my pictures were blurry. :-( But here's a few of them!



Now it's time for Fitness Friday! I had great runs this week. My hip is feeling much better. There is still a little tightness there but it's definitely better. And my chiropractor, Dr. Justin, even released me from treatment on Tuesday! Yay!


  • Friday- #plankaday 1:10, 1.70 mile run in 14:20 average pace 8:25

  • Saturday- 1.67 mile run in 13:38 average pace 8:09
  • Monday- #plankaday 1:05, 1.76 mile run in 14:37 average pace 8:19

  • Tuesday- #plankaday 1:05, 1.75 mile run in 14:36 average pace 8:21

  • Wednesday- #plankaday 1:15, 2.27 mile run in 18:35 average pace 8:11

  • Thursday- #plankaday 1:11, 1.56 mile run in 12:58 average pace 8:19


The runs went great this week! My hip is feeling better although I can still feel some tightness in it. The hip did amazing for the half marathon last weekend! I was so pleased! Hopefully the tightness will all go away soon. I am in need of some new shoes but just can't afford them at the moment. I know once I get new ones it will help the hip tremendously (because I've been through the same hip tightness many times before and it's always when my shoes are worn out).

Hey ASICS...you wanna send this run streaker a pair of GT 2000 2's, size 7.5??? ;-) I'm almost to my goal of running every day for a year but I need new shoes like yesterday! Pretty please??? I don't even need the newest model (GT 2000 3)....I'll gladly accept last year's model! ;-)

This weekend I am running a 10K virtual race! I'm running the Log Off, Shut Down, Go Run virtual race from GoneForARun.com. You may remember me talking about it a few weeks back here on the blog. Should be fun!

We also have lots of family time planned for this weekend. Can't wait! I hope you have a great weekend too!

QOTD: What was your best run or workout this week?


Wednesday, April 22, 2015

The Biggest Loser RunWalk Mobile Half Marathon Recap!

Disclaimer: I was provided a free race registration in exchange for this post. No other compensation was received. All opinions in the post below are mine and mine alone!

Race morning I woke up to it pouring rain. I wasn't surprised. It WAS in the forecast. But I was really hoping it would clear up.

I will admit that I wasn't super excited about this race. I really wanted to run it but have been dealing with a hip issue and was worried running a half would aggravate the hip even more. So I was a little scared...which made me not as excited as I normally am for a race. But I just told myself I could do this one for fun. I could slow down and take it easy. That was my plan. Of course I know how I am come race day. I am super competitive with myself and will often push myself. But I was really going to try to not be competitive.

I met Donna, Sarah Beth, Paige, and Billy so we could all carpool to Mobile together. We got there in no time at all but it took us a few minutes to park and walk down to the start area. Of course we all had to go to the bathroom. The porta potty lines (there were two lines for the same cluster of porta potties) were so long! We got in line around 7:05 (race started at 7:30) and hoped we would make it in time. There weren't as many porta potties as there probably should have been.

While waiting in line I happen to look up and spot Jenny and Kristin! They came over to the line and we took a quick picture!


I told them I wasn't pushing it this race because of my hip and that I just wanted to run for fun. Kristin had just run the Statue to Statue 15K in Birmingham the day before (this is the south's most challenging race due to the major hills) so her legs were sore from that. I told them I would text them when I got to the start line and try to find them.

I got back in the potty line with my friends and I was literally in the porta potty at 7:26 and they were singing the National Anthem! To say I was a little panicked was correct! But I was thankful to pee lol!

I headed to the start line....and I couldn't get through! It was so crowded and I was in the back with the 15:00 minute mile pacer. I pushed myself as far as I could but people weren't budging. I really didn't want another race where I had to dodge people and risk losing my shoe again!

Then I saw Paige and decided to just stay with her. I couldn't make it any further up anyway. It worked out though because one of the volunteers put a rope in front of me and Paige and said we were in corral 3. I texted Jenny and told her where I was and she texted back saying they had just started. Crap.

Before I knew it we were at the front of the start line. I didn't even have time to get a proper start line picture...because we were too close! I mean we were toeing the line!!! It was awesome! Paige and I did a sprinter stance for fun!


