Running Curahee

I had the privilege of running my first 10K this weekend! This one was special to me. It was the running of Curahee Mountain, in honor of the 70th anniversary of D-Day. 

As the daughter and granddaughter of proud military men, I was so excited to participate in a race that was honoring our brave soldiers, past and present.

When "Band of Brothers" came out on HBO several years ago, I became obsessed and fell in love with the documentary. It tells the story of Easy company of the 506th Parachute Infantry division and their missions in WWII, but it all began at Camp Toccoa, with a lot of training by running up Curahee, and back down. 

It's 3 miles up and 3 miles down.

At the start of the 3rd mile, UP the mountain on a gravel road, I was thinking...."what have I gotten myself into???" Not gonna lie, this course was brutal, but the view from the top of the mountain was worth every step.

(I wore my phone just for the purpose of getting a couple of mountaintop pictures. 

I didn't think about sweat making my lense super steamy!!)

Steamy or not, I can still tell where I'm standing...and I love it!

It was a hot hot hot and humid day in Georgia, which just added to the challenge of this course. 

I was pleasantly surprised to finish and come in 3rd in my age group, especially since they were in 10 year increments for this race. Placing in my age group in a race was on my bucket list...so that's getting scratched off sooner than expected!

Hubby and the kids came with me, so after the race we spent some time touring the monuments. They even brought in some military vehicles and memorabilia for the participants to see. The babies loved seeing the old cars, helmets, and uniforms.

It was a great family day for us, and a memorable run for me. Races for a good cause are my absolute favorite, and this one couldn't have been any better!

Half Marathon....check!

I did it!! My goal for 2014 is complete. I finished my first Half Marathon earlier this month.

                                     

 

The training paid off and I finished with a smile on my face. Hubby even jumped in and ran the last "0.1" with me. Never mind I had already run 13 miles....but it was nice to have him with me.

 

I run slower than some people walk, so I finished in 2 hours and 30 minutes, but I was proud of my time and happy to finish strong.

 

While my knees were hating me the next day, I was already looking forward to the next one. I've got my eye on a couple of 5Ks for the rest of the year, but I'm definitely keeping the 13.1 mile distance on my mind. It's a fun accomplishment, great exercise, and lots of fresh air.

This Year's Goal

Each year I try to make it a "new years resolution" to try something new. This year is no different, but it took me a while to come up with this year's new "thing to do". I'm back and forth now between freaking out and being super excited because....

I'm training for a half marathon!

That's right. Me and the road for 13.1 miles. Yikes.

I used to LOVE running and played a lot of "running" sports in school. Then after having baby girl, I decided to run my first 5K to get into shape. I've run several since then, some alone, and a few with Hubby too! Those are fun, but I wanted more of a challenge.

So now, it's in the internet universe, in black and white. Now I HAVE to do it, or there will be a record of me backing out.  I have a fun race in mind, and am keeping my eyes on the calendar and my feet on the road until then.

Wish me luck!!

The Midnight Flight

It's been a loooong time since Hubby and I ran, but we wanted to get off our butts and run the "Midnight Flight" together this year.

 

This was our first race since This one back in July.

 

This race is a local tradition, run every Labor Day weekend.

 

 

It's a night race which makes it lots of fun to begin with.

We had GLOW STICKS!!!!

 

 

Did you see my latest announcement??? That's right folks...I'm almost 5 months pregnant....and still running.

Baby liked the neon shirt I think.

 

 

No matter how we took our pictures, they turned out crazy. I guess that's what happens when we use a camera phone! Its all in the memory of the moment though.

 

 

One of my girlfriends from college ran too. It was her 1st 5K after a wonderful weight loss journey. She finished great!

 

 

I'm glad I'm feeling good enough to start running again, but this was definitely a challenge and my poor little legs are paying for it two days later!

Independence Day 5K

Hubby and I started out our Independence Day by celebrating our fitness!!!

He has been working really hard to get into shape, and I've been working kinda, sometimes, a little bit. Let's face it, I'm not motivated.

The races I've done have all been on Saturdays, so it doesn't work out with his work schedule. This one was on July 4th and perfect for us to do together!

It was called

Red, White, and Blue Shoes

and was held at the beautiful campus of Furman University. It was a bit of a drive, but it was great "couple time"

A little pre-race photo opportunity.

Do we like lime green and gray??? I can't tell.

Post-race!! Had a great finish time and lots of fun! I really just go for the post-race snacks. Mmmmmm....bagels.

These feet were tired, tired, tired after the race, but the long car ride home made for a relaxing end to the morning.

I've got another race in the line-up for the fall, but hopefully we can find one to do together before then!

Celebrating Fitness

The hospital I work for has a competition every year called the "Biggest Loser" patterned after the show. It's a weight loss competition challenging teams of coworkers to get fit!

