March – Cupcake Run 2013, yes please!

Before

With only a week between 5ks, my sister and I had 3 goals, train 2 times during the week, and get our outfits together….cause it’s not how fast you are, it’s how you look (that’s what we tell ourselves) and find an arm band for my iphone so I don’t throw it down mid race again.  

 We got our wogging in, the weather was still cold, but not freezing. We’ve learned that even when it is cold by mile one, you’ve warmed up and it’s not bad at all, unless it’s raining.  It’s only been a week since the last diet update so not suprising that I was still maintaining a strict diet (hadn’t cheated at all), still no more than a pound or two down, grrrrrr! I’ve been wearing Asic Gels since starting in January and haven’t had a shin splint since! My brother in law took care of the arm band, got me a super cute neon pink holder…. Works like a charm, so Check and check. Now on to the outfits!  Elise and I have to shop in different departments… we are both petite, but Elise has to buy more children clothes and I have to shop in the short and wide section. At the local sporting good store she lucked out, not only did they have a girls running skirt, there was a cupcake shirt for her! Grrrrr! I ended up getting a running skirt and jacket at Walmart in hot pink  and just drawing a cupcake on a shirt myself. We found TONS of “will run for Cupcake” shirts and Cupcake hats online, but didn’t have time to order them. Our finishing touches were the hot pink knee socks and Tobagons we found a Dick’s sporting goods. So out fits, check!

Packet pick up;  Race packet, bib numbers and shirts were picked up the day before the race at the store that was hosting the race. Totally Running in Cumming (Click here to see their store.). There was a wait, the line ran through the store, but it wasn’t bad, the store has a lot of cute merchandise which I plan on going back and getting some of if I ever have money again! I  Love, Love, LOVE the race shirts… they were more feminine cut shirts, not the typical boxy mens style tshirt you normally get at a race and super soft.  I also checked out the race route and parking to know how and where and what we had in store for the next day. Totally Running has a small parking lot, but there’s an outdoor mall across the street and cross walks, so not a problem! The race route looked good, nothing scared me!

Race Day: Sigh, it was cold, VERY cold and suppose to rain….low 30’s. We arrived on time, parked and crossed to the race start…while at the crosswalk waiting and freezing apparently a friend saw us as he drove to work and posted on facebook that he had seen us! (small world and I’m thankful he didn’t honk and make me pee my pants pre race) the sponsor GiGI’s cupcakes  had a tent with all the finishers cupcakes and a huge propane heater blowing on it to help the frozen cupcakes defrost. However we circled around it and stayed there until the race start…. Even while the MC was doing the warm up/pre race exercise we stayed in front of the heater! We were anxious to get this race started, for the sake of self preservation alone. Our cousin, and our inspiration to start running in the first place, drove up from Warner Robbins to join us! So we were cold, but excited to wog our first race together! I didn’t eat or drink prior to the race, phone was in arm band, prepped and ready. Race started and went off without a hitch… in our warm up a lady did fall in front of us, and I swear it was the longest fall ever, it was like she kept trying not to fall as she was falling and took like 60 seconds and 20 feet for her to hit the ground… (TIP, watch out for pot holes, cracks in sidewalk, curbs, orange cones and anything else in your path!)  Long story short, we ran every session, Amy did her job and coached us through the intervals before she died crossing the finish line (my phone refused to hold a charge anymore)  and we finished about 7 minutes faster than the last 5K.  And then my cousin let us know , looking at her fancy schmancy, gps watch, that we didn’t do a complete 5k… the route was a few tenths short of a full 3.1 race. Grrrrrr. So our time was better, just not as good as we thought. BUT if they are saying it’s a 5K then I’m taking credit for it!  We stood in line for our super delish cupcakes, I was stoked this would be my first cheat since I started dieting!  It was SO good, but I only got half way through it before I felt sick.. (haven’t had sugar in 6 weeks) and only about 30 minutes before it ran through me! (gluten and carb blow out, good times) It was a great race, the rain held off, we actually wogged as much as we walked. Race run, no major hitches, this was getting easier!  Feeling accomplished!  I can, I will, I DID! (and you can too!)

 

After! I'll be happy when i don't turn tomato red when i run, it clashes with my pink!

Sooooo worth it!

To register for Next years Cupcake Run and any other race sponsored by Totally Running, Click here!

