Week 6: Bay to Breakers - San Francisco, CA

Top 10 things I learned (or didn't learn) during my experience at the 100th annual Bay To Breakers 12k in San Francisco, CA 


10. Find a happy place before your run. Center your chi...or whatever

Lake Tahoe! 

                                     



9. Wear comfortable clothing that you can run in. Nudity is not recommended only because of chafing
     issues*

Jealous?

     
                                     

                                           












   *(side note...my shorts led to major thigh chafing that HURT and looks like road rash. Lesson learned.)





8.  Do not wear masks or anything that will impair your vision.

Pac Man ghosts!

7.  Do not run with sticks...you learned this in kindergarten. 

6.  Keep your eyes forward at all times. Keep your focus on the road ahead of you. 

5. Acknowledge supporting spectators but only take what they are offering you if it's water....not booze.

These Smurfs are freakin wasted.

4. On the same note, ignore spectators that may be "heckling" you. 

I'm still not sure why these people were there and why they're so angry. Maybe it was all the Nakeds.

3. Wear sunglasses to protect your eyes from harmful UV rays. And make sure you get a picture of your 

     boyfriend's bitchin' reflection. 

2.  Always keep a positive attitude. 

And number 1......hydrate, hydrate, hydrate! 

Quite possibly one of the worst pictures ever taken. But I show you because I love you. This beer was so delicious.

Needless to say, Bay To Breakers was awesome despite the chafing and a massive hill created by the Devil himself. That thing sucked!! But we had a blast and the route was gorgeous (except the Devil hill). We even saw a guy do a beer bong out of a 3rd story window! I mean, that's just impressive, I don't care who you are.

This was the farthest distance to date (7.46 miles) that I have run consecutively and despite a few points where I saw my life flash before my eyes (the worst being around mile 6), I think I did OK. It made it all worth it to enjoy the party that is San Francisco. Who wouldn't love a city that gets plastered to run a 12k and thinks clothing is optional?!

I say I'm going to move there. Coach Jim might have a different opinion....

    

Stupid Treadmill

So when you watch You Tube and someone falls on a treadmill, it's hilarious!
It's not so funny when it's you, dude!

I had to run 2 miles today so I decided to just to bust it out on the stupid treadmill early this morning instead of doing it after work because I wouldn't have time.
Around 1.5 miles, I got a little distracted and a little clumsy. That's a bad combo when you are on the stupid treadmill.
Needless to say, I fell.

The ONLY thing that made it somewhat funny was the only other person in the gym with me at the time.
There is this lady that I see all the time and even though we've never talked, we've acknowledged each other and I think we have a pretty good "gym relationship"
Well, she doesn't speak any English (which I guess is one reason we've never talked....).
So when I took my little tumble I had no idea what she was trying to say to me but I imagine it was something like this:

"Oh sweetie! I'm so sorry about your tumble. What a stupid treadmill! I saw how awesome you were doing on your run. I mean, you're so super speedy and your form is fantastic! It's totally the stupid treadmill's fault that you fell down. It certainly was not your fault. Would you like me to go make you a margarita? Will that help?"

Thank you Gym Lady. I appreciate your concern. But its 6am.
I don't want a margarita.

                                                             Sprained rotator cuff. Lame.

Week 5: Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure 5k

Week 5 sucked.

Well...let me start over. Week 5 started out great! Throughout my training runs during the week I managed to keep a steady pace and shave almost 2 minutes off my regular time. And these were done with little to no complaining which was a HUGE accomplishment for me. I'm sure Coach Jim really appreciated the few days that I didn't bitch and moan about one thing or another.
(You're welcome, honey.)

And then....

Saturday came.

Saturday was the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure 5k. I have done this 5k several times but I've never actually run it for several reasons.

1. I was chunky.
2. I was lazy.
3. I was (probably) hung over
4. I was a chunky hung over lazy person who just wanted to go to back to bed.

But alas, in my quest to become a super awesome runner, I have to actually run this 5k. Go fig.