I said a quick hey to JJ!

And then Dan Evans from season 5 counted us down!

I started running and Paige said bye. It was fun because I was ahead of everyone! It felt like I was winning lol! But it didn't last long. A guy came up beside me fairly quickly and I jokingly told him he couldn't pass me...that I was winning! He laughed at me and wished me a good race as he flew by! Well...it was fun while it lasted lol!

Then I was on a mission. I wanted to find Jenny and Kristin. I was running in the 8's but it felt great. My hip wasn't hurting at all!

Then around mile 3 I spotted them! I caught up to them and was so thankful! We ended up running the rest of the race together! We had so much fun! We talked and laughed! We took a few walk breaks when we needed to. I was taking it easy and my hip was thanking me for it. I had no pain the entire race!

The only bad thing about this race was the humidity. It was at 100% and it was awful! But on the bright side...the rain had completely stopped! But we were DRENCHED!

Hot mess drenched at mile 9! (Thanks for this pic Kristin!)


I can't remember which mile this was (I wanna say around mile 10) but we saw my favorite photographer Tim on the course! He got a great shot of us! I LOVE this picture! We were all smiles! Thanks Tim!!!


It was the first time in a long time that I've taken pictures along the course. Lately I've been so focused on running fast and trying to PR that I didn't pay much attention to the scenery.

When we made it to Dauphin Street I saw a building with this painting on it. I knew I needed a picture!



It was also neat running and seeing part of the Mobile skyline! My hubby used to work in the RSA Tower!


It was around mile 11.5 when we knew we could try to make it in 2:15. So we stepped it up a bit and started running to finish!

We turned onto Royal Street...and then Water Street. We knew the finish line was close...but we couldn't see it. Jenny and I kept saying, "Where is it?" We hit mile 13 and still couldn't see it but we knew it was close. There were people there cheering us on. I even saw one of my Sole2Soul Sisters Lorie cheering! She gave me that extra boost I needed to kick it into gear!

We made a right turn and there was the finish line! Yay!!! I stopped my Garmin and looked down...it said 2:14:43 (my official time ended up being 2:14:42)! I had made it under 2:15!


Now that is slow for me now. But I remember the day when I would have been thrilled to no end with a 2:15 half!

I was happy though! I ran this race the way my body needed me to. I took it easy so I wouldn't further injure my hip. And I ran it with friends and that made it so much more fun than if I'd been by myself.

They had tons of food at the finish line! There were cuties, bananas, bagels, and cheese sticks! I grabbed a cutie and a blueberry bagel. I only ate a few bites of the bagel though because it was just too dry. My body wanted fluids.


I was a happy girl! I did it! I wasn't sure what was going to happen during this race! But I did it and felt great the entire time! My hip didn't cause me any pain or discomfort and I was so glad!


And running with Jenny and Kristin was sooooo much fun!!!


After a race means celebration time! And as a blogger that means tons of pics! Serious and not so serious pics! Yeah...I love my friend Jenny!



And Kristin thought it would be funny to take a picture of us taking a selfie! Just look at the people in the background looking at us like we are crazy lol! I die!!!


At the finish area I saw my friend Sarah Beth who I rode with. She is in college, young, and super fast! She won first place in her age group with a 1:53:58!!! I was so proud of her!!!



Another bonus to this race....I got TWO medals! Because we ran this race last year Kristin and I got the Legacy Finisher Medal as well! Sweet!


Since this race offers free digital photos, we made sure to get lots of finisher pics! (Pictures haven't been uploaded yet but as soon as they are I will be sure to show you!)




We also hung out with Gina from season 14 after she finished the half marathon! She is so sweet and such an inspiration!



On the way out I stopped by the Fleet Fleet Sports tent and got a free massage with the new Heal Blade! This thing is crazy awesome and I'll be doing a review soon!


On the way home we made a much needed stop for coffee! Yum!


The Biggest Loser RunWalk Mobile was just as amazing as it was the first time I ran it! I will definitely run it again! I hope they continue to come back to Mobile for years to come!

QOTD: Have you ever participated in one of The Biggest Loser RunWalk events?

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