Tour Des Fleurs, no surprises until the end!

Me with my dad and mom after the race.

Well, the end of an era, or at least a decade is near. Running the 2012 Tour Des Fleurs (TDF) marked the last race I would run in my 30's. I was greeted with a wonderful surprise, my parents drove up from Austin to celebrate my 40th birthday! It was equally if not more emotional an experience as crossing the finish line at my marathon. Maybe more so since I wasn't expecting them to be there. It is a wonderful feeling to know people love and care about you so make time to do something so special.

I actually almost didn't sign up for the race. I saw the emails and had decided my running days were getting farther and farther away from me, that trying to run a 10K was a little to ambitious. Then my friend asked if I wanted to run with her, she was training for the Tour Des Fleurs. I agreed to train and explained I hadn't run in quite some time, that we would need to take it slow. The first day we went out we ran an hour. That is not taking it slow. But, it did make me rethink running TDF and I decided if I can run for an hour in a training run, I could probably run the race. So I signed up. And I am so glad I did. I had a great time running. I was hard and I was tired but there is something about running and crossing the finish line that makes me feel such a sense of accomplishment. And having my parents at the end was the best prize a girl could ask for!

I Run Because I Thought I Never Could - National Running Day

I started running as an effort to get out, be social and meet people that were healthier than myself. I wasn't set on running, I just wanted to find a social activity. At a friends recommendation I went to a Team in Training meeting to sign up. I wanted to do a sprint tri and called my good friend in Atlanta to see if she wanted to do it with me. Somehow she convinced me a marathon would be way more fun and I ended up signing up to run in the 2009 San Diego Marathon! Keep in mind, I hadn't run any distance really to speak of EVER. I had completed a few 5K's to support the Susan G. Komen Foundation but I have never run the entire 5K. A marathon was going to be a feat.

Here is my post about my marathon. 

It was an amazing journey and I am proud to say that years later, I am still running. Not marathons maybe but I am still running and that in itself is a win.

I never thought I would run. Years ago I tried and a boyfriend of mine laughed at the way I ran. This embarrassed me so much I decided not to run. I actually stopped just about all athletic activity. It wasn't until sometime later, long after the boyfriend was gone, that I even ventured into a gym.

What I learned while training for my marathon is everyone runs funny. Some people run on the sides of their feet, some people lean way far forward, some people sort of hobble, some people run on the balls of their feet, etc. The point is they run. They are trying and they are being who they are. So I run because I never thought I could...and I can.

Go for a Doughnut Run. It's National Doughnut and Running Day!

I love twitter, you can learn such interesting information. I popped on twitter while drinking my morning coffee saw that it was National Doughnut Day. Awesome I think, perfect excuse to get a doughnut from Starbucks later. Then as I scroll down I see it is also National Running Day. Of course, because you have to run to burn off the darn doughnut!

Here is the link to National Doughnut Day.

Here is the link for National Running Day.


If you want to combine the two activities, here are a few doughnut runs. Sadly some of these have past but there's always next year!

Iowa State University 5K

Charleston Doughnut Run

Krispy Kreme Challenge


Bartow County Sheriff's Office Honor Guard's Run for the Donut 5K

Read more: The Daily Tribune News - Run for the Donut 5K raises dough for honor guard charity

Catch you later...I'm off on a doughnut run!

Recap of my run at the White Rock and Roll 5 mile race

I don't know why blogging is so hard for me; I think of millions of things to write about, most of those thoughts being generated AS I am running, biking or practicing yoga. Then it is hard to sit down and actually type them out. Saturday's run is a perfect example. I ran the White Rock and Roll 5 mile run and had lots of things I wanted to mention in a blog post, the afternoon rolled by, then all the sudden it was Sunday, then Monday and now it is Tuesday and I still haven't recapped my race. Ugh.

For what it's worth, here is my recap of the race.

