More Goals

Reading through all the New Year's posts and articles made me think of a few more things I'm going to try to do this year.

On Lauren Conrad's website* they had a list of 10 resolutions everyone should make. One of them overlaps with a resolution that apparently Pope Francis has for us all. That is to stop wasting food. I am very guilty of this. I'll buy something and use it for one meal, but never find a use for the rest of it. During the Farm Share I was super guilty of wasting fresh veggies! I know. I'm ashamed, but sometimes I just couldn't find a use for a whole head of cabbage when I had a busy week. So I'm going to clean the fridge of all out of date food and focus and using every thing I buy or putting it in the freezer before it goes bad.

Second goal is to keep learning. Last Spring I learned how to screen print, but then I didn't sign up for anything new. I'm going to try to keep something on the calendar. I found some cool online resources yesterday that I'm excited to try out.

General Assembly- https://generalassemb.ly/ has some cool classes and workshops in DC. Focused around web design, business and technology.

Codecademy- http://www.codecademy.com/ teaches coding starting at the simplest level. I already learned to make an animation from my name and start a mini solar system.

Coursera- https://www.coursera.org has college courses from all over, some are free and some are paid. You can take a class or they have specializations that have a series of courses.

*Yes I occasionally read Lauren Conrad's site. I may have a small girl crush on her.

2015 (BOOM)

Meeting and dating Brian, wasn't a goal, but has been a highlight of 2014

Happy New Year!

I know its been awhile since I've blogged, but I thought with the new year I should check in. 

My goals for 2014:

Year goals

Blog more consistently (I need to keep my parents happy)- This didn't happen at all, I dropped off the blogsphere in June

See something at the Studio Theater (for real this time)- SUCCESS I saw COCK with a group of girlfriends, it was a great production that we all enjoyed.

Monthly goals

Craft/Sew something new - I did do a lot of crafting including sewing a quilt top and making a bunch of bags for Christmas gifts.

Go somewhere new- I went several new places including Charleston and Columbia, South Carolina, Bonn, Germany and Tomball, Texas

Eat somewhere new- Eating new places is not hard in DC. New lunch places include Shophouse and Cava grill. Finally ate at the Pig, and am continuing to eat new pizza with Pizza Club.

January goals

Run at least one mile a day- I think I missed one day....

Do the Nike Training Club App Get Lean Advanced Program- Completed

Organize my photos and backup them up and print some- I printed some photos, but didn't do much organizing.

I don't remember making any more monthly goals...

For 2015 I want to:

Reset my healthy eating

Run a Marathon- I'm registered for the Rock 'n Roll DC Marathon in March, the first month of training has gone ok, but now I'm encountering milage I'm unfamiliar with.

Journal- I've actively journaled for much of my life, I'd like to get back to the pen and paper way. 

Meal Plan- I've been doing a lot of last minute shopping and cooking. For some reason this stresses me out so I would like to do less of it.

Focus on Happiness

Yoga on the Mall

Spring and Summer in DC means free outdoor workouts! As part of DC Yoga Week they had Yoga on the mall Saturday. The weather was perfect and the setting by the Constitution Gardens was gorgeous. The Yoga was so-so. It was more West Coast new agey than lets sweat and get a good workout. They did some drumming/singing/dancing before we started, which I kind of enjoyed, but then we were told to put our hands on our hearts and chant for like ten minutes. Heart chanting, not so much my thing...

Great company

Nike Women Half Marathon Washington DC

Sunday I'm running my third half marathon in the Nike Women Half Marathon in DC. Nike is great at creating hype and have been releasing details as needed. Like the Tiffany's necklace we get at the finish line? We won't know till we get there. Also they have been selling a lot of DC and race related swag. Included three special pairs of shoes. People are buying it up. I've restrained myself thus far.... Although the fact that we don't see our free t-shirt till we finish may be helping.

