Battle of Byron race recap...

I know, I know...who recaps a 5K for crying out loud? Apparently I do! Hang in there though, this one's a good story, I promise.

So I know I've said recently that I'm a little over 5Ks. I enjoyed my 10K back in March a lot, and after finally getting my 5K PR in early March as well, I've been telling myself it's time to move on. But I just couldn't resist one last Spring 5K, especially since this one was taking place in the town I live in. Literally around the corner. Plus, I'll be the first admit I'm a little annoyed I haven't been winning many awards lately, and fourth place seems to be my lot in life. I knew this race would be on the small side, giving me an almost guarantee at placing in my age group. And yes, at that point the thought of winning overall female had already crossed my overly-confident mind.

So anyway, Saturday morning I showed up with my little cheering squad in tow. How cute is it that my kids actually like being dragged to a race at seven am on a Saturday? But seriously, they love it. The crowd of runners/walkers was your usual crowd. But like all races there were a few people looking seriously legit. (I don't think I look seriously legit, to be honest.) I mean, dude, there were people wearing compression socks. I mean, is that really a thing? Compression socks for a 5K? Okay, moving on. So the really legit people make me nervous, and I already mentally have calculated that I will probably just win my age group at that's totally cool with me.

Not a pic from this race, but from my last 5K I ran with my dad, only because it's one of my favorites!

I wish I had pictures of this race, someone was taking them, but I've yet to see them anywhere online, because I totally lined up at the very front like a boss (har har). And I started off super fast, too fast, of course, because by the first quarter mile I think about four or five other women passed me. Also, as soon as the race began, we hit a pretty intense downhill slope. Not a problem right? WRONG! It was an out an back, which meant that brutal hill would be almost at the three mile mark. Not only that, the rest of the race was completely up and down the whole way. I seriously thought to myself around the halfway point, "this is the hardest race I've ever run." Also, "there's no way I'm running this course ever again!"

I managed to move myself up to third about a mile in, and I stayed there for a while. The lady in first was quite a bit older than me, and the woman in second was mid-thirties. So again I'm thinking, "I'll get my age group, great!" The hills were so brutal my pace was 9:30 up hill, and around 7:30 in between. The whole final half of the race I stayed in third, about fifteen feet behind the girl in second, and about thirty feet behind the leader.

We're all suffering up that last, brutal hill and I'm literally dying...when the craziest thought enters my head. I'm thirty feet away from taking the lead, and I'm not going for it?!? So I decide to go for it. Remember, we had just come up a huge hill, so finding extra speed seemed impossible. But I go for it anyway. I'm 99% sure they will see me making my move and speed up to deter me, but it doesn't happen. Not only that, from out of no where, a man about my dad's age runs up along beside me, beckons me forward and says, "Let's go, girl."

Now, I'm a pretty solitary runner, but I've never been so happy to see another person in my life. I'm now past the other two women and in first place with less than a quarter of a mile to go. But...but my legs are dead and I'm pretty sure I'm going to puke, pass out or both. (I'm running like a 7:25 for crying out loud!) I take my headphones out and my running buddy keeps coaching me, saying things like, "Don't look back. Pick you head up. Keep going." I drop my speed for just a moment, pretty sure I'm done, but pick it up as soon as I realize they are right there behind me. And basically because this total stranger is making me push myself harder than I've ever pushed in my life.  Finally I spot the finish line, I see Matthew and the kids waving, cheering. And then suddenly I realize that I've got it. I've won. I cross the finish line.

As soon as the race was over I grabbed the man's hand who had helped me and gasped, "Thank you!" I seriously don't think I could have made it if he hadn't helped me. I turned in my official time and then went to celebrate my first big win with my family.

So ridiculously happy!!!

Running is awesome, isn't it? And I'm not just saying that because I won a cool trophy, I'm saying it because what else in life challenges you that way? What else makes you push yourself to your limits and beyond? And then at the end you realize you are so much stronger and so much more capable than you ever thought?

And how cool is it when a total stranger sees you struggling and basically takes you by the hand and helps you achieve your goal? That's pretty darn awesome if you ask me!

Not too shabby for my tenth race!

Race stats:
Official time: 25:29 (8:13 avg)
Age group: 1st out of 2 (But won overall female)
Overall: 9th out of 82

Week 1: 100 Days of Happy...

So I found the link to this challenge on my Bible study website sometime last week and decided it looked like fun. It's pretty simple, find something that makes you happy that day, take a pic, and share it somewhere. I've been posting them on IG, but decided once a week to post here too.

The challenge to me doesn't mean to desperately search for something, anything to make me happy, but to recognize the simple things in life that are always there to make me happy and bring me joy throughout the day. No one has a perfect life, certainly not me, but it's nice to try and dwell on the good and none of the bad things we're so prone to let bring us down.