February - Run the Reagan 2013

Before - Freezing

By this point we are in month 2 of WOGSTRONG 2013… Signed up for a smaller local 5K called “Run the Reagan” (held on a section of a 6 mile highway in the county we live in) We are wogging 3 times a week, after work, before dinner and while our sons are at wrestling practice) However we are still on week TWO of our Couch to 5K program (8+ weeks in, yep we’re animals) … we love the APP, have certain suggestions we’d like to make to the company, but even still we use it religiously.  Our “coach” on the app is a British Woman, who we call Fat Amy…. Because I’m pretty sure the voice over person just sat and ate donuts while she recorded all her phrases!  Amy helps us through each run with a “that’s it, 15 seconds to go” and a “almost there” or “halfway there!”  Every bit of encouragement helps,  however I personally think when she says “45 seconds left” she waits about 80 before saying “that’s it, walk now” at least that’s how it feels. Even still we have become extremely dependent on Amy for our Wogging sessions and don’t leave home without her.

Preparation:  We were doing better, actually running ALL our sessions with Amy, so we were in check as far as physical training.  We both started making changes in our diets…. I made radical changes in January… eliminated starchy carbs, eating low fat, low calories and much smaller portions than I had been… I thought I’d lose weight fast, I didn’t.  I had to eat right for 4 weeks before a pound came off. I was frustrated with the numbers,  but I felt better. I no longer felt gross  and blaa after eating!  As far as our appearance for the race Elise and I decided to resort to our roots and dress/costume for this race. I joked that seeing it was a Presidents day race and we were running on the Reagan, that we should dress as Ron and Nancy Reagan and pass our Jelly beans, but we figured no one would know who we were dressed as and if we dropped Jelly Beans there could be cartoon like madness on the race route! We decided to stick with American Flag theme! I was personally frustrated that EVERY store in the mall had British flag shirts, pants, earrings, but nothing American.  We managed to find one store that had silk flag scarves and we went with those, got red and blue running skirts and jackets from Walmart and USA tiaras from the party store….we wanted flag leg warmers and searched high and low (Have since found some) but in a crunch we bought soccer socks and cut the toes out to make leg warmers out of them. Layered on top of my sports tank, TWO running bras, a fleece lined buff and a pair of mittens I was ready.  So we had our outfit prepped and our bodies ready, mostly.

Packet pick: up was a couple days prior at a local Sporting goods store, fast in and out, Small race, no lines, easy peasy!

Race day: Seeing the race was 12 miles from my door we weren’t worried about major traffic or parking issues, our only worry is that it was now cold. COLD! Temp in the 30’s and the wind was horrible, cut straight through our clothes, but we had just the right amount that we didn’t freeze pre-race and were just right on the run… ear coverage is a must for me, the wind in my ears causes serious aches!  Because I was more relaxed and the race started later in the morning I thought it’d be safe to eat a banana before heading out! My 16 year old went along to cheer us on aka hold our stuff and possible pick up a cute girl while there! On arrival the music was pumping, people warming up/huddled in groups to keep from freezing. The three of us danced in place until the start to keep from freezing up and there were even people there in shorts! (another sign runners are a little crazy)

  There weren’t corrals for this race, everyone was in one group for the 5K, TONS more personal space while standing waiting for the start compared to the Hot Chocolate run last month. Looking around I was far less judgmental, you’d be surprise how many people can run faster  and further than I can, the only thing I thought was “why does that dude have a GoCam strapped to his chest while we merely run down the straight highway, weird”  We were far less nervous  this go round, after all we have Fat Amy and my son at the finish line.  The mc calls the Race’s start and we start our 5 minute warm up walk.  Doing good, really cold, but really well.   Ran our first 5 sessions, not a hitch as we hit the halfway point we pass a girl singing “what doesn’t kill me makes me stronger” and pumping her fist at the sky… we cross the median/halfway point to head back… feeling so excited to be where we are and then it happens I dropped my iphone. I dropped Amy.  (I’ve dropped my phone a million times and never had an issue, til this day) the next 3-5 minutes were up hill and I wogged and tried to get my phone to boot back up…It came on and then shut off immedietly . I shook my phone, squeezed it and tried again, it turned on and I clicked on Amy and she turned off again…”No Amy, NOOOOOOO.. you can’t quit on us now”  it was like a movie when the person gets tunnel vision, the road ahead looked 100 miles long and ALL up hill (I only had a mile and a half to go, but it was all up hill) Elise tried to be cheerful, but I could tell she was scared too. It was like all rational thought was gone, I didn’t know to stop, sit down, go the other direction, without Amy we were lost.  Elise said “we’ll just run to that sign” and “we’ll just run for 45 seconds, I’ll count it out in my head” we stayed strong an pressed on!