Today after work I headed to the packet pick up and "expotique" with two coworkers who are also running the race. There weren't any lines and we received our bib, pace bracelet, and other goodies in no time. The Expotique was fun we received cards with codes to try and win a free pair of shoes, they had a booth to make customized signs, hair styling booth, make up booth, sports bra fitting, gait analysis, nuun drinks, and luna bars.

Shoe wall & codes

Then we visited the WE RUN sign by the waterfront and walked up to the Nike Store in Georgetown.

RUN

Along the wall were the names of all the runners.

can you find my name? 

do you see it now?

Inside the store was crazy. The line to check out was weaving all around the store. We just looped around, checked out the special merchandise and caught a short talk/interview with Olympian Sanya Richards-Ross.

Olympic gold medalist on the left

Resolutions/Goals/Plans/Ideas

I pretty much knocked last years resolutions out of the park. Lets do a quick review for fun.

1. Refrain from using the snooze button- I had a little late December relapse, but I'm recovered, I swear.

2. Run at least 6 races- I got a little race registration happy and ended up with 12 road races and 2 obstacle course races.

3. Track what I eat and when I work out- I was diligent with this for the first half of the year and saw the results I wanted. I haven't been tracking as closely, but am thinking of doing a month redo just to refresh what I learned.

4. Knit something new- It took till November but success! I knitted my first ever dog bow tie!

5. Travel somewhere new- Lots of domestic travel to visit lots of friends, a good year.

6. Be friendlier to strangers- I struck up several New Year's related conversations today.

Ok, out with the old, in with the new! 

Honestly I'm struggling with resolutions this year. I'm pretty happy with where I am and am not sure if my resolutions are more just goals or plans, but anyway here are some things I can work on in 2013.

1. Run a marathon, specifically Marine Corps Marathon with (or a half hour behind) my oldest sister Kristen. 

only 23.1 additional miles necessary

2. Volunteer, somewhere. anywhere. Since moving to DC I haven't done anything (I know shameful). I'm thinking of seeing if I could help out the DC State Fair. I would also like to volunteer at a running race.

3. Get outside more. Including hiking/biking/and just walking around during daylight ours. I don't think I've been getting enough vitamin D the last few months, which makes me more tired and lazy and its no good.

maybe not ALL day hikes

4. Continue to make an effort to see my scattered friends in scattered places. I already have a friend's wedding on the calendar in February.

photo booths were the rage of 2012, I wonder what 2013 will bring?

5. Take my lunch to work once a week. Its not about money, its not about health, it may be a little about time, and its all about pushing myself to be creative and resourceful.

this dish was delicious, why haven't I made it again?

6. See a play at Studio Theater and or the Kennedy Center. The Kennedy Center is Iconic, the Studio Theater is around the block from my apartment. I was pretty good about seeing musicals and plays in NYC, I need to revive my habit in DC.

not the best show, but delightful

7. Spend a lot of time with this little kid. I'm not sure when I'm going back to Missouri this year, but I need to make sure it happens. (Apparently today she was looking for me in the bedroom I stayed in last week, I wasn't hiding from you! I'm back in DC!)

Baltimore Running Festival

Last March at a work happy hour a few of my coworkers hatched a plan for an office softball team. And naturally we needed to start running and cross training to get ready. Well the summer ended and the softball team never happened, but the Tuesday Night Run Club was born. After months of running together we decided we were ready to compete and we signed up for the Baltimore Running Festival Marathon Relay. 

The Marathon Relay splits the full 26.2 mile distance up between four people.

Leg 1 5.7 miles Greg

Leg 2 7.1 miles Hannah

Leg 3 6.1 miles Bob

Leg 4 7.3 miles Courtney

You run with a timing chip on a wristband and hand it off in special relay exchange areas.