I'll start off with saying I wore a pair of short shorts and the race technical tee. I'm not sure why I thought those shorts were better than the longer ones I have, it seemed like a good idea the night before. More on that later.  The race started out fine, we started off at the bottom of the hill near Winfrey Point and ran north  along the lake. At the mile marker I was at 9:50. I thought, whoa!, that is fast! Too fast as it turns out. I couldn't keep the pace. I ran to nearly the water station, got two cups of water and kept running...for about a minute. I was pooped!

As we rounded the corner I saw a guy running towards me with a number. Are you serious? Someone is running back ALREADY?! Ugh. Then I notice we are going to run up the same hill I ride my bike to go home from the lake. I hate this hill. I use to know a guy that would give me a hard time because I went up the darn thing so slowly, nearly staying still. It isn't even that big a hill, I just get whipped even thinking about it.

My goal was to look at the ground and just put one foot in front of the other until I made it to the top. I even told myself I could walk once I got to the top. Sometimes I am the worst self motivator. I ran half way up and stopped, walked for a bit then ran. Slacker.

After the hill we turned right and had a slight down hill with a good breeze. About this time I feel the rubbing of the insides of my legs and I remember why I have longer running shorts. It's not that my legs are enormous, though they are larger than I prefer, it's just that they touch each other. The only time I didn't have this issue was when I trained for my marathon, was training with a personal trainer 3x a week and eating right.

So as my legs are being rubbed raw, I am cursing myself for wearing short shorts, for having big thighs to begin with, for the fact that I didn't bring any chaffing cream and for the fact that my sweat is running down my legs and where my skin is raw it now stings like a mother!

I'm sure I looked a little funny tugging at the insides of my shorts trying to pull them down a bit. Reminds me a bit of the time I wore a cute outfit for Y2K only for it to be FREEZING and I spent the night huddled in a little ball freezing my A off.

The rest of the run was pretty much like the last few miles, a little running and a little walking. I did OK overall, I finished at 59:20, which is not a bad time for me, especially since I haven't been running that much lately.

The best part is the completion of this race marks the 6th event I have completed this year! Only 6 more to go in my Bike Run Yoga Challenge!

Do you have a "Shower Naked Body"?

Earlier this week I saw a post on facebook that said "Summer is coming...do you have your bikini body?" I felt compelled to respond, not on the post because I clearly DO NOT have my bikini body, but in my own timeline. Here is my post:


I just saw a post asking if I was ready for the summer...did I have my bikini body?! Uh, no. I don't even have a shower naked body. I need more yoga, more crossfit, more running, more vegetables and less procrastination.

Do you ever feel like that? You don't even want to shower naked for fear you MIGHT see something you probably don't want to see. It is that feeling of dread you get when you realize the fat jeans you bought are tight and not because you threw them in the dryer. Or when you try and dress cute and realize all your shirts either pull around the waist or there is more than a muffin top above your pants, it is more like the edge of a pot pie from Marie Calendars. Who needs a pot pie waist?!

I love and hate getting dressed at the yoga studio. Hate it because there are HUGE mirrors from floor to ceiling and it is too easy to catch a glimpse of the side or back view of my hip/ass area and realize that back in the day when they were trying to decide what to call the balled up cheese in a cheese sauce, they might have been looking at my legs and said AH HA, let's call this stuff cottage cheese. Hate it because my body sometimes reminds me of the disproportionate renditions of females from Monet or Renoir where the thighs are big, tummy pooches out and their arms look like cave man clubs. Love it because every time I see myself I sigh and inch closer to getting motivated to actually DO SOMETHING about it.

This is my next step to doing something. I just signed up for my sixth event of the year. The White Rock and Roll is a 5 or 10 mile run, I am doing the 5 miler. I haven't run 5 miles since Thanksgiving so we shall see how it goes. 

I don't think running 5 miles will get me a "bikini body" or even a "shower naked body" but it is definitely better than going to the mall and buying one size larger.