 

 

 

 As if I wasn’t in a panic enough and mourning the loss of Amy,  IT hit me….the banana! Not a thought, the feeling…. All the sudden I had to GO. (Yep, that’s another fun and interesting runner tip… if you have food in your system, and you haven’t pooped before you run, running can make things move, faster.)   So Elise is saying “we’ll just run to that sign” and I’m tightening every muscle in my body and I say “I can’t”  In her uber sweet way she says “Yes you can, you’ve done this before” and I say “NO, I can’t I’m trying not to crap myself” to which Elise says, “I totally understand that” and she stops pressing…. I walk, hard and fast… concentrating on every muscle…. The gloves come off, literally, I’m sweating profusely and not because I’m running! Without a phone I can’t send the text to my husband and kids that we are almost there (who had arrived with the littles and 2 more of our bigs)  or even say have the car waiting so I can make a mad dash to the bathroom…..but like a desert mirage we see the finish, and I decide to pick up the pace and actually run it in (Elise left me in the dust again)….We made it! Even bettered our time from the Hot Chocolate 5K! It was an awesome feeling to cross the finish line and have my children and husband there! Our celebration was short lived, gotta go, gotta go, gotta go! I can, I will, I did and not in my pants!

 Such satisfaction in completing month two’s personal challenge… more lesson’s learned,  Next race I WILL not eat before hand! March’s race was 1 week away so we went to lunch at our favorite restaurant and started planning our wardrobe for the CUPCAKE 5K, oh yeah! For those of you just reading, I wont continue to blog 2 and 3 times a day, I am trying catch up to present day races. I’m sorry if I’m confuing past and present tenses or talking about we and I a lot, I’m just wanting to share the races that got us to where we are now and where we are headed and dealing with my aches, pains and weight all along the way. Once I catch up on posts, I’ll make more sense. Then again, maybe I won’t!

After!

 

If you are interested in running the Reagan in 2014, 5K, 10K or half marathon, Click here!

 

 

This is my 16 year olds interpretation of my new running prowress! Love it! Me-yow!

 

The Hot - Hot Chocolate Run 5k Atlanta

 

                                         Hot Chocolate Run 5k Atlanta - January 2013 - Race !

So four weeks of “training” (ß- put air quotes there, because any real trainer would laugh and pee their pants at our training) and preparation went into our first serious 5k.  We shopped all the local sporting goods stores and found what felt like the least bulky cold weather running gear. We were going into this blind, had no idea what to expect of any of it! I wore cold weather Nike running pants, a New balance Hoodie, over a sports tank, over TWO sports bras (yep that’s right, 2… it solved the clapping issue!), Shoes were Asics Gels, as we learn what works for us we will share,  everything matters from the panties (FYI serious marathon runners typically go without, I am not THAT serious yet!) to the socks, things rub or hang or hit in the wrong spots will cause chaffing or blisters and really takes some of the fun out of the whole experience!

Packet pick up day was a couple days prior to the race at The World Congress Center. (Who knew the place was as big as it is? We unknowingly parked up front and had to walk through the entire center/Boat show/ Car show to get to registration. I thought to myself I might have set my expectations a little too high seeing the walk to packet pick up was kicking my butt, but I pressed on.  The Pickup room was one big party, we’ll know next year to not leave the kids in the car (with the husband) and take the family in. Loud music, hot chocolate, games and really fast cue lines to move the 20,000 participants helped get everyone pumped up!  The hoodies ran a little small but they had an exchange area to switch out for the correct sizes. (Not all races do this) The Vendor and race merchandise area was great, prices very reasonable. Will take purses in next year to do shopping prior to race day.  They do have the merchandise at the race, but the lines are crazy, and where to shove your stuff is an issue.  We were in and out in no time (minus the 15 minute walk to and from) but could have stayed and partied and pumped up for the race for a couple hours!