We all headed up to Baltimore on Friday night and headed to the Expo to pick up our numbers and shirts.

step 2: walk through all vendors to pick up number and walk back through all vendors

 Then we headed to Little Italy for some carbo loading. We were running a little late and I arrived before Bob, who had made the reservation. When they found the reservation, they pointed to an almost full table of older people and said, "there is your party", I looked and they were not my party. Turns out they other party had a similar last name, but no reservation, and they stole ours! I've never had that happen before. They were able to set us up in the banquet room, where it was a bit quieter and the food tasted just as good.

We all went straight to bed to prepare for an early wake up. I woke up at 6am to be able to meet the team at bag check at 7am.

Good morning Baltimore!

 Hannah had to catch a 7:30 bus to the staging area for the second leg of the bus, but the rest of us had a little time to get pumped up.

Greg aka Hill-lover

Bob aka Speed-demon

ME aka Spiritual-leader

For the few weeks running up to the relay we went back and forth over what our team uniforms should look like. When we finally decided on lime green shirts, it was impossible to find any in plain ones in the proper sizes and fit. So we settled on green shirts and electric orange headbands and wristbands (which just happened to match the relay bibs and medals!). 

ready ready ready ready to run

The race started at 8:00 and I had to catch the bus to my starting point at 8:30. The route the busses took wasn't the smartest, it crossed the race twice. First we waited for the back of the 5K race, but they finally stopped the walkers and let us through. Then we crossed around mile 8.5 where the really fast people were already running. At the second crossing the school busses just floored it and darted through. Once we arrived at the exchange point, everyone got in line to use the porta potties and while we were still in line, the first wheel chair racers arrived and then the elite runners. I met up with a friend on racing on another team in the porta john line so we chatted while we waited and as soon as we arrived at the staging area I received a text that our second leg was complete. At that point it hit me that I'd be running in about a half hour and started getting ready and taking off all my layers. 

We were positioned on top of a hill so we could see people coming for a little bit. The green shirt and orange headband made Bob easy to spot and our transition was flawless. I started off fast with all the adrenaline flowing from the hand off. The route continued up hill for awhile then around a big lake. The only problem with running after a fast teammate is that most of the people he passed, started passing me back. I was still definitely towards the front and running mostly alone. There were crowds along most of my route, which really made it fun. With several rolling hills my pace bumped around between 7:28 and 8:01, but averaged out at 7:44 a PR for me at the 6-7mile distance.

running fast

With a mile left I saw that we were going to be way under 3:30 (our loose goal) and picked up my pace for a strong finish. An official time of 3:16:29. It was hard to see who was running the relay and who was running the half marathon and who was running the full marathon mid-stride. But I hadn't noticed any relayers passing me, and knew that not that many teams had came in to the exchange before us so we thought we might of finished pretty high up. Turns out we were 14th out of 579 Mixed (male/female) teams!

at the finish line

what hills don't kill you make you stronger

They pronounced my name right!

My last name is German, my family pronounces it in an English way, but there are two vowels in row and they don't follow the rules. In High School this meant I never knew how I was going to be announced at basketball games, now it means I never know how I'll be introduced at work meetings. So with this history I can't believe I forgot one of the most exciting things that happened at Sunday's 10K. When I crossed the finish line, the pronounced my entire name correctly! If only they took the picture at that moment, because I had a huge smile across my face. Here are a few photos they did take...

pre-race bag check prep

where's Courtney?

Last but not least I share with you, the most terrible race photo of this year (or second maybe). After having several pretty good photos it was about time this happened. 

so many things I could write here

The main thing going on here, is this leg ripple. I've named it elephant leg. I guess I was going just that fast.

