IVF 5K

Today was the IVF 5k - Footsteps For Fertility - in Salt Lake and we had such a great time! We participated for our good friend (and co-worker) Taylor and his wife. We decided to make it a 2-day event and we stayed in a hotel on Friday night.

(Brianne, Erica, Pam, Rae and Cali - Chalysse was there too. She took the picture)

We walked (a mile) to Buca di Beppo from the hotel and 'carb loaded' just because we could. (We are fully aware that we were only running a 3.1 miles and didn't really need to eat a bunch of carbs in preparation, but we'll take any excuse). Plus, Buca is amazing and most of the girls hadn't eaten there before. And, we walked to and from the restaurant to help off-set all the deliciousness we ate.

Oh, and someone thought it would be funny to tell the waitress that it was my bachelorette party, so that was fun.

These girls are crazy.

We had a lot of fun hanging out, talking and laughing (a lot) till one or two in the morning. When our alarm went off at 6:15, it was so painful. I am much too old to stay up so late!

I love these ladies.

There were about 700 people who signed up for this race and since we are all at different fitness levels, we got split up pretty quickly. 

This was part of the course - 1 and 3/4 laps around the park. Liberty Park is beautiful and the weather was absolutely perfect.

I look awful - and super sweaty. This was toward the end of the race.

The finish line. Brianne was there to cheer me through the finish. She's so fast, she made really good time.

This cute girl and her cute mom also met me at the finish line. It made my whole week!

Mike wasn't able to make it to the race and we gave him a lot of crap about not supporting us. We know he would've come if he could have, but it's fun to mess with him.

We ran into this guy at the finish line and couldn't resist sending this picture to Mike telling him that he's been replaced. Plus, how cool is it that he's wearing a shirt with my name on it?!

Time-wise, I didn't do so great. I ran it in 38.something which is super slow, but it's a good place to start, right?

But, it's much faster than I could have run it 6 months ago. I'm excited to see where I am in 6 more months.

I really have the best team - including our amazing trainer who supported us from afar. It was so fun to accomplish something new, and support a great cause.

***

When I got home, my neighbor across the street (who I may or may not have a little crush on) was in his driveway working on his motorcycle. He asked me when my 5k was because he's a runner and I told him about it last week. I told him that it was this morning and I was just getting home from it. He asked how I did and he said I did great when I told him my (super slow) time.

Then, he proceeded to tell me that he had run 16 miles this morning. He's training for a marathon.

Awesome. See you later! I just remembered that I have to be anywhere but here.

He probably ran 16 miles in the same amount of time I struggled through 3.

Oh well. It's good to have something to work toward, right?

My First 5K

On the eve of our first 5k as The Pink Team (and under Mike's tutelage), I want to post about my first 5k. I participated in the Man vs Mud run in Cache Valley in September 2011.

My best little brother and his wife and my friend Shannon did the race with me and it was so fun.

Really, really hard because I was completely out of shape, but fun.

I want to do it again, but it's actually tomorrow and since we are doing the IVF 5k in Salt Lake, I guess we will look into doing the mud run next year.

Here is how the 2011 mud run went for us:

(I got this post from my personal blog dated 9/21/11)

(I so wish I could take credit for this photo, but I got it here).

Yep, the rumors are true, I participated in the 1st annual Man vs. Mud 5k in Logan, Utah on 9/3/11. It was all Shannon's idea and Cade and Krystal joined the fun too. It was such a good time! The photos don't really do it justice, but here they are anyway.

The Mucky Mucks!

This was the first mud pit.

No big deal.

However, they did get worse…

and worse.

And, I'm pretty sure it wasn't only mud in there…

So, for the finish line, we came back around right next to the starting line and had to go down a HUGE (and yes, painful) slip 'n slide. It was brutal, but fun at the same time. There was a jump at the end, then you landed in a mud bog. 

Good times.

We all had such a good time but it was absolutely disgusting! After the final slip 'n slide, we had to army crawl through mud, then have a group picture taken, then there was a snack table with juice, granola bars and bananas. Uh, I didn't even have a clean spot on my body to wipe the mud out of my eyes. The last thing I wanted to do was try to eat something. Disgusting! I did take some juice though and, instead of my lip making a lipstick mark on the cup, there was a mud mark. Yum!

One of Shannon's friends made us these cool shirts.

We had so much fun. We are definitely doing this again next year!

I See You

A couple of weeks ago, a bunch of us went to lunch for Brianne's birthday. (I would post a pic of us at lunch but no one took a photo, which is very strange for our group - and girls in general, for that matter). Anyhoo, we went to Malawi's which is a really great pizza/pasta place that donates a meal to Africa for every meal purchased.

