I’m just popping in to let you know I got my free shoes today! It seems the Mezamashii Project is no scam 😉

I love them already.  No, I haven’t run in them yet.  I will on Sunday.

This morning Sarah Crowder and I went onto the Katy Trail to work on a video project she is making of me.  She wanted to practice her techniques, and I get something too—a video AND a free picture—win-win!  I played Ashokan Farewall about twenty times and she recorded it from a variety of angles.

Then she took all the files home to work with.  I can’t wait to see what she comes up with! 

Tonight I’m playing with the Symphony—we are doing a concert called the "Classical Mystery Tour."  It’s a great show with a Beatles cover band, and they sounded great in rehearsal. 

Oh, did you know Twitter was down yesterday?

Okay, time to foam roll (post run, which I did not run in my new shoes yet because I was afraid to get them dirty.  Yes, I’ll have to figure out how to overcome that particular hurdle) and then cook dinner before the show!

Why, yes, I do own cow shorts.  They are more of a pajamas short than a wear outside short.  More of, that is.  I’m not ruling out the possibility.

What are you all up to this weekend?

Today is the opposite of yesterday’s blog post.

Okay, well, not really.  But yesterday’s post was all about me looking my best.  Today’s post is about me looking my sweatiest!  The two are related though, aren’t they?  Without the sweaty part, the best part just isn’t as good!

I had a workout with Mike this morning.  It was upper body—did some thrusters, dead lifts (nothing serious, don’t worry), kettlebell swings, rows, and chin ups.  I probably forgot something, but that is pretty much it (after the warm up of squats and lunges—I swear he must own stock in squats and lunges).  I told myself today would be the day I stayed after and ran a bit more.  I got on the treadmill and planned to do 15 minutes of hill intervals (set the incline to 6, run 6 mph for 35 seconds, hop off for 25, repeat.)  Well, after 7 minutes I was dying and felt like passing out, so I stopped after 10.  It’s possible I should have been running slower—I used to do these intervals a few months ago and maybe I started too fast.  Or maybe ten minutes was a good amount.  I cooled down for a few minutes and then took this picture in the car.

I tried to portray the way I felt with the expression on my face.  Gross.  Yet AWESOME.

Anyway, I’m starting to get antsy and excited to get my new FREE Mizuno shoes.  My friends and my trainer are all super jealous (though hopefully some of them and you can get some too!) and I’m very excited to try them out and naturally tell you all about them.  I told Jen I’d make her take pictures of me running in them in the hopes of getting a picture of me in the air.

Like this one!  An actual picture of me with my feet OFF the ground!

Only one foot off the ground (still better than NONE of course)—from last weekend’s race.

(What do both of those pictures have in common?  I’m wearing Mizuno shoes.  Interesting.  I suppose I’m already a fan…also I really think my knees look funny, just generally.)

Anyway, if you’re a runner, do you have pictures of yourself in the air?  Is this something that concerns you, or is this simply my own personal problem?  Tell me about them in the comments.

(Scary instagrammed photo!)

I forgot where I saw it, but Mizuno (running shoes) is starting a project giving away free shoes as part of their marketing campaign. (hashtag #brilliantrun)  You can apply here.  I applied last week (?) and got an email yesterday that I had been selected for FREE SHOES.  I won’t actually believe it until I see it, because I am a cynical optimist, but they are supposedly sending me a pair of Inspires with a purple sole.  Very exciting!  Maybe you can get some free shoes too?!

I’ve already been a Mizuno runner (with the exception of my Brooks Pure Cadence shoes) but I haven’t tried the Inspires.  I’ve been running in the Nirvanas—the guy on the phone said the Inspires were very similar but lighter.  I’ll obviously blog more about them after I get them!

Edited to add:  After ordering my shoes, I got to invite one other person.  As a southerner, naturally I wanted to keep it in the family.  My sister Leslie got a free pair too—she usually runs in Inspires, and the person on the phone suggested to try the Elixirs, which are a bit lighter as well.  Unfortunately they didn’t have any in her size, but instead she is getting some awesome new color of the Inspires.  I’ll have her let the blog know how that turns out!

This is what I have to deal with every day.

Oh, I forgot to share this with you.  Do you watch CSI: Miami?  (If not this won’t make much sense.) I was complaining to my friend that my post-race breakfast the other day at Uncle Bill’s wasn’t sitting well.

That’s all for today, friends 🙂  You’re welcome.

The Go! All American 5k was billed as a downhill or flat 5k.  We were skeptical, as St Louis is notoriously hilly, but it was a one way course, and we thought, perhaps magically, the race organizers had found a way.

The day before the race I looked at the course map.  Nope.  There are still plenty of up hills.

SURE you lose elevation overall, and there are most definitely more downhills than uphills.  But I see plenty of gains in elevation.  I’m only mad about this because the website specifically mentioned flat-downhill course.

False advertising in my opinion.

Nonetheless. 

The race was Sunday morning at 7:30 am.  Steven, Jen, Vanessa, and I were running it.  (We had tried to enlist a few others but they all bailed for various reasons). We parked near the starting line around 7 am.  The race started at 7:30 am, and basically started on time.  It was pretty crowded at the start, since evidently there were about 1500 people running, but there wasn’t too much congestion, especially for a race of that size. 

I was hoping to break 30 minutes, but I honestly still am not back in "shape."  I was doing really well at the beginning, and likely went out too fast as I was running with Vanessa a bit towards the end of the 1st mile (she is much faster than me) but I felt okay at that point.  Shortly after I hit a wall and was having a really hard time catching my breath so I slowed significantly, and then had a moment of cramping where I had to stop and walk (up a huge hill that was seemingly endless) and at that point I suspected I would not break the 30 minute mark.  Oh well.

I finished strong though, and my time was 31:17.  There were finisher’s medals (so funny for a 5k, but a nice medal!) and plenty of bottled water.  It seemed there were bananas and maybe other stuff too but I only wanted water.

The "team" at the finish.  I wore a belt so I could have my phone with me for pictures.  Vanessa mocked me, but I know she was happy.

Afterwards we had to take a shuttle back to our cars.  The shuttle was a yellow school bus, and I’ll tell you, nothing is grosser than sitting on those seats when you are completely soaked with sweat.  I felt bad for whoever would be on the seat after me.  (It was not terribly hot but incredibly humid.)

We decided, in grand tradition, to go to Uncle Bill’s afterwards for breakfast.

We were seated next to what appeared to be a rock climbing wall.

I needed my coffee.  I wouldn’t include this picture as I look frightening, except I wanted to show the shirt.  Super cute!  I had changed into it for breakfast since my other top was wet, and then I immediately had to throw that shirt in the wash once I got home.  What a gross and sweaty day.

Overall, it was a very well run race.  And I finished in the top half of my divisions!