2010 Polar Bear

Yesterday, after an exhausting week, I met my buddies downtown and we embarked on the 5 mile Polar Bear. It was a fun atmosphere and the weather was a perfect temperature, but I was tired and not really feeling it!




We started off well. In fact, the first mile seemed to go by pretty fast. One of my friends had to keep stopping to tie her shoe. At a mile, she wanted to walk - which I was fine with. As much as I want to keep running, I also want to keep my knees healthy. So I was happy to walk and run with her. Our other friend took off. She's in great shape and was ready to take off. I was so fine with that!

We walked and ran our way through the whole race. I was so tired. My whole body felt heavy and my legs felt like lead. I was having a terrible time motivating myself, but we made it through and crossed the finish line in just over an hour five minutes. Interestingly, this was the same time as our 4.5 Drumstick Dash, so all said and done, progress has been made! Here we are at the end of the race.



In the end, I love races. I love participating in them and being part of a crowd of people who are working to live a healthy lifestyle. I am significantly overweight. (post to come on that), and have a long way to go. The mere fact I am out there running at all and keeping up a 13:15/mile pace is nothing to feel bad about. It will improve. I will improve! Today, I'm feeling great. I was sooooooo tired last night and slept hard. However, I woke up this morning, didn't feel sore and am in a good place - working hard to make good food choices on a day I'm home getting stuff done around the house. Those tend to be snacky days for me - so I'm going to make good choices with the snacking and continue to feel good about myself!!!

Drumstick Dash --A New Tradition

This year, I was DETERMINED to do a race on Thanksgiving. Last year, when I drove by everyone picking up their stuff for the race, I was so bummed I wasn't doing it. Last weekend, when I threw out my back, I was really worried I wouldn't be able to do it - that my body would feel like it just couldn't make it. I got a massage this week, saw the chiropractor, got my friend to sign up to do it with me, and did it. Man was I glad. I LOVED this event and LOVED starting my day off with it!

We ran the first two miles. There were 10,000 people in this race and it was packed. It was near impossible to get a fast pace going, and once you could, it would bottle up again. But it didn't matter. We ran an easy pace the first two miles. At mile two, my friend's son (who's nine and was AWESOME running with us!) wanted a break and Nikki and I weren't complaining. So, we walked a bit. We were antsy to run again - her son wasn't as much, but we got him to! We did the rest of the race running and walking, trying to alternating longer running periods with shorter walking periods. Even when we walked we did a great pace. The last couple of minutes were hard. My legs were tired! We were both panting and complaining a bit, but we pushed it, and crossed the line at one hour two minutes. I was SO proud. It made our pace about 13.7 minutes/mile and to me, someone who is just getting started, that felt great!

I ate the rest of the day as I normally would - but cooked quite a bit of food thinking a little bit more about what was healthier. I substituted agave nectar for a lot of sugar - and you could not tell. In a couple of dishes I used Earth Balance instead of butter, and opted for Light Land O'Lakes butter. I had one vegan dessert, and 3 other vegan dishes. My family forced me to make turkey (I've been a vegetarian now for a couple of months), but EVERYTHING else was veggie - even the gravy and NOBODY noticed - or at least they didn't say anything!

The meal was great (if I do say so myself) and I haven't one picture --I had big plans to take pics of all my food, but just didn't get it together -- except this one of A2 eating her first Thanksgiving meal (last year it was all about formula!)



-turkey
-mashed potatoes
-butternut squash puree
-green beans and shallots
-stuffing
-gravy
-cranberry preserves
-pumpkin cheesecake
-cranberry apple crisp

In all, GREAT day! Great friends, family, and food - could a girl ask for anything more???