6 Month Review

Wow!  Can you believe it's July 1st already?  It seems like yesterday that it was freezing out and we were all wishing it was warmer.  Now it's warmer and I'm wishing it were colder.  LOL!  But, I'm a bigger fan of winter than summer.  Blasphemy I know.  ;-)

Thought I would do a big recap rather than just my typical weekly one.  It's been enlightening seeing where I am compared to the beginning of the year.  Some of it good, some of it kinda sad actually...

Exercise

I kinda impressed with myself on this front.  I've been using Daily Mile to record my miles this year.  I used it last year too, but I know I didn't do a great job on getting every workout in.  This year, I've been much better at getting on.  I like seeing the monthly numbers.  :-)

Running - 147 miles
Biking - 183 miles

Not bad!  Now, remember I said I didn't record my workouts as religiously last year as I have this.  I went back to Daily Mile to see what I did between Jan. and June 2010 and I came up with 34.53 miles.  ROFLOL!  I guess I did better this year than last.  ;-)  And I did bike at all last year, so I sure beat that record!

Races

I hit the road running this year in the races category!  I've participated in 5 races so far this year.  Not too shabby.  I've done a half marathon, three 5ks, and a failure of a duathlon.

Disney Princess Half Marathon - February 27, 2011

3:21:11

 Hubby and I at the St. Patrick's Day 5k - March 13, 2011

39:36

Yuengling Shamrock Marathon - March 20, 2011

Not my race, but hubby ran his very first marathon and I went to cheer lead and photograph!

 Preakness 5k - May 14, 2011

43:29

Keystone Warrior Duathlon (before disaster struck) - June 11, 2011

2:08:38

Baltimore Women's Classic 5k - June 26, 2011

42:02

Weight

Oddly enough, I've basically stayed the same since the beginning of the year.  The last record I have of my weight is right before Christmas and I'm the same as I was then.  Ugh.  Basically, this means I've been playing with about 6-7 pounds for 6 months.  I need to get my butt in gear to stay here and then go down.  I have lofty goals at this point.  6 months to lose about 30 pounds.  It's doable.  I've done it before.  But, this time it's the last 30 pounds.  Always the hardest mentally and physically.  

Job

Well, I started the year off employed, then not so much.  Then spent two months waiting to volunteer at either the State Museum of Pennsylvania or the Pennsylvania State Archives.  I had the chance to work the Civil War 150 trailer when it was in Harrisburg.  Which was pretty awesome!  Really enjoyed that.  Then, shortly afterwards, I interviewed with the Archives and started volunteering/interning about a month later.  

The Archives have been great!  So much more what I want to be doing with my life than anything I've done in the past (except when getting my MA).  I love basically everything I've been doing - researching, helping other people research, finding document locations, and cleaning historic documents.  And they have given me some amazing opportunities - learn to mend historic documents, behind-the-scenes tours of the Railroad Museum and the Cornwall Iron Furnace, a trip to the top of the Capitol Dome, and the chance to take the PHMC's Archives Without Tears 2-day seminar.  Absolutely incredible experience and fantastic people!  Loving it!!

Conclusion

So, not a bad first half to the year. I'm signed up for my second half marathon already.  I'm running the Philadelphia Half Marathon on November 20, 2011 (Best Time of Your Life).  Hubby ran the half in 2009 and 2010, but this year he's challenging himself to the full.  So, I thought I'd throw my hat in the ring and run the half.  Why not?  ;-)  We also have in mind quite a few 5ks, just have to decide which ones to go with.

I've got a weight loss goal of 30 pounds by the end of the year...when we go to Jamaica to celebrate our 10 year wedding anniversary!  So excited!  We'll be hitting Couples, an all-inclusive resort and renewing our vows on the beach.  Ahhh...

I have no delusions of getting a job by the end of the year, but I will continue on with the archives.  I really like it and since I'm not officially interning, I can stay on until whenever, which I plan on doing.  LOL!  I'm going to work my butt off getting experience and then hoping, praying, wishing a job somewhere opens up.  If you'd like to throw out some good vibes to the universe, I would be appreciative.

So, that's it.  The last 6 months in a quick review (with photos!).  Hopefully, the second half of the year is just as fun and exciting!!

The Preakness 5k

Yesterday, hubby and I hit up Baltimore for The People's Preakness 5k.  The race setting consisted of the race track and surrounding streets at Pimlico Park, where the Preakness horse race is run (the second leg of the Triple Crown).  I saw this race last month and because of it's unique location, I kinda wanted to run it.  Convinced the hubby (which really didn't take too much convincing) and we got all signed up.