Run for the Parks 10K

For part two of my two race weekend I headed back to West Potomac Park for the Run for the Parks 10K. I signed up for the Run for the Parks 10K for three main reasons: 1) I had never  raced a 10K 2) sweet race swag and 3) proximity to my apartment. And then the additional benefit of helping the parks. With my ankle swelled and sore from the prior day's misstep and this being my first 10K I wasn't sure how the race was going to go.  

race swag

I got up at 6 and had oatmeal, coffee, and water while analyzing the weather forecast. Sunday was the first day this fall that didn't make it out of the 50's. Add some rain to the forecast and I wasn't sure what to wear. I ended up deciding on a long sleeve shirt with shorts, which was the right choice during the race. At 7 I added pants and a rain jacket and biked down to the starting line. The only pre race packet pick up was in Tyson's, so the line was pretty long. My friend Jayna was already in line so I joined her and about 15 minutes later we had our numbers and jackets and we moved over to the extremely long bag check line. By the time we finished both lines it was almost race time. A very talented 15 yr old girl from Virginia sang the National Anthem while playing the guitar. And then a minute or two after 8 am we were off!

The course was similar to the 8K I ran a few weeks ago, but with a mile extra. The course is fairly flat and at or below sea level at some places. 

As soon as we started running I realized my feet were cold. Luckily we were running and they soon warmed up. I put a brace on my ankle so it was a little extra stiff and I could feel a little uncomfortableness for the first mile. My ankle didn't hold me back and my first mile ended up being my fastest (no surprise here) at 7:56. After the ankle loosened up I started noticing my legs felt a little tired, but kept up the pace for the second mile at 7:57. Around mile 2.5 the lead runners were heading back. I made it to mile 3 maintaining the steady 7:57 pace and after the turnaround entertained myself watching the runners going in for the turn and looking for my friend. I saw her and shouted and waved. Out and backs are fun, because you get to see other runners, but they are also not fun because you know how far you have to go back. 

I don't remember anything significant about mile 4, but I slightly slowed down to 8:02. Around the 5th mile I started having a few people pass me and I made a note to focus more on negative splits. Mile 5- 8:05 and an even slower mile 6- 8:09. I was able to kick it for the final .2 miles for a total official time of 49:54. I was very happy with my time for my first 10K, bum ankle and all. Other stats- 78/643 female runners and 22/180 female runners 25-29. 

at the finish

Jayna, Washington Monument, and me

After the race I got my water, banana, and granola bar before heading over to get a free consultation on my ankle. Fast Track Physical Therapy was there giving free massages and injury consultations. I figured since there was no way I was going to go to a doctor and since my I sprained my ankle twice in three months that I might as well take advantage of a free consultation. She asked me some questions, felt my ankle asking where it hurt, had me stand and squat on one foot, and had me press against her hand in different ways. Basically once you sprain your ankle once you are screwed because the ligaments once stretched, never go back. I sprained my ankle several times playing high school basketball, including one severe time, so I've been doomed for awhile. However you can build up the muscles to support the ankle, but to learn these secret exercises I have to make an appointment. I liked her though and she didn't yell at me for running the race so I might go visit her.

Dead Man's 5K Run

the awesome shirt

Saturday started out fine. I did some grocery shopping and made butternut squash soup. I failed in not watching the clock very closely and ended up having to stick the soup in the fridge after cooking and before blending so I could dart out the door for touch football practice.

My Mizzou team isn't doing very well, mostly because no one has been able to consistently make it to the games. Practice started out horribly as I was the only one there, but by 2:40 we had 8 and were able to run routes and scrimmage. At the end of practice we were running a few more routes and the quarterback under threw me. I took a few more steps and sprained my ankle... AGAIN. Horrible timing as I had signed up for a 5K race that night and 10K the next day. It was pretty painful at first and I hobbled home with the help of my friend.

Having sprained my ankle a lot in my life I don't have much patience for it. I iced and elevated it for about a half hour, then dug out my ankle brace.

I signed up for the Dead Man's race because it was in a cemetery at dusk in the month of October. Sounded like a fun race. Also I had suggested it to a friend and when he said he registered there was no turning back.

On the way over to the race I still felt like I would probably just walk the race, but once I got there and pinned on my bib, I knew I wanted to try and jog.

ready to run... or walk

getting artsy

It was a smaller race and some people were dressed up in costume. They also had people dressed up as ghosts and goblins around the course and spooky music at the start and finish.

