you get out of it what you put into it

7.25 mile bike ride after church through the 'hood.

Went to the Cotton Row race expo to get my packet for Monday.  I managed to snag a new pair of shoes that are identical to my current running shoes for $40.  I was thrilled!

Ran the Cotton Row 5k this morning with a girl in my training group.  I pushed her pretty hard and we finished in 38:15.  She was thrilled.  She had told her family that she thought she would finish in 45:00.  It was slow, but so humid out that I was honestly glad when she wanted a walk break.

Ran the 1-mile fun run with my buddy, Bret, and his 5-year old son, Morgan.  Morgan has never even done a lap around the local track and still managed to do an 11-minute mile.  If you've ever ran with an excited child, you know that they zig-zag all over the place.  I bet he ran 1.25 and wasted a TON of energy while Bret and I just ran straight.  He fell and scraped his knee up about halfway through but hopped right back up and kept on running with blood streaming down his leg.  I knew I loved this kid for a reason!  He's tough!  He got a ribbon for finishing and was sooooooooo excited about it.  He was showing it to everyone.  Do I have a budding runner on my hands?  I can only hope...

Ran .75 to the pool as fast as I could.  7:40 pace.

Played for 4 hours in the sunshine with a 5 and 7 year old.  They will flat wear you out.  During the 10-minute rest breaks I tried to swim a few laps.  That was HARD!  I did 200 meters in 25 meter lengths, 3-3-2.  Each lap took between 30-35 seconds.  I was pushing as hard as I could.  I am a slow swimmer, obviously.  That was exhausting.  Triathletes are officially nuts!

Ran .75 back home from the pool when I was completely exhausted.  8:35 pace.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Memorial Day!

5am

sun shining behind the clouds.

beautiful.

tummy full of mexican food.

yuck.

breaking in new shoes.

ouch.

exhausted from a great weekend.

yawn.

Happy National Running Day!

Although I didn't have much time in my schedule to squeeze in a run, I knew I wanted to participate in National Running Day.  So, I ran 1 mile fast to the pool in 7:39.  This was on a full belly too.  I had literally just eaten dinner and walked out the door.  Blah.  I probably could've been 10 or so seconds faster as I slowed down at the beginning to let my buddy catch up but then I ended up leaving him again because I wanted to run hard.

Played at the pool for 2 hours and then had an obligatory ice cream sandwich as I was leaving.  Ran a nice, easy, conversational pace (9:12) home with my buddy after devouring the ice cream.

Good day!

More importantly, Friday is National Donut Day.  If ever a food deserved a national day, it's the doughnut.  Krispy Kreme (my closest donut place) is giving away free donuts!

Worst 5k time ever!  Yippee!  I ran it nice and slow with some friends.

My official time was 37:13.  My goodness!  If that isn't pathetic, I don't know what is.  Oh well... it was fun!

Ran the Eurocross 5k race here in Huntsville.  It's a tough course, and definitely not a place to set a PR (or anywhere near one).  The race is a 1k loop that you run 5 times.  (Did all you mathematicians figure that one out?)  Each loop has 2 deep creek crossings, 1 short but steep hill, and a little jaunt through the woods.  Oh, and you have to jump over multiple hay bales that are lined up next to each other throughout the course.  It was a fun race.... probably the most fun I've ever had in a 5k.  The creek was by far the most enjoyable part.  You basically just jump into water that was like waist deep for the most part.  Holes seemed to pop up out of nowhere and I often fell down to my shoulders.  Thankfully, my head never went under.  (Although, it probably would've felt good, as it was so hot and muggy.)  We had rain every day last week, so the creek was up higher than normal.  You had to crawl out of each creek crossing on your hands and knees which made for a nice, muddy run. 

Just a note on how hot it was:  They have an 8k race too (that I had thought about running but in the end decided to be lazy) and the girl that was winning it passed out from heat exhaustion with about .50 left in the race.  She was taken to the hospital by an ambulance.

I spent the rest of the day at the pool.  6 hours of fun in the sun is exhausting!  I was determined to swim 400 meters, as that is the distance of our local sprint tri's swim portion.  I did it in 12:48 and thought I might die.  Swimming is tough!  I was glad I finished though.  I also learned how to do a back dive which was awesome.  I think the boy that taught me was about 6 years old.  Annnnnnnnddddddd, I did a front flip off the diving board for the first time in years!  It was fun!  It is going to be a GOOD summer!

This is by far my most rambling post ever.  Just ignore me.

Here is a pic of my falling in the water:   

I'm the one on the right in the white shirt.  For some reason, the water seemed much deeper than what the woman in red is walking in.  There really were some pretty deep holes, but my brain must've been exadurating when I retold the story to y'all.  Still the best 5k ever!