 

Race day: All bundled up and nervous as a couple cats, we headed towards downtown Atlanta Turner Field at 6 am.  Knowing where you are going is important, you must account for traffic and parking delays. The parking for the Hot Chocolate run was all over the place… we actually parked about ½ mile from the race, so know what to expect and plan ahead, for big races you might have to walk! As soon as we arrived at the start we went ahead and got in line for the portapotty, yep at 7 am there was already a long line. They were already out of paper towels at the sink areas and by race start were out of toilet paper. So since then I keep Kleenex, a couple paper towels and wet naps in my race bag. Big races like the HC5k have gear check to leave your backpack/fanny pack at while you run, not all races do this, again give yourself time for lines to drop and be prepared to wait after! I prefer to leave my stuff with my cheerleader/husband, but if you are on your own, gear check is a good thing! For this race I left the back pack in the car and so I had my minimalist SPIbelt to hold my ID, inhaler and iphone…. It is perfect for us, not bulky or heavy and holds the minimum stuff we needed! I have a few necessaries when I race, mint gum in my mouth (keeps my mouth from being dry and tasting yucky from all the heavy breathing) gloss/chap stick on my lips, sunglasses (which has already evolved and I no longer run in my Aviators) and my iphone (pre and post race pics are a must for us)

                                                                          Before

 

The MC/Race announcer began calling corrals to line up… because of our super slow times we were in the last corral, in the back of 20,000 runners with many blue hairs and other novice runners. Because of the number of participants each corral started in 7 minute increments. We stood and nervously waited for what seemed like forever, we trained in rain, sleet and freezing temps and here we were on the hottest day in January (70 degrees and muggy) we were as prepared as we were going to be, we looked like we knew what we were doing, but didn’t have a clue. We stood (and horribly) eyeballed the completion  saying to ourselves which person we thought we could beat. Then they made the call “On your mark, get set and GO” and all those blue hairs we eyeballed took off and left us in the dust! Out of the gate and up the bridge and we were off….as we were starting, corral G,  the runners in corral A were already finishing.  There is a comradery in runners that the first cheers for the last and the last woop and holler for the first. They all look so athletic, smiling, hardly winded, then cut to me ¼ mile in I’m red faced and wiping my nose on my sleeve! Elise and I walked hard and fast, we had no idea the race route and had no idea what to expect, which for beginners really plays mind tricks on you.  When you start to doubt that you can’t finish, knowing where you are on the route helps, tremendously!  FYI race route maps on paper and computer screens DON’T look hilly, so driving the course pre race is a huge help!

   I thought it was funny and kind of evil that the first mile marker was in front of a Waffle House, it was here we saw the little boy on crutches that was faster than us and we decided to run a little…. We actually ran for a block and then went back to walking…. It seemed every turn in the race turned to an uphill section of the race, Elise prodded me a long, encouraged and would ask if I was ready to run a bit… she would always say “we’ll run to that sign up there”… and I’d try my best, but could not make it even that short distance. I guess it’s the kindergarten teacher in her, but she ALWAYS encourages and applauds my smallest accomplishments…. As we continued to walk and wog the hills of Atlanta, she became a tour guide…”look over here, the Capital Building” and “oh, how pretty is that” and “I hope, Ryan enjoys the sights as much as I am” (Her husband was doing the 15K version of our race) and I am thinking; I’m trying to move air, and not fall down and she’s talking, smiling and laughing.  As we made the turn and saw the finish line she looked at me and said “I’m not walking in, do you mind?” and I gasped and choked out a “no go-head” she smiled and ran on…. I watched her leave me in the dust and tried to catch my breath and run it in too, which I did or at least I think I did, I honestly can’t remember anything after Elise left me!  The finishing stretch is covered with hundreds of people cheering you on, how could you walk it in?…. crossing our first finish line was such an awesome feeling…. Accomplishment and pride, we did it! 