We ended up running together and started out slow. The first quarter of a mile was through the cemetery, but soon we were out on the Anacostia Riverwalk trail that runs along the Anacostia River. We ran south for a bit then back north towards the old RFK stadium for mile 2. We then backtracked towards the graveyard and ran the last quarter mile in the cemetery and finished back by the chapel. We picked up the pace in the last two miles and ended with a 10:28 average pace for a total time of 32:56.

finish line

 At the finish line we got bananas, granola, and water and got to mingle with the goblins. It was my slowest 5K in awhile, but a lot of fun (For a good cause! Up keeping the historic cemetery).

September Recap

I'm pretty sure I skipped an August recap, but I thought I'd check in now that it is October. 

Refrain from using the snooze button- Since I finished the Tough Mudder my motivation to work out everyday/twice a day has waned, which has taken my popping out of bed each morning with it. So I must admit I have snoozed a few times in the past few weeks. I also blame the sun for not raising early enough.

Run at least 6 races- I went crazy with races in September

Chilhowee 5K

Tough Mudder

Run! Geek! Run! 8K 

Smoothie 5K

My races in September bring my year total to 10, goal met!

Travel somewhere new- I was in Frederick, Maryland for the Tough Mudder and saw some new areas of NE DC with touch football. 

New GOAL- My new goal is to be able to do three pull ups in a row. I've been working on this all summer, with little progress. When ever I talked to a boy about pull ups they told me to get an at home pull up bar, so I finally did. Tonight I hung from the bar for awhile and tried hanging in the up position for as long as possible.

gettin' real

Tough Mudder Mid Atlantic

**warning, I have lots to say and not many muddy photos, yet**

Yesterday my summer of training came to its test at Tough Mudder Mid Atlantic. I knew it was going to be challenging, but the weather decided to add some extra obstacles. First obstacle? Getting there. About six miles away the traffic just stopped. They had sent us texts warning us that there was a back up with parking and to not park illegally. Well after trying a short cut through town (and running into a street festival) we decided that a grassy embankment on the side of the highway would do just fine. What we didn't know, was that embankment was over two miles from the entrance. And the scary clouds that were predicted were approaching.

our start time was 2:30 the severe storms arrived at 1:30

About a mile into our walk to the entrance it started torrentially raining. We walked passed car after car, not moving, waiting in line for the official parking lot. When we reached the parking lot there were cars stuck on muddy hills. When we reached the registration they were announcing that the final legs were leaving immediately and the water obstacles were closed down until the storm passed. I felt a little better as the water obstacles were the ones I was fearing the most... and most of the obstacles had a water element. 

fun names = fun times

Almost as soon as we started the rain stopped and we took off through the fields. The race was set up on a farm, so we were running through corn and soybean fields the entire time. Felt like I was at home. 

first half of the course

Referencing the map above, we started at the green arrow and ran a little less than a mile before arriving at the Arctic Enema, which they decided to open back up just as we got there... With no time to think about it we climbed to the top. I waited till my teammate made it under the divider and jumped in. I should of waited a bit longer as it was the coldest water I've ever been in and I made it to the wall in seconds, but my teammates were still struggling to get out. I couldn't get out, my body wanted out, all I could think about was getting out of the frigid water. Finally after what felt like minutes, but in reality was probably 5 seconds I was able to pull myself out and roll over the side. It was still pretty warm out at this point, so my body temperature returned to normal almost immediately and we started running on to the next obstacle.

The next two, dirty ballerina (mud pits about four feet apart) and kiss of mud (barbed wire about a foot and a half off the ground to crawl under), were relatively easy. Kiss of mud was really slick & smooth, kind of like a slip in slide.

After two miles we reached our first Berlin Walls. These are wooden walls, they have a little foot hold on them, but are still pretty tough. These weren't that tall and we were able to with a little boost, grab the top, throw a leg over and get to the other side.