Good food and a good cause.

win/win

I have been doing okay with my diet. Sure, I mess up at times, but I do pretty well most days - even perfect sometimes. This particular Thursday was not one of those days. I walked into the restaurant with every intention of getting a chicken caesar salad and a water. However, when I got to the lady taking my order, I opened my mouth and these words came out, all on their own:

"Can I please have the salad/pasta combo - the thai beef pasta and the caesar salad. Oh, and a water cup, please."

But, in my defense, this combo comes with 1/2 orders of the pasta and the salad, so that's okay, right? The craziest part is that I never - even in my former life - get pasta because it usually makes my stomach really upset. I think it's the combo of all the grease, fat and carbs. I (used to) like pasta that I make because I can control what goes in it, but I hardly ever order it at restaurants.

Anyway, that's what I got and I only felt guilty for about 3 seconds because, you guys, it was just about the most delicious thing that I have ever eaten. No joke.


Plus, I kind of justified it because it was a workout day and I knew that Mike would beat every last calorie out of me.


Oh, I just remembered that I did take pictures of my meal:

If you go to Malawi's and you like good food - and happiness, order the thai beef pasta. It is heaven on a plate. The chicken caesar salad is really good as well.

We had a great lunch and headed back to the office after an hour or so. We walked in the back door and all parted ways to go to our desks. I headed toward the kitchen to put my takeout box in the fridge.

I want the record to show that I only ate 1/2 of the 1/2 order of pasta. (Plus, Mike occasionally ventures onto this blog and I'm pretty sure I'll be doing extra laps the workout after he reads this even though we've for sure reached the statute of limitations by now). As I walked past our good friend Jessica's cubicle, she frantically waved her arms and whispered loudly, "Mike's here!"

What?! Mike who?

But, of course, I immediately knew.

And, there I was with a freaking takeout box full of freaking pasta. That I never eat and never order, except for the day Mike is waiting for us to return from lunch.

So, I did the only thing I could think of. I jumped into Jessica's cube, threw open her locker door, shoved the box in, quickly shut it and ran away.

Quick thinking, right?

And, guess what?...I, like, totally pulled it off! (till he reads this, anyway) Hooray!! I walked the long way around our neighborhood of cubicles and nonchalantly came around the corner and was like, "Oh, hey Mike! Good to see you!"

You know, cuz I'm cool like that.


So, the moral of this story is this: if you are going to cheat on your diet, don't take any leftovers. They are evidence. If you do decide to take the risk, at least look for Mike's truck in the parking lot before you head back into work. 



And always, always have good friends around who have your back.


Thanks Jessica. I owe you!

So True

My Very Own 5k

Hey guys, guess what?! I ran a 5k yesterday morning!

Did you hear me? I RAN a 5k! Hooray!

I had the hardest time getting my butt on the treadmill. I got up and put on my workout stuff, then walked around my house finding other things to do for like an hour. Zero motivation. But, I finally strapped on my trusty Adidas trainers and made it onto the treadmill. I usually walk for the first 5 minutes just to warm up, but decided just to go for it and it felt great! (Wait, did I just say that running felt great?!) So weird!

Ok, it was a super slow run (4.4 mph) and it wasn’t even an “official” 5k – unless running on my treadmill in my air conditioned office with a fan blowing on me counts as official. But I actually ran (and by ‘ran’ I mean a super slow Cali shuffle) the whole thing – except I am not coordinated enough to drink from my water bottle while in motion, so I took a quick water break for one minute when I hit the 30 minute mark.

So, I didn’t make good time, by any stretch of anyone’s imagination, but it’s another accomplishment in my journey and I’m pretty excited about it. My whole team is doing a 5k this coming Saturday, so I thought it would be good to see how it will be. I know that running on a treadmill is way easier than running outside because I’m not running at an incline (not yet anyway), I can keep a steady pace and I can control my environment (A/C, fan, no curbs, no traffic, no people, no dog poop), plus I had the nice distraction of the latest Bachelor in Paradise episode (those people sure make me feel like I have my life together) to keep me entertained. But, I’m still moving forward and that’s a good thing.

So, last night as I was getting ready for bed I thought, “It would be so cool if I ran 3.11 miles every morning this week to get ready for Saturday’s race.” Good idea, huh? Well, it sounded good at 10 pm last night. It didn’t sound quite as good at 5:15 this morning after a night of tossing and turning (stupid insomnia). Actually, I don’t even remember turning off the 5:15 alarm. I officially gained consciousness with the 6 a.m. alarm (it's normal to have to set multiple alarms, right?). Oh well, I’ll see how tonight goes – and there’s always tomorrow, right?

So, here are the stats for my very own Sunday morning 5k. (I had to stop the treadmill to get a photo, but I went 4.4 mph the whole time). And, I couldn’t remember exactly how far a 5k is, so I just rounded up and went 3.2 miles. I’ll start adding more speed and incline the more I do this.