TEN Things Thursday

1. I'm a Maniac!! #4202

2. Awesome race pictures from last weekend (and orange IS the skirt I've raced in the most):

3. Another Munchkin Mile (much hotter today and more walk breaks):

4. Another trip to the water park, but probably the last time of the season:

5. A trip to the park:

6. Gymnastics class:

7. Interview outfit! (Although apparently hiding the tat is mandatory so I'll be wearing a cardigan over it):

8. Interview is tomorrow morning. I'm taking it as a good sign that this is an IN PERSON interview. Most companies now do those annoying phone interviews that I completely SUCK at.

9. Awesome race shirt Thursday. This is from the Bolder Boulder 10K, 2009:

I swear my front kick is more awesome when I'm not "re-enacting"

10. Don't forget to check my link in the top left hand corner of my blog for Razzy Roo. Enjoy either 10% off an entire order using the promo code listed, OR, use code GLITTER40, for a FREE glitter band when you spend $40. Have I mentioned how much I love Razzy Roo?? Be sure to check out all the new socks she has listed!!

Race - Bolder Boulder 10K - Boulder, CO (Monday, May 31, 2010)

It's been a rough month for me. I had 2 vacations in May. Both were super awesome fun, but I also didn't exercise as much as I normally do, and I certainly did not eat the way I normally do. I gained some weight, and lost some energy, stamina, motivation, etc.

So I was in California for a long weekend with my boyfriend and daughter. I had every intention of running a few days while I was out there, *knowing* that I would be coming back the day before another race. I managed one sorta decent run, and one very short mile that was horrible.

Going into my third BolderBoulder, I was not very optimistic. I was pretty psyched when W said "I'm too sick to race, but I'll run with you" - because that meant for the first time in at least a year I would actually NOT be running by myself! Here is a pic of the three of us before our run (courtesy of N, who walked/jogged a few waves behind us):

Like every other year, we park at W's house and walk down the street to the bus that takes us to the start line. This year, the construction was worse than usual in Boulder and it took about 40 minutes to get to the start line. Barely left us enough time to use the bathroom and we got to our start just a few minutes before heading out. I always like to do an iPhone shot at the start line, and I was sorta panicky, and partially cut L out (sorry, L):

L took off at the gun and W and I started out. Last year I vaguely remember starting out too fast and it being a really hard run (in addition to the chafing problem I had). So I held back a bit. Wow, what a difference being in a qualifying wave (and one I wasn't really qualified to begin with) is! I did not have to spend the first mile dodging around all the walkers. Everyone was running (and passing us) and it was a lot more relaxing. However, it was still a hard run. We walked all the water/gatorade stations and I certainly struggled. On top of everything else, this was the first year we had "nice" weather, so it was a lot warmer out.

As always, it could have been worse. I finished a hair faster than the 2008 race, and about 3.5 minutes slower than last year. But, it was pretty fun, and it was nice to run with someone. It was also nice having W wait with us and walk back to her house, stopping at Sbux on the way back.

Running is hard - One mile "sprint" and other musings

So I'm not one of those people that has "natural talent" at running. Meaning? Running is HARD. A lot of the time it is really hard. I don't even know if I like it. So keep all that in mind when you read this. For example. The Boston Marathon is today. Did you know that by my age and gender that I would have to run an 8:40 pace just to qualify? Madness. I maybe could run that pace for a mile. Certainly not a marathon!! With that said... Friday afternoons are a whole different type of workout. Sometimes if I get off early enough, I'll do a training run. I try not to do anything too elaborate because it is typically not a day that I run. But just for fun I did a "sprint" mile (keep in mind that this time includes about 30 seconds of walking and jogging up to pace).

So that very hard mile was followed up with a much easier 50 minutes on the elliptical.

Other random musings... so my sister and I signed up for the BolderBoulder on Friday afternoon. It is probably my least favorite race, but I sorta feel obligated to do it every year. It was the first race I ever did (in 2008) and I guess it's sort of a "benchmark" race to see if I'm getting better/worse, etc. Last year? Sucked. Bad. So I'm not especially looking forward to it. Anyway, we have always done open waves in the past, but needed to get into the fastest wave that the three of us could all do together. So basically we had to base it on MY fastest time (since both my sisters ARE faster). What an ordeal!! My fastest time was the 2009 ColderBoulder and since it is a sister run to the BolderBoulder the application states that they can look up the times for you and you don't need to bring in any documentation. Well. That was sort of misleading. They can look it up for you, it will just take forever. Anyway, in all the commotion, we got put into a wave MUCH faster than I am qualified for... but, if you are running this year, check out team Bee Rad in wave EB.