I am the Cheerleader for my coworkers and have LOVED watching them lose some serious pounds over the last few weeks. To celebrate their fitness and get some more exercise, a group of us decided to walk a 5K this past weekend. It was for a good cause, and we wanted to have some fun.

Gray got to come along too!

This is pre-race.

And Post-Race. We're all still smiling!!

Gray had the sweet ride.

3.1 miles doesn't sound like a long way until you have a toddler strapped to your back. She was wonderful though and told me about every "Truck!" that rode by while we walked.

I have some nutty coworkers.

And one sweet little baby girl. She Loved running around once we were done. So much wide-open land!

We've all gotten excited now that the 5K is over with and are looking forward to the next one! This was number three for me. I must say, it's WAY more fun doing them with people to make you laugh along the way!

Big Shout Out

I wanna give a HUGE shout-out to our Volleyball Team!! We WON our league championship this week!

(Photo courtesy of my Dad's Blackberry. Sorry for the fuzz)

Now...this win is extra-super-duper exciting because we lost Every. Single. Game. of the season. We just got together at church and played for fun, decided to join a league, and found out really quick that we were a little underprepared.

There were a lot of close matches, but we never could pull out a win. The night of the Championship, we rallied to beat the teams in the bracket. It was a such a great day for our team, and it was even better to be a church family accomplishing fun and exciting things.



5 Weeks to 5K

I did it! I finished my first 5K this weekend (3.1 miles). I registered for it 5 weeks ago with NO running experience and a serious case of being Out-Of-Shape! I needed the motivation of an actual race to get my butt off the couch and training!

I broke my 5 weeks down kind of like this....

Week 1: Jog 1 mile, walk when needed
Week 2: Run/walk 1 mile
Week 3: Run/walk 2 miles
Week 4: Run 2 miles, no walking
Week 5: Run/walk 3 miles

There were a few days those last couple of weeks that I just couldn't do the full time, so I did a quick 1-mile to get a little run in, just so I wouldn't skip a day. I ran 2-3 days a week.

Hubby came for the race Saturday! It was great to see him at the finish line, and he took a few pictures for me along the way!

Ready to race early in the morning. You can see the stadium in the background.

Super-nervous...lined up ready to start! I managed to sneak in a smile though.

Coming up the final stretch....still smiling! This course was FULL of hills.

All done! I finished in 31.22 minutes, below my goal time! I came in first in my age group too which was a surprise to me!

One more picture with the stadium in the background. I love me some Death Valley!

I'm looking forward to doing more races. Now that I've finished one and know I can do it I'm going to keep up the running to stay in shape. It only takes about 30 minutes to run a few miles and it's a great way to wind down after work.

What have you been doing to stay in shape??? Any other runners out there??

Ready To Run

{Cue the cheesy Dixie Chicks music...}

I am training for my first 5K!! Now that it's out in the universe...I can't back out! I am by no means a runner. Never have been. I played my fair share of sports and did a lot of "running" during those sports, but I have never thrown on my shoes and started running down the road for no real reason. I still don't see why some people LOVE to run all. the. time. But it's starting to grow on me.

I run when I get off of work at 6 in the morning, so its quiet and cool outside. I grab my iPod, jump out of my car, and take off down the road. This probably looks quite rediculous, because I'm running in scrubs. I wear athletic shoes to work and usually just wear scrub pants and a t-shirt, so it's not really too far off from normal work-out clothes anyways. I started running around my neighborhood, but after a few encounters with being chased by an early morning schoolbus, I decided to take my running elsewhere. The hospital I work for has a sister-campus a couple of miles away with a walking/running track around its perimeter. The track is 1-mile long, so perfect for trying to see how well you're doing with training! There's always people there so even when its super dark out in the mornings I'm never alone, which I appreciate.

The 5K is in 2 weeks. I have been training for 3 weeks already. It was a short goal, but I knew if I gave myself too long to train I would skip days and not be as committed. I am up to jogging/running 2 miles now without walking! I have 2 weeks to add in that 3rd mile, so I KNOW I can do it.

The race is in Clemson. For those of you who are new readers (Welcome!!), you must understand that I am a Die. Hard. Clemson. Fan. I didn't go to Clemson, because it wasn't a good fit for me (not having my major had a LOT to do with it!), but I love me some Clemson football, and the campus is gorgeous. I've driven through the campus hundreds of times, but this will give me a new view of things.

If any of you are runners and live in the Clemson or SC upstate area, HERE is the link to the race. It's not too late to sign up! They have a 1K fun run for kids too. Gray won't quite make that one. It takes us 20 minutes to walk to the nursery at church right now...but maybe next year!

I'll let you know how it goes. Wish me luck!