My first week was easy, of course!

Day 1: Last Tuesday. The kids played Lego together while I ran. They don't always get along this well, or leave me to myself for very long, but that day I managed to log ten miles on the treadmill!

Day 2: We got to meet our  newest family member. My nephew Jake was born last Wednesday. As you can see, Sophia is totally in love!

Day 3: On Thursday we did school outside.

Also, day 3.

Day 4: We were just happy it was Friday! Long week!

Day 5: Saturday I ran a 5K, and won a little trophy. More on that later. 

Day 6: Another easy one! Sunday was Mother's Day and Elijah's 8th birthday. So the whole day was full of happy!

Day 7: Is actually a picture from Sunday, but being married to this guy makes me happy every day!

Suspending disbelief...

As a writer *ahem*, well, self-published writer, I've gotten my fair share of feedback on my writing. Most of it has been kind, complementary even. Okay and a lot of it has come from my friends. Do I worry about them giving me positive a review simply to maintain our friendship? Well, of course! But at the same time I'm not really losing sleep over it. Though most, if not all, have assured me of their honesty in the reviewing process.

That's not to say I haven't had my fair share of reviews from total strangers. My first book, London Escape, has been out for almost two years and has been downloaded something like 2,000 times. It has a total of twenty-five reviews on Amazon and a few more ratings on Goodreads. Most of them are good, thankfully, a few are not. Finding Sanctuary, book two, has a few less downloads and a fewer reviews as well. I suppose that's to be expected, you lose a few readers after the first one, maybe.

Which brings me to my point: negative reviews aren't the end of the word. Granted, they almost always hurt my feelings. I always want to fire back at the writer and maybe explain myself and my book a little better. A phrase I've heard a few times, more or less, is that they found certain plot points unbelievable. Okay, I'll admit, perhaps that's a failing on my part as a writer not to make you believe this could really happen. But at the same time I have to wonder what this person is doing reading fiction if they can't just let go and imagine for a minute. Just a minute or two.

Obviously, when I look at the events that take place in my books even I can't say, "Oh yes, that would 100% happen. If that was me, I would totally do the same thing!" Aren't fictional characters supposed to be just a little bit braver, a little bit cooler, and better at making the right decision on the the fly than we are? I think so. Otherwise they would be a little boring. I try my best to make my characters relatable, but at the same time, show growth over the situations life has put them through. A lot of my problems in this area probably stem from the fact that my book is set in the real word. If your book is set in a fictional time or place, you've already given up the need for everything to be completely realistic. Just saying...

And finally, let's talk about something a few readers have taken issue with, Kit's "spidey sense." I'll be the first to acknowledge that it's not real! It was never my intention to imply that my character has some sort of hidden superpower. But honestly, is it really the end of the world if she does? Again, I'm not sure when it was that I promised to the readers that my book is totally plausible in every single way. At the end of the day, it is simply a work of fiction, from my own imagination. Is there any book out there, in the fiction genre, that you could say would totally happen exactly like it has in the book? Also, if I'm being totally honest, I don't think the "spidey sense" is way out there. I think we underestimate our own gut feelings and intuition sometimes. I've just amped it up a little for the sake of telling a story.

This post is probably coming off a little defensive, I'm aware. Until now I've always avoided the issue of addressing negativity toward my writing. Aside from complaining to Matthew about it. It really doesn't bother me and the majority of my less-than-favorable reviews still have been relatively complementary. And at the end of the day, if my book wasn't your style, or you weren't blown away by it, it's fine!

I'm in the process of wrapping up the series now. Last night I wrote "the big  finale" chapter. It was exhausting. It was exhilarating. And I hate that because of a few comments from readers I took a step back and felt a little cynical about where the story has taken them. At the end of the day, I'm happy with it. It's an adventure story, and we all know adventure can take you some pretty crazy places and put you in some crazy situations. I'm sure some people will read parts of my third book and roll their eyes a little. They will complain that they can't suspend disbelief enough to get through it. But then again, I'm not entirely sure that's my fault.

Expectations VS Reality...

So, I just finished up a quick photo recap of our Spring break trip down to Panama City Beach on the family blog. We were there from Tuesday to Saturday and it was a really nice, relaxing trip. But I've got a bone to pick with Florida and PCB. Since around March I've been suffering from some pretty bad seasonal allergies. No surprise to me, I've had allergies ever since I was around twelve, so I'm used to it. I don't really remember suffering too much in Connecticut, since I imagine there was so much less green.

