race recap!

the race: the bearathon 5k, march 19th, waco, tx

so yesterday was FINALLY the big day! i drove into waco the evening before the race, and we picked up our race packets! it was SO exciting getting my first number, racing chip, etc... even though hanging out with my wonderful friends was a huge distraction, i was still nervous about running in the morning! the longest i had run to-date was about 2.5 miles, so i had my doubts!

anyway, the morning of the race we woke up, put on our running gear, ate a piece of toast, & headed to campus. we made our way to the starting line, and before i knew it, they fired the gun, and we were off! i was running alone because my sister is WAY faster (like 8 min/miles... without any training - ugh) ... but i was okay with that. i had my ipod playing ridiculously loud, and i was pumped! it was hard at first to set my pace with so many other runners around, but after the first mile, the crowd thinned out a ton, and i found myself just chugging along at a comfortable speed.

the best part of the whole thing was that all along the race course, there were people cheering! AND i was handed more cups of water/gatorade than i can even remember! i could get used to that!

the race actually went by really fast! before i knew it, i was jogging back towards campus and looping around to the finish line! my sister was waiting for me, and i sprinted in! my time was rather unimpressive (36:41 -- i even got beat by a guy in a wheelchair!), but i honestly DID NOT CARE! i was just so ecstatic about having run the entire thing without stopping! i can definitely see how people get addicted to racing! it's such a huge adrenaline rush on top of the endorphin rush from working out! LOVED IT.

big thanks to the couch-2-5k program! if i can do it, ANYONE can do it. seriouslyyyyy!!!

the socialite

this weekend was a huge departure from my usual routine of: laundry, cooking, shopping, running, cleaning, etc -- this weekend i actually got to hangout with friends! and lots of them! post-grad life has made me appreciate seeing just one friend - so you can imagine how happy i was to see so many! hooray for spring breaks!

thursday i had dinner with julie. friday morning i had coffee with my favorite co-worker. friday night i went to the rodeo & lady antebellum concert with lindsey and her wonderful mom. saturday i went shopping with my sister. and today i went to lunch & shopping with lindsey & cecilia. talk about social overload! not to mention that i will be in waco next weekend! i ALMOST feel like i'm back in college. almost.

and for the random update:

1) i still don't think i've run 3 miles, but i have run 32 minutes straight. i'm the slowest runner ever, but hey, whatever works. bearathon 5k is less than a week away: freakout!!! i'm hoping a race-day adrenaline rush will power me through!

2) one day i will actually make an effort to take food pics that look good. i snapped these with my ghettotastic phone - meditteranean lunch sampler (2 kinds of couscous, cucumber salad, mushroom salad, an eggplant dish, & hummus) as well as my oatmeal (topped with fage and pumpkin butter). YUM to both.

3) a spontaneous run to target with my sister turned into a target-filled weekend. we found the cutest swimsuits on clearance - and of course there weren't matching tops & bottoms. so i hit up 3 different locations. TOTALLY worth it though. i ended up with 4 swimsuits for $36: WIN!

4) this time change totally has me thrown off. its 11pm. but it's really only 10pm. but if i don't go to bed now, waking up for my 6am run (which will actually be 5am) is going to be impossible. so GOODNIGHT!

dinner post!

so i've totally failed at taking pictures of my dinners as promised. i think i'm just too hungry by the time it's ready and completely forget. not that you really care about what i eat, but i've been reading so many health blogs where they take a picture of EVERYTHING that they eat that i now think that's normal.

ANYWAY, so today i managed to actually snap a picture of dinner because it was particularly amazing and totally picture worthy. not that you can tell from the terrible quality of my ghetto cell phone, but whatever:


on the menu: grilled salmon (my current obsession), roasted asparagus/mushrooms/red peppers/onions, pasta salad with feta, & broccoli slaw -- basically my dad and i were trying to use up all the vegetables in the fridge before they went bad, and it turned out really good!!!

anyway, happy wednesday! we are FINALLY moving downhill towards the weekend!

SUCCESS!!!

so i'm happy to announce that i have finally completed the couch-2-5k program!!!!!

i have to admit that i never thought i could do it, but i did!!! - this morning i ran for a full THIRTY minutes - woaaaah. can't say i've ever done that before :) - it wasn't quite 3 miles because let's be honest, i'm SLOWWWWWWW.... so slow infact that a woman with a jogging stroller and twins passed me up yesterday: embarassing.

but ANYWAY, it was reassuring to be able to run 30 minutes with the bearathon 5k less than 2 weeks away (!!!) - eeeeek - i hear race day adrenaline is out of control, so if i can run 30 minutes, i should easily be able to finish the whole race!

so my focus for the next 12 days is going to be working on getting stronger and a tad faster!

on another note, my mom is out of town which means i've been promoted to official meal-planner + executive chef. i'm hoping to document my creations this week to share with yall! today i made coconut-almond granola + pumpkin butter using recipes i found on kath's website (www.katheats.com) -- both came out wonderfully! special thanks to diana for sharing her site!

sweet tooth

so i made the mistake of deviating from my health blogs and stumbled upon one of my old favorites: browneyedbaker. between her mouthwatering recipes + my out-of-control, hormone-induced chocolate cravings, this recipe for popcorn puppy chow was bound to happen. less than 10 minutes after reading the recipe, i was popping this deliciousness in my mouth. TOTALLY hit the spot. and i even omitted the butter. you've gotta try this madness:


picture and recipe courtesy of: http://www.browneyedbaker.com/2011/02/24/chocolate-peanut-butter-popcorn-poppy-chow/