Running

Benton Park 5k Recap

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Saturday morning was the Benton Park 5k, “Reclaiming the 80’s”.

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I worked hard getting some friends to sign up.  Ultimately– my trainer Mike was running, along with my friends Jen, Jon, and Vanessa.  Since Mike lived very near the course start he invited us to all rendezvous at his house, so that was the plan.

I woke up before my alarm, as is becoming the norm, and was ready early.  Texts were already flying in the morning and I could tell everybody was pumped up!  I decided to get to Jen’s early to borrow some makeup and hairspray.

We got to Mike’s place around 8:15 am and of course we decided we all needed to take a bunch of photos.  Honestly, I was MORE excited about the costumes than the actual running.  I had certainly spent more time the week before working on my costume than running.

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Oh HAI!  It’s a picture of Mike and me together!  Yes, he’s wearing a mesh shirt.

And I think that expression is the answer as to why people think I am about to hit them.

Next, I like my cool casual background look here…

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Mike decided to start posing with the balance ball—I THINK he enjoyed having people take his picture (not that I can judge).

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So we took turns—this is Vanessa—and she has the world’s greatest shorts.

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Then my turn!

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Not sure what I was doing there.

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But I definitely almost fell over right here—balance is NOT my strong suit 😉

Then some group shots–

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And some more posing and stretching–

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This is my friend Jon-

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And Jen

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All the ladies—Aimee (friend of Mike’s), me, Jen, Vanessa, and Tricia (friend of Mike’s)

After all the photos we “yogged” the few blocks to the race start.  Jen still needed to pick up her packet so a couple of us went ahead.  We were worried we wouldn’t find the others again, but then we saw them from about 3 blocks away due to the brightness of everybody’s outfits.  Guess we shouldn’t have worried about that.

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A few notes about the race conditions—it was cold and drizzling.  (At least it wasn’t hot.)  A lot of folks were dressed in costumes, but a bunch weren’t.  Our group looked pretty fantastic, if I may say so.

The race was chip timed, and we lined up towards the middle of the front.  Mike went to the very front since he’s all fast and stuff, but we didn’t think that was a good idea for the rest of us.

I had wisely decided to run holding my camera so we could take more pictures of our awesomeness.

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Getting ready to go!

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Flexing…as usual.  You can also really tell I’m getting rained on here!

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The view in front of us.  You can tell how awesome we were dressed in comparison to these losers.

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Not sure what was going on here, but note the Rubik’s Cube guy.  Well done, sir.  Well done.  He also ran pretty much at my pace, while wearing that.

Finally we were off!  The start was a little crowded to get across the timing mat, but then it was fine.  We ran REALLY fast, and did the first mile in under 9:00.  I was still with Vanessa and Jen at that point (Jon had gone on ahead) but shortly after I was getting a bad sidestitch/cramp and I waved them on.  I had a really hard time the rest of the race.  I walked a short while due to the pain and then tried to push myself on.  Towards the end I saw Mike running back towards me and he ran with me a bit.  I was in no position to be my usual chipper self though as I was in pain.  After a bit, he said he was going to head back further to find his other friends.  I got a bit of a push from that as I didn’t realize I was ahead of them!

The course was pretty hilly and mainly went through the neighborhood of Benton Park.  It was a very nice run, except for the pain I was in.  As I rounded the last corner (uphill) to the finish line, I saw the clock was under 31 minutes.  My PR was just over 32 minutes, and I didn’t know how long it took me to cross the start (not long) so I kicked it as hard as I could.  I crossed the finish line under 32 minutes and saw my friends cheering for me (which was AWESOME!) and then I had to sit down.

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Rough.  I did NOT feel well.  I probably sat there for at least five minutes, and then I was still shaky after that.  I was both faint and nauseous.  Sign of a good race I guess?!   *how skinny do I look???*

We got a group photo then—well Jon took this one first (can you spot Waldo?)

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Then a stranger took this one (luckily we were with people who are not embarrassed to ask strangers for photos because I tend to just stand there awkwardly holding my camera attempting to catch someone’s eye rather than interrupt them).