Well, there's a lot of green in Georgia. And a lot of pollen. For the past month I've been switching from every single allergy medicine you can think of. Pretty much with no relief. But I've been functioning. I've still been going outside with the kids and running every weekend. So, I'm not sure what I expected going down to Florida, but what I got was not what I expected...or wanted.

See, I had all these lovely thoughts of going running in the mornings on the beach. Sitting out in the back yard in the sunshine reading. Spending my afternoons in a beach chair watching the kids play. Well, that last one I did, sort of.

We arrived in Florida on Tuesday and my allergies were bugging me a little. By the time twenty-four hours had passed I was in full-on allergy attack mode. Matthew even suggested I go to the emergency room (I didn't). Instead I dosed myself up with all kinds of meds (checked with my mom's bff, who is a nurse, first) and basically went into a drug induced coma for a few hours. After that I had to spend a full twenty-fours indoors until the worst of my symptoms passed. No running. No sitting outside. No beach.

Boo!

We did go to the beach the next day and I was feeling much improved, due mostly to my lovely cocktail of allergy meds, which finally seemed to be working. So all in all the visit was still worth it. Just not what I expected.

Yes, I wore that hat all week to cover up my puffy, blood-shot eyes. I never did get that run in. In fact, I ran for the first time in SIX days yesterday!

Five uses fort 5K t-shirts...

Like any respectable runner, I collect 5K t-shirts to way most people collect regular clothes. In fact, since Spring is in the air around here I've already been struck by the urge to go shopping for some Spring tops. See, I usually feed that urge around my birthday, when I have a little extra money to spend on myself. But this year I used most of that money to build my summer running clothes collection. I now have no less than six pairs of running shorts and a countless amount of running tanks.

No regular clothes to wear. None. Unless you count last year's stuff, which apparently I will.

Since I just ran my eighth race since last July, I've collected a total of seven shirts. (One race was cheaper if you didn't get a shirt, so I opted out.) So what do I do with all these t-shirst you ask? Well, here's just a few options for you.

1.) Wear them running. Think of it, when people see me running past them with a shirt proudly declaring Museum of Aviation MARATHON (and in tiny letters, half marathon and 5K) they will totally assume I am a marathoner. One of those crazy freaks who can run twenty-six-point-freaking-two miles. What they really don't know is that I just ran the 5K that day. In all honesty, I don't think I've ever actually run in a 5K t-shirt. For one: a lot of the times they are your usual unisex cotton tee,  not the best thing to be running in. I prefer something a little more slim fitting. Although my Cherry Blossom Road Race tee is actaully the perfect shirt to run in. And call me superstitious, but I never run a race wearing that race's shirt. Do you want everyone to think you're a total noob?? (Matthew says this is snobby of me, but whatever!) You haven't' earned it yet, take it off! Wear it after the race!

2.) Dust cloths. Enough said. What else are cotton t-shirts good for?

3.) Pajamas. Move over Victoria's Secret, nothing says sexy like a t-shirt down to your knees declaring, "Run to Lose." My husband loves it. For reals.

4.) T-shirt quilt. Okay, I'm actually quite into this one. I would love to make an "I love me" quilt out of all my hard-earned t-shirts. I would sleep with it every night and think of how awesome I am. After I wallpaper my wall with race bibs and make a chandelier out of all my race medals. (I only have two, so I'd better get on that.)

5.) Donate them to the less fortunate. Have a friend who wishes he/she was a runner? Give them the gift of a 5K shirt today! Not only can they pass themselves off as a real runner just like you, they will get many complements, I'm sure.


I'm off to the beach for a week! Gotta go pack some non-5K, non-running clothes, wish me luck!

Cherry Blossom Road Race...

It's that time again! Time for another thrilling and exciting race recap...just kidding. You know you don't care. But it's fun to write about, and after all, it is my blog...such as it is.

So, let's get to it! This past Saturday I ran my very first 10K. I was pretty excited since I've already run a total of seven 5Ks in the past seven months since I started running, and I knew I was ready for a new challenge. I've been upping my distance quite a lot lately, with a half-marathon in mind. So running a 10K was just the next step. I picked the Cherry Blossom Road Race a few months ago, knowing how famous Macon Georgia is for its Cherry Blossom Festival this time of year. It didn't disappoint! The race was well-organized, and the route was fantastic. Though, sadly, there weren't quite as many cherry blossom trees blooming as I had anticipated. That's okay, my allergies are bad enough as it is!

Since Matthew works close to where they were having early packet pick-up, he kindly picked up my stuff on his way home from work on Friday. Early packet pick-up is my favorite! Just sayin'. Again, this race didn't disappoint. Super cute, slim-fit, dryfit t-shirt (that I wore all weekend) and a free Chick Fil A coupon! Woo!

