Tag Archives: run

My Favorite Fall Activity: Running Through Spider Webs

Spiderweb

 So… that’s totally a lie.

Running through spider webs is the one part of Fall that I absolutely dread and I am guaranteed to run through a few before winter sets in.  The joyful experience usually goes something like this….

Up at o-dark thirty… find some running clothes, dig through gym bag or purse to find my iPod, get a few things situated and head out the door. Hit Play on the iPod, get my Runkeeper app going on my phone and start off with a slow, dreadful pace and wonder how I will get through all the miles ahead of me. At this point I am on high spiderweb alert with eyes strained looking for any faint glimmer of light reflecting on a web. After a few miles I usually find my groove, tune into my music, zone out of reality, and then bam… face first into a web and instant karate chopping, skin crawling, and sprinting all occur at the same time. Why… why, why, why does my face always come in contact first????

Long after a run is over and I’ve taken a shower and made it to work I still suffer from the creep crawlies. Should a hair graze my shoulder or a piece of lint touch my arm, I will jump as if the spider had been hiding all day, waiting for the perfect opportunity in the day to jump out and freak me out one more time. Ugh.

karate-master

 

On the less creep crawly side…. there are a few things I do love about Fall.

I love running in the cooler temps.

I love that Fall marks the beginning of marathon training for me.

I love hunting for the perfect pumpkins and having a family fun carving day.

I love Black Friday shopping (even though I almost never make it out to shop).

I love seeing the seasons change and the way the leaves fall when the wind blows.

 

What do you love about Fall?

Mondays… Running & Raindrops

I love to run on Monday mornings. There is something cleansing about starting the week off with a Monday morning run that just puts my heart and head in the right place. Today was not one of those “soul cleansing” type of runs. I was almost hit by two distracted drivers, got way too close to a giant spider web and a spider the size of my palm (I don’t think they were Halloween decorations), and had to make two potty stops, all of which slowed down my run tremendously. All these things started to put me in a less than grateful mood.

Then, in my last half mile I began to feel raindrops, which led to a light rainfall. I could have gotten upset at the fact I would be soaking wet by the time I got home or that the rain was breaking in my new running shoes way faster than I had planned, but I could not help but smile and enjoy it. I could almost hear the Bambi song playing in my head…”drip, drip, drop, little April shower, beating a tune as you fall all around,”….. yes, I know how cheesy that sounds. I could not help but feel that the big guy above let those drops fall just for me and those drops fell on me to wash away the negativity that was just beginning to build from a  less than pleasant run. I relished those last few minutes as I ran in the rain and was momentarily reminded of what it was like to be a kid playing in the rain. Several people drove past me and I cannot imagine what they might have been thinking.

When was the last time you had a moment where you smiled for no reason, where you just enjoyed the moment you were in, and couldn’t help but smile?

I hope you all have a beautiful Monday and a beautiful week!

5 miles

10 Triathon Tidbits This Mother Has Learned in Two Years of Triathlon

In May 2012, I was reading through a copy of one of my favorite magazines, Women’s Running. At that time, I had my leg propped up on my desk drawer, my slacks rolled up and ice on my shin. Yes, I was battling through another shin splint. I stumbled across an article and training plan to do your first sprint triathlon in eight weeks. Needless to say, I was sucked into the article and came home that day and told my husband I had a great idea….. I was going to do a triathlon. I’d love to tell you his response or his facial expression, but I honestly didn’t pay attention long enough to see his response…  I was already off writing a list of stuff I needed and found a calendar to start mapping out my training plan.

In August of 2012, I did my first triathlon. This month marks two years of my love for the sport. Over the past two years, I have learned a few things…

GA Veterans 2012

1. Race Day… To wear a sports bra under a tri top or not?

Before my first race, this question had me stumped for months. When I decided to do my first triathlon, I knew no one who enjoyed the sport and therefore no one to direct this question to. So, I decided to look up race photos of the race I was doing from the year before and check out all the pictures of the ladies who had raced. After searching photos of mid distance finishers and back of the pack finishers, I noticed lots of ladies raced with a sports bra under their tri top. I decided to do my first triathlon with my favorite running bra under my tri top and have raced every race this way. I like compression with NO bounce.

2. Race Day… Swim will not go as planned.

I grew up in Southern California in a surfing family. I have swam in shore break in Hawaii and this stupid confidence carried over into my first lake swim in my first triathlon. No matter how many laps you swim in a pool, and no matter how many years you jumped and played in the waves, none of that prepared me for a grimy, warm water, lake swim. During my first race, I panicked after the first buoy, panicked more as I saw the other swimmers getting further away, and panicked even more when the people were cheering from the dock at the end of the swim. Clearly they were yelling at me to hurry up because they had seen an alligator and were not just merely clapping and cheering. It took five more races before I learned to swim calmly and to stop worrying that I would be last out of the water. Being last means I still made it out of the water. Being last doesn’t mean I can’t be happy. Continue reading →

Run 2 Remember 10k Recap

Moultrie Run Finish

OFFICIAL FINISH TIME: 52:41

PLACE: 9/17, 1st overall female

Last minute decision = First place finish… imagine that… 

On Thursday, I was asked if I was interested in racing the Run 2 Remember on Saturday, August 2, 2014. I said “sure,” and was thinking in the back of my mind, “sure, you won’t remember you asked me.” Knowing I had a long bike ride the day before, I wasn’t thinking about running a hard race the next day…. However, a 5:30 am Saturday morning test message reminded me that this race thing was happening. I spent the next 20 minutes fumbling in the dark for running clothes, shoes, hat, sunglasses, iPod, Flipbelt, food, and car keys. Continue reading →

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