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I’m definitely leaning on Vanessa as to not fall over.  And Jen doesn’t look too good either…but we did way better than our last race together 😉  But as a group we look fantastic!!  *leg warmers do not help legs look skinny*

The water was pretty far away though, and we slowly made our way there (I needed to go very slow.  I did NOT throw up, but I thought I was going to.)

There were bananas, snacks, and beer—I did not partake, but the others did!

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(I love that Waldo is in another picture—do you see him?)

There was a guy selling lettuce too–

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Some of went to breakfast afterwards—we tried a few places before finding one that didn’t have a terribly long wait.  We were in Soulard though, and the only ones dressed in 80’s clothing…

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The makeup held up surprisingly well!  And I should have taken my jacket off for the picture but it was seriously cold outside.

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Mike was trying to not pose because he knew he was going on the blog…

Oh and the restaurant wasn’t good at all.  Oh well.

So how did we all do?

Well, Mike came in 2nd…which he was acting like he didn’t really care that much.  If I came in second in a race I would probably put it on a billboard!  Seriously awesome—his time was 18:40.  That’s crazy fast.  And the guy who won did NOT wear a costume.

Jon was next out of our group with 26:31, and then Vanessa with 28:21 on her first race, and Jen PR’ed with a 28:49.  I have athletic friends!

I still PR-ed too with 31:11.  I am very pleased with myself!!  I need to work on my cramping problem, but overall I’m happy with the race.  It was a lot of fun too, and we rocked out on the costumes.

I would run this race again—it was a great time!

And it came with a tech shirt.  I’m not convinced of the color, but a tech shirt is a tech shirt.

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I decided to wear it on my run the next day though– (evidently I’m still in “posing” mode.)  I like that it provides a very modest neckline for when you are afraid of showing too much neck.

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Bling:  shirt and shiny new PR!  And a huge thanks to Jen from St Louis Ballet for major parts of my 80s costume.

Running

Rainy day run

5.5 miles in Forest Park, in a little drizzle.  The day after, oh, did I mention, a 5k PR?  31:11 with some walking due to stomach cramps.  (Race recap will be forthcoming.)

Jen and I felt that due to our extreme hard-core-ness we needed to keep up our “long run” anyway.  After all, a 5k is only 3.1 miles, which just isn’t that far.   So today, even though it was drizzling we ran our (now usual) perimeter route around Forest Park. 

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Tested out my new hat as well!

All in all it was a fantastic run and a great morning.

Food

Cake batter blondies

I was feeling like baking tonight, so I went with it.  I made “cake batter blondies” from this website.

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Mine aren’t much to look at, but they are pretty tasty!  And super easy.

If you read the comments on the original website, people get very angry about the “short cut” of using “cake mix.”  If you know me, you know I don’t shy away from baking from scratch (except when it comes to pie crusts, though I did my best last Thanksgiving…pie crusts seriously give me a nervous breakdown, which is especially weird since I generally have cold hands that can’t even make my stupid touchscreen phone work properly).  (Other baking posts: here and here, and for my “famous” pumpkin bread, HERE)

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But occasionally you don’t WANT to lift the horrendously heavy kitchenaid mixer down from the fridge top—perhaps you are feeling lazy, or still nervous about how the crockpot broke, or perhaps your arms are just simply TOO tired.  Or it might be that you are feeling lazy, and want a recipe that uses one bowl, one spoon, and one measuring cup, and THAT’S it.

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I love you kitchenaid mixer!  I would marry you if that were legal.

Now, the recipe makes for a pretty sweet treat.  If you prefer your desserts less sweet, have a salad or something (or maybe that buttermilk cake I linked to).  If you want an easy, tasty, sweet something, then try these blondies.

Just don’t get all mad about it.  Besides, some of us girls spend some of our time outside of the kitchen too.  (But we don’t do math, math is seriously hard.)

Random thoughts

My blog

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I have a love hate relationship with my readers.  I want you to read my blog.  I tweet about my blog, I post it on facebook.  I use it in my email signature.  I love you all!

But I get embarrassed when you want to talk to me in real life about it.  Weird, huh?  Of course I thrive on embarrassment in my life, but that’s another story… but seriously, my blog is on the INTERNET.  What happens on the internet stays on the internet, right?