 

 

We lined up for our Hot Chocolate (didn’t want it, was too hot) and our souvenir cups with hot fudge, bananas, pretzels, cookies and more(YUM!), my skin got all tingly and I had this really weird full body sensation.  I now know that it was an adrenaline rush, but then I thought it was oxygen deprivation or possibly a stroke. Elise and I sat and enjoyed our goodies, I painted Chocolate on my face as war paint (Mistake – no paper towels for clean up, duh!) took pictures and just relished in the moment.  The after party was pumping, but I honestly don’t remember it…. I guess I was experiencing my first Runners High?    Note – even on warm days after you run and sweat, you will get chilled.(NOW I wish I had Hot Chocolate)  Also if you want to take your dirty cups home, take a ziplock bag to put them in or be prepared to wait in another line to get a bag.   We moaned and savored our bananas, chocolate and water, admired my big ole sweat print I left on the asphalt were I sat (I was in denial of how wide I was because at first glance I said, that’s too big to be me!) and then proceeded back to the finish line to cheer on her husband… we were so proud of our 3.1 miles and here comes Ryan and his 9.6 miles to rub our mediocrity in our faces! (He didn’t really) As I stood there at the finish and watched all the families with signs and children cheering on their moms, I thought “what an awesome example I can set for my children” and then crossing the finish I saw what I assume was 2 sisters, but it could have been friends finishing the 15K and the one sister reached back and grabbed her sisters hand and they crossed the finish line together. I teared up. I may not be able to run more than a minute in a half in one stretch, but I have already come so far because of my sister, my husband, children’s support, and I can’t wait for Elise and me to cross the finish hand and hand of our first 10K!  I can, I will, I DID!

                                          After (see i'm red and she's all cute and smiley?)

 

                        To look for and register for a Hot Chocolate 5K in your area, click here!

                                                              If we can do it - you can too!

 

Push through the pain aka Wogging with Fibromyalgia

 

 

Push through the pain aka Wogging with Fibromyalgia

Our first official 5k of our personal challenge  (we’ll call it Wogstrong 2013) was the Hot Chocolate 5k. We registered for it in December 2012 and began training,  giving ourselves 4 weeks to prepare.  My sister and I decided cold weather wogging and walking would be our best plan of attack along with the Couch to 5K app.  Our first wogging practice session (walk + Jog) was more of a walking session, well more of a walking and me crying like a baby and say “I can’t” a lot.  I have Fibromyalgia.  I was diagnosed over ten years ago, but never really would admit it or talk about it. I felt it had a stigma attached to it about being lazy or even crazy.  I have learned that NOT talking about it or admitting I have it, doesn’t change how bad I hurt on any given day, doesn’t change how the symptoms have worsened over the years and I know that I am in no way a lazy person. (crazy, maybe)

A quick definition of Fibromyalgia,  the nerves in my body react different to pain than yours. What should be a simple discomfort to the average person is severe and sometimes crippling to me. I have pain, severe pain in different areas of my body and it changes constantly. I can be fine today and wake up tomorrow feeling like my ankles are broken.  My lower back hurts, always. Silly things like elastic in a sleeve touching my skin can be so painful that I can focus on nothing else. A kiss from my husband with a beard can feel like ice picks stabbing me in the face, bless his heart he is SO good to me and SO patient.  Sounds over stimulate me and cause me to be irrational and angry….for example the sounds of people eating make me VERY agitated.  I haven’t sat at the table to eat with my entire family for 6 years now.  I am a smart woman, but mid sentence I lose words and can’t bring myself to speak them, no matter how hard I try.  I struggle with short term memory loss, they call it Fibro Fog, but I can’t remember why I got up and went into another room, what I went for the fridge for, or where I parked at the store more often than not. I really don’t say how often this happens because I think it’s pretty scary. I have to remind myself when doing one load of laundry leaves me exhausted, that I’m not lazy, it’s fibro.  “Push through the Pain” is my personal mantra, even tattooed it on my arm. What started as an homage to giving birth naturally, truly defines me in my life now.  When people ask what it means I respond with “Having babies, losing babies, having husbands, losing husbands, being fat , losing weight, every aspect of life.”  More recently it’s running that I’m pushing through.

Back to training, when we registered to do the 5K we said we could do a 14 minute mile…. And we could not, so our  4 week goal was to knock our 17 minute mile down to 14 so we weren’t liars! Our first practice after 10 steps, I felt like my shins were breaking and simply said I can’t and walked it. (New shoes were now a must)  I knew Elise was ready to run on without me, but she stayed by my side and walked the 2 miles with a lot of whining and threatening to vomit along the way. Elise just kept telling me I could and I was, and I did.   Three or more times a week we wogged or walked as fast as we could for the 4 weeks prior to the race….we were using the Couch to 5K app but repeated week 2 every week, we vowed not to move on until we could actually completely run minute and a half our sessions without walking when we were suppose to be running.  Understand that Elise and I are short I am 5 feet nothing and she is shorter, so our legs have to work twice as hard to keep up with the average persons stride and pace! I was 30 pounds over weight and  struggling to just move air as we walked hard,  I was realizing how  out of shape I really was on our walks, but we were going to do this.  It might kill me but I was not gonna take the “Poop out van” before I even did my first real 5K.

