Run Before The Grandman Triathlon!

Stats-
1 mile/10:23
Average pace- 10:19

Me and my friends volunteered to do a water stop at a local triathlon today! All I can say is WOW! What an accomplishment! Before the event started, Paige and I ran a mile for #RWRunStreak on the route the triathletes would be running. The weather was absolutely perfect this morning! 60 degrees and the humidity was nowhere to be seen! Loved it!

Volunteering at the triathlon was so much fun!  Of course we had to dress crazy!  We all had our black skirts/shorts on, our red volunteer shirts tied with black and white ribbon, and crazy socks!  We got several comments from the triathletes about loving our socks so that made it worth it!  We all know how hard running can be (can't imagine swimming and biking first THEN running) so we wanted to give the triathletes a little distraction with our crazy gear!  I have a feeling my arm is going to be sore tomorrow from holding out water cups and my voice is a little hoarse from all the cheering I did but it was all worth it!  I hope we were able to encourage at least one person out there today! 

I took a TON of pictures!  And Christina and her hubby Chris and Paige took a ton of pictures!  I'll post some of the best ones!  :-)

Group shot before the event!

Swim portion!



This woman was the first one out of the water!!!  Amazing!

Me and Katrina waiting on the first runner to come through!

I just love this sign!!!  :-)

And it's our first runner!!!  I don't think he wanted any water though.  Right before the runners turned the corner to our water stop, they had to run up a massive, long hill.  We could see the exhaustion on their faces.



Some of us in front of one of our water tables!  Our group is the Sole2Soul Sisters but we didn't promote our group today.  We volunteered for the Baldwin County Trailblazers.  They are a "charity dedicated to safe, fun, family friendly trails, sidewalks, and paths for walking, running, and cycling."  Awesome organization!  I run on many of the trails they have funded!  Mr. Terry Redfearn (who goes to my church) is one of their board members and let us volunteer today!



Busy but so much fun handing out water and cheering on the triathletes running!



Taking a little break in between runners!

Yeah I'm a little goofy!

And then Christina got control of the camera and wanted me to do a photo shoot!  The street the triathletes were running on (and that Paige and I ran on earlier) was beautiful with a canopy of trees!

And then I made Paige join the photo shoot lol!

Can you guess who we are attempting to imitate here???

As you can see from all our crazy pictures we had a BLAST today!!!  I would love to volunteer for this event every year (because I KNOW I'm not going to participate in it lol)!



The Streak Lives On!

Stats- TREADMILL Run!
1 mile/9:53
Average pace- 9:53

Well the plan was to get up at 4:15 this morning and run 7 miles with the girls.  What happened...thunder and lightning!  I don't mind a little rain but I don't play with lightning!  So I slept in...and needed that rest!  I knew I could probably make it to the gym this afternoon and get in a mile on the treadmill.  I almost didn't get to run though...I almost broke the streak.  :-(  My hubby gets off from work at noon on Fridays.  I had a lunch date with my friend Paige and planned on running after that.  But once my hubby got home he told me when I got back from lunch he needed to go back to work for awhile.  I started panicking!  I did NOT want to break my streak!!!  I belong to a gym that doesn't have childcare...and I have two boys!  But it all turned out great in the end....my awesome hubby let me go run at the gym while he watched the boys and then he went to work when I got back.  He's so awesome!  I love him! 

Anyway, I forgot how different it is to run on a treadmill!  They are not my favorite to run on but desperate times call for desperate measures lol!  I couldn't remember what speed I needed to set it on to run my pace.  I started out at 5.0 and that felt too slow.  So I kept increasing it until I got to 6.5.  I guess it was fairly accurate because my mile was pretty right on.  I'm just glad I got to run!  It wasn't the long run I was aiming for but it was something!

On another note, I went to lunch with Paigey today!  We have not gotten together in so long!!!  It was so awesome to see her and catch up!  And...we ate sushi!!!  Yummy!  We had a feast!
 

And no I didn't eat all of that!  That is our food together!  We had the Daphne Roll (has crab meat, tuna, cream cheese, eel sauce, and a few other things in it lol), ginger salad, fried rice, and edamame.  It was sooo good!  Loved spending time with Paige!!! 

Tomorrow morning I'm volunteering at The Grandman Triathlon here in town!  I'm super excited!  I've never been on this end of an event before...I'm always a participant.  Well...I've never done a triathlon but I'm always a participant in races.  Me and my friends are doing a water station for the run part.  The participants have to swim 1/3 of a mile, then an 18 mile bike ride, and then a 3.1 mile run.  It's a very hilly course for both the bike and run so it's challenging.  I've been a spectator before and it's amazing to watch these athletes accomplish this!  I can't wait till tomorrow!



Another Birthday Run!

Stats-
3.11 miles/31:11
Average pace- 10:01

I'm loving all the birthdays this week!!! We met in Angela and Gina's neighborhood to run this morning. The plan was to run 3 miles and when we got finished there would be a table full of breakfast for the birthday girl! It was great! She was super surprised..I love it!!!

Here's Angela and I when she saw the birthday fun!

All of us who ran/celebrated with Angela!

Angela...the birthday girl!!!

The run itself was great for me! It was super hilly and I haven't done hills in awhile because of my hip hurting. I had forgotten how much I secretly (shhh don't tell) like hills because they challenge me! Felt great getting such a hard but good run in!

Kat's Birthday Run!

Stats-
4 miles/43:23
Average pace- 10:50

I haven't gotten up early for a mid-week run since the marathon.  But today I wanted to get up for my friend Katrina...it is her birthday and the plan was to run one mile that led her to a surprise breakfast picnic!  She was surprised and it made it all worth getting up early! 

Katrina...the birthday girl!!!

There were a lot of us up early to celebrate Kat's birthday with her!

After a light breakfast I decided to go ahead and finish out my run.  So I ran 3 more miles.  It's amazing how much cooler it is in the mornings!  I've gotten used to running in the afternoon heat!  I have forgotten what I like most about running in the mornings...it starts your day off right and you have your run done!  It's a great feeling!  :-)

New Route...Yay!!!

Stats-
4 miles/41:18
Average pace- 10:20

I headed out tonight planning on running the same route I always run.  But then mid run I decided to change it up...and I'm so glad I did!  It's always so much better to see new things on your run!  When I first started out I passed my friend Coby.  We used to be neighbors....her and her husband were the BEST neighbors!  Around the mid point of my run...I ran into Coby again!  We had both run a big loop...towards each other!  So I turned around and ran back with her until we had to turn opposite ways.  It was nice literally running into a friend along my route lol!  It's a busy week for me...it's the last week of school, Sawyer's preschool graduation, and my class' end of the year party!  I needed this run to clear my head!!!  :-)