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(and remember, friends, the internet is NOT a big truck, it’s a series of tubes.)

I know many of my friends read this.  Thanks guys!  In fact, sometimes I just assume my friends HAVE read and reference it as if they have not only read but memorized my words.  So I am a very hypocritical attention seeker.  There, I said it.  If any of my readers have a blog, you probably know exactly what I mean.  You want traffic, you want attention…but not too much.

Today was one of those times where I got exactly what I deserved.

Do you remember the “poop” picture and story about the woman who, well, lost control of her bowels while running the Boston Marathon?  Of course you do, even though you’d probably prefer not to.  In any case, earlier this week the photographer emailed me and asked me to please take the picture down.  He said that he had thought it was a funny story but it ended up being a huge hassle for Caroline White.  (Evidently he is new to the internetz).  He also corrected me and said she was trying for a PR, and had already qualified for the Olympic trials the year before.  In any case, I felt really bad and of course took the picture down.

I was in the middle of my workout with Mike (you know, Mike, my personal trainer) this morning and I brought this up.  I had mentioned my blog in the past, and I told him the story of the guy asking me to take down the picture.  He said, “oh, yeah, I read that on your blog”.  Then he said, “next week I’ll teach you how to run airborne.”

It took me a few seconds, but then I realized that he had read this post.  I think I turned beet red.

Mike went on to tell me how he was looking for the Ocarina concert and couldn’t get it to load, but instead was poking around my blog and just happened to notice a picture of himself.

I think that time stopped due to my extreme embarrassment (Chris is also embarrassed FOR me and I think for himself as well to be engaged to someone like me).  I was trying to play it all cool, but I’m pretty sure that I was bright red and perhaps sweating profusely.

I asked if he minded, and he said no, it was fine.  I hope he wasn’t just saying that.  Maybe I’ll never see Mike again, or he is going to file a restraining order against me…I DID tell him about my blog, and I DID somewhat encourage him to read it.  So it is entirely my fault (see previous comment re: being a hypocritical attention seeker.)

But I’m not a stalker.  Just a blogger who likes to borrow other people’s photos on the internet.  And sometimes I have a lot of free time.

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Here’s a picture of my own cat, judging me:

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So…hi Mike, welcome to my blog!  I promise I’m not a crazy stalker, I’m just crazy 🙂  And seriously people, he’s a great trainer, you should sign on with him.  I plan to continue until at least my wedding, if it’s possible.

Does anybody else want a shout out?

Random thoughts, Running, Teaching, Weddings

Friday the 13th

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Ooh, SCARY!  ‘

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I feel like I should write something, but I can’t think of anything good.  Often while I’m driving I’ll think of a fun topic for a blog post, but I can’t remember any of them right now.  I should probably write those down, but I’m pretty sure it’s illegal to take notes while driving (especially in construction zones).

Tonight is another school concert.  I will be relieved when it’s over—I know the kids will be fine, but these things are still stressful, because who knows what might happen.  For instance, several children might break their violins (likely) or perhaps somebody will play the wrong song because they didn’t listen to the introduction (less likely, but still possible) or maybe the parents will complain the violin portion of the program is still too long (don’t care, listen for 6 minutes, okay?).

Today is the first day in a long time that I got up after 8:00 am.  WHO AM I?  I have been waking up before my alarm even.  I blame the sun, and the fact that I have been generally going to bed before midnight.  Does this mean I am an adult now?  (No, my criteria remains that I want to have a washer/dryer ON MY FLOOR.)

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Here’s a photo of one of the places we are looking at for the wedding…I like the table runners/colored tablecloths.  (See, I’m taking an interest in decor! )

Seriously though, I dislike too much monotony or white in decor, and want color and texture.  Hence my house is cluttered with junk—  Besides which, what would my students look at while playing?  Their bows??  That’s crazy talk.  But for the wedding I think some color will be nice.

I have a relaxing weekend ahead of me and I can’t wait.  I only have TWO things to do this weekend, and considering I am counting my 5k race, I really only have one thing to do (play a wedding).  SWEET.

Happy Friday the Thirteenth to you!

thoughts about violin, teaching, running, life.