A week prior to the January  race in sleet, rain and freezing temps, we bundled up and headed out for some REAL training.  Soaked and shivering we finished our wog realizing we needed to buy appropriate cold weather running gear.  This time we were going focus less on costuming and actually try and better our time.  Keeping in mind, that by even getting off our butts and trying was better than where we were a month before!

Fibromyalgia might be the reason I won’t be able to move tomorrow, but it is not the excuse I will use today to not push myself!

 

The Jingle Run 12-1-2012

 

Our first race… We came, we walked, We WON, We WON!!!!

 

It sounds like the beginning of a joke “A deranged rabbit, Rudolph, and a couple of snowmen pull into a park”…. And it was pretty funny… we pulled into a local park that cold December morning for the Jingle Run 5k, a race benefitting the Arthritis Foundation… and my sister and I giggled. No one in line had dressed in costumes but the website and registration did say to wear them! (we now know the serious runners don’t typically dress in full costumes for races and they typically arrive early) We shrugged our shoulders, laughed and unloaded.  Heck we had spent a week on our costumes they weren’t going to waste! What unfolded over the next 2 hours is what movies are made of, not blockbuster million dollar movies, but quaint small budget, feel good independant movies.  We got checked in, pinned on our bibs (running numbers that allow the race people to register your start and finish time), let the littles see Santa and proceeded to the starting line.  We had already set our goals low…. planned on just walking it a) we were out of shape, b) the baby was in an umbrella stroller because in all our prep for the race, checking the jogging stroller that had been sitting for over a year wasn’t on the checklist and it had a dry rotted tire, oops!  c) we had four small children in tow. We prefaced the race with even if we don’t finish our money is going to a good cause, but our goal was to just finish avoid the “poop out van” at all cost! We had already been stopped at least 20 times for photo ops… everyone wanted pictures with the Deranged pink bunny (think Raphie in A Christmas Story), and Elf on a Shelf, Rudolph, A Grumpy little Santa, and two Snow mommies in tutus… I’d like to think it was because of our excellent costumes, but I’m sure they were uploaded to everyone’s facebook pages saying, “look at these crazy freaks” and “OMG, check this out” (if you see them please tag me! Heehee) The race starts and we soon realize how unprepared we were, so we held back and let all the people with arthritis (not joking) that were running, the elderly people, and just about everyone else pass us… by the first mile marker we had developed a pattern of the Elf, Bunny,  and Rudolph running about 100 yards ahead of us and then sitting on a park bench and waiting on us to catch up. Don’t worry Rudolph had  20 bells on, we could hear her a mile away and the Pink Bunny was never out of sight.  Elise and I began to learn about 5ks,  the first of many lessons I will pass on. Shoes, good shoes are very important factor, (duh!) for the sake of my costume I wore black snow boots… cute as can be, but even just walking in them for 3.1 miles, sucked,  back hurt, blisters, the works (motrin is your friend).  And then there’s Layers, when you layer because it’s cold, in a race you heat up after a mile, even just walking one, and the layers need to come off! So 3 pairs of tights, 3 shirts, etc. is a bad idea. Undressing as you walk and needing someplace to store the stuff is an issue.  The more races we’ve done the more we have learned, what to wear, what to pack and how to carry it… I will pass on the info to you!  At the halfway point is where we said “ONLY HALFWAY, ARE YOU FREAKING SERIOUS?” and then met up with a Sorority that fell in love with the littles. Their attention kept the boys going… at every stop the Elf and deranged bunny posed for photos,  paused for laughs and applause from passers by.