Favorite! (And I'm not even a huge pink person.)

Even though I already had my stuff, I still got up at the crack of dawn on Saturday, six fifteen to be exact. I just have a hard time sleeping in the morning before a race. Thankfully, I was excited, not nervous! I was expecting it to be fairly warm-ish, like fifties, but when I got up it was a chilly 48 degrees. I had to sneak back into our room for some pants!

Have you ever seen anyone so cheerful at seven am on a Saturday. I mean. Really?!

Anyway, I got to the race venue, and it was still chilly. I was honestly wishing I had some sleeves instead of a tank, but I knew running six miles, I was going to get a lot warmer! I had already talked pacing with my dad the day before and I told him my goal was to run a 8:30 pace for the race. Since I'm used to running 5Ks it's sort of my nature to just go hard and fast. I knew I was going to have to monitor my speed a little more carefully so I wouldn't burn out. Not surprisingly, I started a little slow. It was a little crowded since they started the 10 and the 5K together, about 600 people. After the first mile or so, I really managed to even out my pace. Like the OCD nut that I am, I had memorized my splits. I was a little slow on my first mile, but I hit my second mile split almost on the nose. By mile five I was wearing out some, but still hitting those splits. Too funny! 

Boom! Finish line! (Screen cap from my phone. Obviously.)

I finished with a time of 52:38, according to my Nike app, which is EXACTLY a 8:30 pace. Super exciting and satisfying. My official time was actually a little less. It was a pretty competitive race, so I didn't win anything in my age group, but I had an awesome time anyway! 

I rewarded myself with a chicken biscuit! Yum!

I can't wait to run another 10K, and my half is looking more and more doable every single run. I've had a few people tell me I could probably be trained and ready much sooner than October. I'd want at least another six weeks to train, though, and after six more weeks it's already getting a bit hot here in Georgia. I think I'll keep shooting for Blue Mountain Beach in October. I'll be more than ready by then. I'm already trying to think of my goal time, probably something like 2:15. But you know I'd love to go sub 2! But that's mostly crazy talk. Mostly!

Next up, I'm running a 5K here in Byron, just for the fun of it. I'll probably attempt to come close to my standing PR of 24 minutes, but again, crazy talk! And I'm definitely running the Chick Fil A 10K in June!

Race stats:

Official time: 52:33 (8:28 avg)

Age group: 6th out of 22

Overall: 75th out of 230

Pinterest...I don't understand you sometimes...

Now, I love Pinterest as much as the next girl, but let's face it, most of it is some pretty useless junk. If I had a dollar for every time I saw something that didn't make any sense at all or just seemed competently stupid, well, I'd have a few more dollars. I was browsing this morning while drinking my morning coffee and found a few especially...uh...interesting pins so I thought I'd share. Just for kicks. Most of the time my favorite board to browse is the health and fitness, so all of these came from there.







Hmmm...okay. No wait...HA HA HA HA! I know I have a lot of running friends out there, so tell me, when is running easy for you?! Running is not easy! That's sort of the point! I guess I should follow the link and see what it says, just out of curiosity. But I'm pretty sure it will say something like, "Run slower" or "Don't wear cotton or Nikes." Yeah yeah. We got it.






Alright, alright, alright...healthiest packaged foods. Yes! M&Ms. Wait....NO! I'm confused. I do realize these are pretzel M&Ms and I suppose those would be healthier than the chocolate ones...but really? Maybe you should try pretzels with no chocolate on the outside if you want a healthy snack. (Says the cranky girl who gave up junk food recently. BOO!)









Okay, I talked about this one in my last post...pretty sure I don't "sparkle". Pretty sure I sweat for real....









Nope. Just nope. I have zero interest in watching a Victoria's Secret model work out. For the same reasons I refuse to watch the Victoria's Secret fashion show every year. I have decently healthy self-image, why would I go and ruin it by watching that? Just one question, will the workout make my legs about six to seven inches longer, because that's what it would take to get me to look like that. That and a few other *ahem* enhancements.











Ooooh boy. Have you seen these pins around? "How to get the gap between your thighs" I've seen plenty, and every time my reaction is the same, "I didn't know we were supposed to have a gap there?!" I'm a pretty small girl, but there is no gap between my thighs and I seriously doubt there will ever be. Now, I do understand that some people just have naturally slim legs, and therefore, theirs might not touch in the middle. But for the rest of us, I'm not so certain this is an achievable goal.

Maybe it just burns my britches a little extra since I've always been self-conscious of having "thunder thighs" a little. It wasn't until I started running that I started embracing the way my body is. Now I don't see them as thunder thighs, I see them as strong and powerful. Gap or no gap. Strong is better than skinny!