One of the reasons it was so hard to run this 5k was the amount of people there. I think at one point I heard an announcer say there were an estimated 20,000 in attendance. That's an extraordinary large amount of people. And that's awesome! This is a great event and its for a great cause. But seriously...how in the hell do you run a race with 19,999 other people?? Solution: get in the front of the starting line and just haul ass in front of everyone!
Ummmm....no, that still didn't work.
Everyone took off of that starting line like tons of pink bats outta hell and I was still just trying to find my footing in all the madness. I couldn't really focus much on my running in the beginning because I was mostly just making the motion to make it look like I was running but really I was just trying not to get trampled. Then it was a matter of maneuvering around strollers, kids, dogs and old people.
Oh! And at one point, the road had a bump that I swear came out of nowhere and I almost face planted. Funny for others to watch, I'm sure. But not so much for me.
Anyway...once I was able to get through the crowd and into a somewhat decent area to run in, I could finally focus on what I was doing. But that still didn't help. My heart rate was out of control and I felt like my legs weighed about 20 lbs each. I had to walk several times and just could not keep a consistent pace. I was frustrated with myself and wanted to just run faster. I felt like I was back at square one and got a little discouraged to think about how far I still have to go. Needless to say...the entire race was like that.

Coach Jim says sometimes you just have a bad run. I can definitely say that's true.
Considering how many people were there and how many times I had to walk, my time wasn't too bad. It was only 2 minutes longer than the previous 5k. So in normal, sensible-person reality, that's great! I should be happy! But I'm a little bit crazy and I can definitely admit that I'm too hard on myself most times.
Overall, I should be proud of the work I did.

But I certainly made up for my lack of complaining during the week with lots of whining in those few minutes of the race.

I also had a few people comment on our cute shirts so I wanted to give a shout out to Mandi!
These shirts were for her team The Elemonators. She posts a blog about her battle with breast cancer and she's a very strong chica for everything she has to go through. We were definitely proud to rock those shirts.
Check it out

http://www.darngoodlemonade.com/

We are on our way to San Francisco this week so I will be sure to update you on that race when we get back

Week 4: Salt Lake Running Co. 5k

I fully admit that week 4 was a slacker week for me. Because he can't speak and therefore can't stick up for himself, I'm going to blame a dog for my laziness.
I was dog sitting a super adorable basset hound named Bailey. Since I was staying at his house and had to be home right after work to feed him and supply with him with more prescription medications than an 80 year-old man, I didn't have time to stop by my gym and get on the elliptical. Damn you, Bailey! How dare you distract me with all your floppy cuteness!

Needless to say, I got very few runs in but I did manage to complete a 5k on Saturday that was hosted by the Salt Lake Running Company.
My ultimate goal was to complete a 5k in less than 40 minutes since the last one I did (South Jordan Valentine's Day 5k) was 42 minutes. I felt good because not only did I beat my time by achieving a 36 minute race, we also ran in the cold! Utah weather acts a little like a paranoid schizophrenic so at the slightest sign of reasonable Spring temperatures, Mother Nature threw out a batch of snow that reached 10 inches in some places in the valley. The freeway was covered in slush and we saw 3 accidents on our way to the race.
Now image this...its a FREE 5k so it's not like we would be out any money. We already have our shirts so we could totally lie and say that we did it and have proof to back it up. We can run 3.1 miles anywhere, at any time. What's our motivation for going to this thing at 6:30am? in the snow? More free stuff, of course! Salt Lake Running Co. was also holding a raffle with tons of free crap. I mean, I might not ever use that multicolored head band or autographed picture of some runner I've never heard of. But its FREE! I have to have it.
And after all of that, we didn't even win anything. I think it was rigged.

                                             Evidence: we were totally there...honest. The shirt doesn't lie.

I did get a present last week, anyway.
A few weeks ago, Jim and I were watching TV and a commercial for gel insoles for high heels came on. Instead of saying to him that I wanted some new high heels, I turned to him and told him I wanted a pair of hot pink running shoes. Holy crap....my life has changed A LOT in the last few months.
Jim was so happy about what I said, he went online and bought me said shoes as a surprise.

              
                                                                         Hot, right?

                          Coach Jim is lucky he's faster than me. And what the hell are my hands doing??


What's even better than having hot pink running shoes?
Having a coach / boyfriend that has bright orange ones.

                                                                 Ah, aren't we precious?


Next week I have another 5k. The week after that will be a run in sunny San Francisco. You don't want to miss that one because that run might have naked people. Stay tuned...