Next was bale bonds. These were stacked hay bales we had to climb over. These were a lot of fun, because of the rain they were pretty soft and climbing over them were pretty painless.

We passed the 3 mile mark and reached hold your wood. There was a big wood pile, everyone got to choose their own piece from a variety of sizes. I went with a medium piece. This was also where we encountered our first miserable muddy area therefore we ended up walking with our wood.

second half

After dumping our logs we had a pretty good run before the second kiss of mud, this one wasn't as fun as the mud was very rocky.

Obstacle 8 was Trench warfare, basically semi dark tunnels we had to crawl through. They put some dips and hills in the tunnels, but it wasn't near as suffocating or dark as I had feared and was actually delightful.

The next two obstacles, Walk the Plank and Log Jammin', hurt my dignity the most.

A 15 foot walk the plank awaited us. I wasn't very nervous about this one, but one of my teammates, Catherine, was and it started to wear off on me. The climb to the top wasn't easy, and then they wanted us to jump in. This was the one obstacle where the lifeguards were hard at work. It seemed like every minute they were jumping in to pull someone out. I was more worried about accidentally jumping on top of someone than my jump, this was a mistake. I'm not sure what happened but I couldn't correct mid fall and I ended up doing a face first cannon ball. Everything stung a bit, but as I came back to the surface I took a body part inventory and everything was functioning fine and it was an easy swim to the edge. Catherine ended up doing an awesome jump.

Log Jammin' were just these horizontal logs about five feet off the ground. We were suppose to go over them. The issue was 1. I am short 2. I can't jump very high 3. the area under the logs was sloppy mud. What happened? I ran jumped, slid around the log, slipped on the mud, and landed on my back on the ground. My landing was met with a chorus of UGHH/OHHH/EEEE from those waiting to go. For the next one, my strong teammate Matt gave me a boost and I was up and over with out a second wipeout.

Obstacle 11 is listed as King of the Mountain, I don't remember a mountain or hill, but that might be because my eyes were on the slippery mud the entire time... This could of been the second hay bale obstacle, the second was as fun as the first.

About 7.5 miles in we reached electric eel. This was another slip in slide type obstacle, but with the added challenge of an electric current. Luckily the current was very small and the shocks felt like a light tickle or soft snap from a rubber band.

#13 was the most pleasant obstacle of the course. We had to go under floating barrels in a pond, but the pond water was perfect bathwater temperature and there seemed to be a current carrying you through to the other side. We were all kind of disappointed when this one was over, especially when we saw we had our second set of Berlin walls ahead.

The second set were a lot taller and we own our team's success over these ones to Matt. He climbed to the top and straddled the top. While the rest of us helped boost and brace, he pulled us up until we could kick a leg over to the other side. Also at this point we were all getting a little worn down.

Mud mile was similar to dirty ballerina, but muddier. We had to climb piles of mud and slosh through mud pits... that got increasingly taller and slippier.

By obstacle 15 we had run 8.5 muddy miles. Most of the obstacles were easier if you were taller, this was the one exception. The Boa Constrictor was a downhill drainage tube, a small, water pit, into an uphill drainage tube. I had no problem on these as I could crawl on all fours and brace my back against the top of the tube. The taller guys had to army crawl in the slippery tube.

Funky Monkey was one of the obstacles I knew I had a slim chance of completing successfully. I was amazing at monkey bars as a child, but I guess if you don't keep it up, you lose it. To make it a bit more challenging, they went up and then down... and of course they were wet and muddy. Some people were making it across, but even more were dropping into the water. I made two and then fell in.

Twinkle toes... or a balance beam across water, is one I think I could of done better. You had a two inch board to walk on, but after you got out a few feet it started wobbling pretty good. I made it maybe a fourth of the way and then started to lose it. My poor falling skills earlier were also on my mind at this point so I jumped in before I did something stupid. Next time though I would like to fight for it.