 By the last mile Rudolph had lost all her bells and we had stripped down to one layer and the bunny was a dirty mess… red faced and rough looking, we finished.  It took us an hour and 15 minutes to walk 3.1 miles… we think, they actually didn’t post our time because we were so slow, but from what we can piece together that’s how long it took us.  We finished! The thing about 5K’s no matter what your time is,  the crowd cheers just as loud for the last runners as they do the first. We did it, it wasn’t pretty, but we finished what we started…. We headed to the finishing party already under way, they were finishing up passing out all the medals to the winners, the littles got their Krispy Kreme’s,  which to them were trophies and we got our water and banana’s. We proud of ourselves… we did it, and then when we thought we were done for the morning walking away from the after party  they handed us a medal, for best costumes!  We WON, We WON! And with that we were hooked!  Well that and the feeling that we had actually accomplished something before 10am on a Saturday.  We later discussed doing more and then decided to resolve for the New Year to do one 5K every month little did we know what we were really starting and how it would change us. We signed up for the Hot Chocolate 5K in Atlanta and started to train! Subscribe to my blog and take the journey with us, get inspired, learn from our experiences at our races, support us as we train and challenge ourselves….. tips from previous races and up and coming races also (The Color Run, The Hot Chocolate Run, Run the Reagan, Zombie Run, Electric Run and more)

Register for this years Jingle Run here:

http://jbrwgwinnett.kintera.org/faf/home/default.asp?ievent=1069686http://jbrwgwinnett.kintera.org/faf/home/default.asp?ievent=1069686

 

Snowman, Elf on the shelf and Rudolph costumes were made, Deranged Bunny was ordered online.

In the Beginning...

I am starting this blog to inspire and educate other unlikely athletes...we are still novices, but hope to inspire others.  We are just 2 sisters, mothers, wives, partners in crime, and unlikely athletes (my fibromyalgia, her scoliosis)** will blog about these things later, but we are making healthy changes and healthier choices in our lives and it feels SO good!

To me “Run” was always such an intimidating word.  If the subject ever came up I would quickly respond with “I can’t, I have bad knees” Truth be told that I had only run twice in past years.  Once, I tried to run through the grocery parking lot in a torrential down pour, where I ended up doing a belly slide (like into home plate) across two parking spaces and the second attempt was after the birth of my fifth child I decided to get in shape by running, as I took off on my inaugural run and began to pick up the pace I realized what I thought was someone clapping to cheer me on, was actually my boobs slapping. Mortified I walked the rest of the path. When I got to the other side of the track and told my husband he responded with an “I know, I could hear it across the lake” That was it, my Couch to 5K training plan came to a screeching halt… I vowed to never run again.  So a year and a half later, when my baby sister asked me to do a Christmas 5k with her, I agreed knowing we were going to walk it! Well, I agreed because she lured me in with the costume contest, but I committed, therefore I went.  More preparation went into actual costuming than training for this event, which was evident by the amount of time we spent exercising (ZERO), equipment prep (zilch, Realized the jogging stroller had a dry rotted tire the night before the race from where it sat from the boob clapping event 18 months prior), Shopping for costumes and sewing (about a week) … What happened, in short, has changed my life… I will blog about the Jingle run and its hilarity next.  I want others to realize that taking a step, getting up and moving is life altering. I was out of shape, overweight, depressed and making excuses of why I was that way instead of getting off my butt and changing it for myself.  After the Jingle Run we decided to commit to one 5K a month for a year, to help us get in shape.  Five months in, we are addicted; we are doing at least 2 races a month, running 3 times a week, and preparing for our first 10K.

Well, let me be clear, we don’t run, we wog (walk + Jog)… it’s far less intimidating… We can’t run nonstop for long periods yet, we do “intervals” run a couple minutes, walk a couple minutes,  but we are working on it… we are learning as we go, pushing ourselves, bettering ourselves. I want to share what we are learning… give tips on what to do, learn from our mistakes, let you laugh at us. I want to encourage you to make a difference in how you feel, how happy you are.  To show you how to prepare for certain popular races and share with anyone who cares to ride along with us! Share healthy recipes that work for busy moms! Hopefully along the way as we learn and share we will a) bring awareness to some of the causes we are committed to and b) share with you the products we use and love and c) maybe get some sponsorship to help fund our new addiction!

I’m going to blog about each race, share pics, let you laugh at our time, talk about what really happens to my body while wogging (as ugly as it really can be) trust me it ain’t purty. Join me, see our changes, get inspired and make a difference in yourself! Please subscribe, share and join us on this ride!