I liked the location and time the time of day (10:30 a.m. start), since I'm so not a morning person.  LOL!  We got ourselves up and wondered a bit about the race as the sky looked ominous.  But, we got in the car and headed down.  After being caught in traffic that we swore would keep us from getting to the race on time (we did and there was no cause for the delay we could see).

Parked the car and headed to registration where we picked up our bibs.  They were designed like jockey bibs with our number and a horse name. 

How fun is that?  I was really hoping for a diamond design, but eh.  It's ok.  It was still a cool bib.  Across the bottom are three pull-tabs.  The raffle ticket to hand in when you finish to qualify for some Preakness related raffle prizes, you hand in your premium (t-shirt or blanket) ticket after the race rather than before, and of course the all important beer ticket.  I put on my bib and magically became Materialistic Flack.  ;-)  I was hoping for a better name, but whatever.  It was cool.

My thigh muscle was not too happy with me Friday and it felt the same Saturday morning.  So, my goal simply was to run as much of the race as I could and enjoy the funness of the course.  After we stretched out, we headed to the starting area, but not before getting our picture taken in the starting gates!

I headed to the back, which is my typical starting spot.  I'm not a fast runner and I actually appreciated the announcer calling me a jogger.  It's all good.  I had a nice conversation with a couple of ladies about running and the positives and negatives of warm vs. cold weather running.  Oh, did I mention it was kinda raining?  Yea, a nice strong mist was happening all this time.  I was feeling hard-core for running a 5k in the rain.  LOL!

Then we heard the starter gun, which was actually the sound they make at the start of a horse race.  Having never been to a race before, I have no idea what it's called, but it wasn't just a boring old gun!  To go over the chip mats, you ran through those gates and over the mats.  As we did so, the rain starting coming down and wow.  I was nervous about the up-coming track portion of the race.  But, just as we came around the corner and hit the sand on the track, the rain slowed down and it went back to misting.  Phew!

The track.  It was rough.  I'm not going to lie.  It reminded me of the beach...and not the part down bear the water where it's easy to walk.  No.  This is the area that got wet from high tide, then started to dry out.  It wasn't easy and it was a little over a mile long.  As we came around the grandstand area, there was an announcer calling out names.  Because I was somewhat alone when I passed the volunteer, they called my name over the loud speaker, "Here comes Christina ------ riding Materialistic Flack from Mancester, PA!"  It was kinda funny.

We ran along the track here.  By the time I took this photo, they had cleaned up the track.

We left the track and ran along the stables.  I saw a few horses in their stalls, but not many.  We headed into the streets and to eat up miles, ran down one side of the street, turned around at the fence and ran up the other side.  I stopped at the water stop (there was only one) and grabbed a water.  Another runner stopped to drink and we started chatting, then took off together.  It was nice having someone to chat with as I ran.  I've never really had that before.  Being such a slow runner, there usually isn't anyone I know who runs at my pace.  When he hit the 2 mile marker (which was the first one I saw), my new running friend had to slow to a walk because the track did a number on her ankles.  So, off I went alone.

I came across a mom and son, whom I had been either following or leading for about a half a mile.  We had a fun little "competition" with the son.  I would say I couldn't believe he couldn't run faster than me, then he would take off.  It was kinda fun.  Sadly, at some point, I passed them because he just stopped caring.  Mom didn't though.  I felt bad for her. 

I turned the corner and thought I was almost at the finish line.  Go down the side street, turn into the stadium, and BOOM!  Done.  Got down the street, and headed into the stadium.  And kept running.  And running.  I passed a lovely lady and jokingly told her she shouldn't let me pass her.  Turns out, she had surgery 3 weeks ago and was worried about her stitches.  I felt awful.  So, I told her to walk and not catch me.  LOL!  I kept going and ahead of me was a tunnel.  Apparently, the race took you through an underground tunnel to the inside track.  I was nervous honestly because it was steep and kinda muddy from all the sneakers ahead of me.  I came up from the tunnel and turned right, thinking the finish line would be right there.  

The tunnel is back where that tent is towards the back of the photo.

Nope. Ugh.  Did see hubby cheering me on at that point.  Yea!  He took the above photo of me.  I need to raise my legs a bit more when I run.  LOL!  Went down this path and then it curved.  The lady behind me was my friend with the injury.  As I came up to the finish line, she caught up and said she was going to run in with me.  OK!  We picked up our feet and finished strong!  My gun time was 44:22, but my chip time was 43:29.  By no means was it a good run for me time wise, but it wasn't my worse either.  I was dealing with my right thigh muscle being in pain the whole time and dealing with the knee scrape.  Oddly enough, the elbow injury hurt when I was done.  Odd...