We were almost to the end, but with two of the most daunting obstacles left, Everest and Electric Shock Therapy.

Everest is a gigantic half pipe. When we arrived there was a huge back up of people waiting to get up. The half pipe was covered in slick mud. Half of the people were running up and jumping into people's arms and then struggling like crazy to get over the top. The other half were forming human chains for people to climb up and then get pulled up over the top. We stood around for a bit discussing what we should do. Honestly I wanted to go around. Watching people hanging by their feet and falling back down the ramp wasn't encouraging. But Becky was intent on going. So they made a chain. Matt on the bottom, then Jeff, then Becky. Laura went first climbing up the chain and grabbing on to people's arms from above. And they pulled and she pulled and kicked her leg up and they pulled and pulled. And the super light and athletic Laura finally got up. This was kind of discouraging, but Catherine wasn't discouraged and went. Catherine was pulled up with less trouble, so when Becky looked at me and told me to go, so I went. First climbing over Matt, then to Jeff's hands and shoulders, and then to Becky's shoulders. I ended up having to crouch on Becky's shoulders for a minute while the girls up top found a new guy to help them haul me up. It couldn't of been comfortable for Becky. They found a guy and started pulling me up. I had no strength left to try to pull myself up and every time I kicked my foot up, it was just millimeters out of reach. I admit as I was hanging there I reached a point where I was just feeling like it needed to end. I didn't want to drop down and hit someone, but I didn't know how much longer I could hang. Then finally the guy got an extra wind from somewhere and they pulled me up and over. Once I got my chest above the ledge I was able to get up and finally breathe. But then we had to get Becky up, someone replaced her in the ladder and we searched for another guy to help us and after a few pulls, she was safely to the top. The boys decided not to attempt the wall. We weren't strong enough to get them up, and Matt's shoulder was bothering him, impeding him from a run and jump.

Catherine's parents and aunt were there as spectators, which with the severe weather makes them extremely tough too. So after Everest we stopped for a photo op. You can tell I was feeling exhausted.

Matt, Me, Catherine, Laura, Jeff, and Becky

The last obstacle was Electric Shock Therapy. There was muddy water to run through with electric strings hanging down. The light shocks of the electric eel made me go into this one with no fear... When I should of had some fear. I was shocked three times and this time I could feel it. These felt more like "OMG what just happened" I wasn't tossed to the ground, but it did make you twitch and stop for a half second.

After the shocks we were done. They planted a headband on us, handed us a heat blanket, a t-shirt, water, an oddly warm banana, and finally a beer. After enjoying our beer we grabbed our clean stuff only to find out that they ran out of water for the showers. So we tried to rub the drying mud off of us and put on some dry clothes. I tossed my shoes this time in the donation pile, I kept my shoes after Warrior Dash, but then ended up trashing them anyway. 

The after race party was pretty much shut down due to the earlier storms so we set off walking back to the car... another 2 miles away . On the way back to the car we saw a rainbow.

double rainbow (photo cred to Catherine)

The aftermath-

The traffic and storm were a bigger mess than we even knew at the time. They ended up canceling the Sunday event (due to the extra mud and flooding and ruined parking area) and we have received several emails apologizing for the mess and promising refunds and free transfers for those who did not run and discounts to future events for everyone experiencing traffic delays (which I think was EVERYONE).

My body woke me up at 7 am, too sore to sleep. And I'm covered with bumps, bruises, and scratches, but nothing serious.

my poor elbow

bruised and battered legs 

 Lastly, thanks to my amazing team. They all took a turn pushing, pulling, and cheering me on.

Now if you need me I'll be on my couch trying not to move while finding more and more mud hiding on me.

Pump it up

With my 5 weeks of 5 am wake ups for bootcamp over, I've taken to a few new types of workouts. The last few weeks you could of seen me...

practicing Yoga in Dupont Circle

running in the rain

nike training club workouts on my rooftop

and last Friday I threw a few weights around with the men in the weight room at the gym