After the race, hubby handed me a water (THANK YOU!) and I grabbed a yummy Fruit Bites snack.  We then asked a nice lady to take our photo at the finishing line.

We then grabbed our shirts and beer.  There was a fun band playing and we wandered the inner circle area at Pimlico race track.  Who knows if we would have the chance to do that again?  Overall, it was a fun race and I'm glad we went for it.  The race track itself was challenging, but once done, it is kinda cool to say I've run the horse track at Pimlico.

Slightly Disappointing

Well, after last week, when I kicked butt on exercise and lost 2 whole pounds (the best one week loss in MONTHS!), I totally lost motivation.  With the knee not being at it's best, I decided not to aggrevate it by exercising...at all.  Did nothing.  Then I had a rough day where I just couldn't not eat crap all day.  Bah!

But, I got on the scale this morning.  Normally, I would have skipped it thinking I gained a ton and not wanting to see it.  When I got on this morning, I saw a .2 (yes, there's a decimal point in front of that two) gain from last week.  WHAT?!?  That's nothing!  .2 pounds is not drinking enough water.  .2 pounds is having an extra Hershey Kiss.  2. pounds is having too much salt on my corn on the cob last night. 

Basically, what I'm saying is .2 pounds is nothing.  I can get past this.  I can still lose the 6 pounds I want this month.  I have 2.5 weeks to lose 4.2 pounds.  That's totally doable.

And now I have the motivation I've been lacking this week.  Tomorrow is the Preakness 5k (yea!) and next week starts bricks for my duathlon training (a running/biking or biking/running training workout to get used to transitions).  We're hitting the grocery store this weekend, which is good since we need some veggies and fruit.  I have a good feeling about next Friday!

(Thursday pre-emted) On the road again

Since the knee debacle on Saturday, I've basically sat my butt on the sofa and done nothing.  For several days, the knee wouldn't stop doing disgusting things and it wasn't until Tuesday night, when I let it air out for a few hours, that it started to heal.  It is in much better shape today than Monday and my overly optimistic view of being able to continue working out on it Monday?  Mwahahahahaha!  What was I thinking? 

So, on Thursday (which would have been posted ON Thursday if Blogger hadn't decided to go down for two days) I hit the road again to see what the knee could take.  My idea was a simple walk.  Just get out there and do something to see how the knee would hold up.  Of course, I wore my running shoes rather than my walking/biking shoes.  I thought it wouldn't be a bad idea to do a walk/run, with more walking than running, just to see how it goes.

Turns out I ran more than I walked.  And the knee held up pretty good.  I ran some up hills, I ran some down hills, I ran some straight aways.  I did walk more than I normally would, but eh.  I had planned on walking the whole thing so I can't really complain.  I got it in under 30 minutes, which is ok.  I was proud of running even if my knee isn't in the best of shape.

Which (hopefully) means I'll be good for Saturday's Preakness 5k. *fingers crossed*  I have really been looking forward to it and running around the track (which I'm a little nervous about now, but eh.  It is what it is.).  If I walk more than I usually do (which would be any) of it, that's ok.  I know that my knee may not be 100% up to a 5k and that's fine.  I'm not worried about time or what not.  I'm just happy that my knee will be in good enough shape that I can even go to the race.  And I get a kick-a** t-shirt!

Preakness 5k

Preakness 5k

Late last week, I received an email about a race in Maryland.  Hubby and I do enough runs in Maryland that we get emails from Charm City Run (the major running store in MD), as well as Corrigan Sports (after running the Baltimore Running Festival) and I read about the Preakness 5k coming up in May.  I hit the link to see what it was all about and saw that fun logo and was intrigued.  After reading about it and seeing the course, I thought it might be a cool race to run.  See, it's held at Pimlico Race Track...where the Preakness is run (the second leg of the Triple Crown).  Did I mention you get to run ON the race track?  Yea, that's kinda what sold it for me.  LOL!  

See, I was chatting with hubby yesterday about races.  I like races that are different or fun.  I'm not one for the ultras and ironmans.  I want something I'm going to enjoy or can have fun doing.  I ran my first 5k because it was an all women's race and to this day, it is one of my favorite races.  We ran the 1st (and now 2nd) annual Fort McHenry Tunnel Run because, well, you run through a tunnel on I-95.  How often can you say that?  I love the St. Patrick's Day race we do in Baltimore because there are so many people just out to have a good time.  

You see, I'm not a fast runner and I have no illusions I'm a fast runner.  I'm not.  I go out and just run for the fun of it.  So, to me, fun races, different races are important.  I want the course to be unusual or in a cool place.  I need that to get going.

If you're in the Maryland area and are free on May 14th, come on out and join us at the Preakness 5k.  I think it's going to be lots of fun!