Reveille at Oak Alley 5K

The Reveille at Oak Alley 5K was actually on March 25 of this year.  Yes, a bit behind on my blogging.  I have been so busy with little man starting coach pitch baseball (pics to come, another post entirely) and field trips and just everyday family life, that it has been difficult to steal away a second to sit and write.  I am going to try and make this blog a priority from now on though...

The race was held at beautiful Oak Alley Plantation in Vacherie, La.  If you have never seen a picture of this place, http://www.oakalleyplantation.com/welcome.html or been to see it, it is absolutely breathtaking.  They were actually having an arts and crafts festival here the weekend of this race.  Lots of handmade woodworking, jellies, jams, hand sewn items, food.  It was a great day and the weather was beautiful! 

My sister in law and I drove down together for this race.  Her first 5K in over a decade she said, we both finished.  I PR'ed at 31:25.  If  you will remember, just this past January I ran a 5K in 37:00. Much improved in just 2 months:) This I am happy about. 

The race started out behind the plantation and down river road.  It was an out and back type course, where you could see the runner's looping back to the finish.  Motivating to some, discouraging to others.. lol.  The second part of the course was on top of a levee.  The ground underneath was dirt and gravel.  I think I lost some time due to this, It sort of took the wind out of my sails.  It definitely made your legs have to work harder.  The finish line of the race was the front of the plantation.  The oak trees above.  It really was picturesque. 

I really feel I have come along way with my running.  I truly enjoy it.  I am sidelined right now with nasty plantar fasciitis, or at least that's what it is believed to be.  I haven't run in about 2 weeks and it is getting to me.  I hope that I am able to get back out there soon.  I'm on the daily mile, don't know if any of you use that website but it's a great motivator to track your exercise.

Hudson's 3rd birthday

Well, Hudson's birthday has come and gone and finding the time to blog about it hasn't been easy. 

This year's theme was decided upon due to his love of all things Woody (or "Doo-bie as he calls him).  I don't like "commercial" themes, so I try and stay away from store bought paper plates and napkins, if I can.  I don't have a huge space for entertaining, so most of my parties end up outside.

I ordered invites from a lady on Etsy, it was a digital file and I had them printed at a local Office Depot. 

I wish I could remember the Etsy store's name to give credit where credit is due.  They turned out really cute.

One of the first things that came to mind with this Cowboy party is the writing at the beginning of old westerns.   You know, the title to the old western, at the beginning of the show was written in rope.  That is a fond memory of my childhood, I guess.  Watched countless westerns with my dad.  Anyway, I wanted to recreate this with Hudson's name or Happy Birthday.  I went and bought a piece of plywood, rope and E3000 Super Glue. Probably paid too much for this project, but it was in my head and had to come out :)

I wish I could take credit for the cake, my aunt made it and it was absolutely delicious.  I found the design I wanted and she totally impressed me once again.  That lady has many talents. 

My mom and I made a banner for the room that the cake would be in.  It is squares of bandana material with letters monogrammed on each block to spell out happy birthday and all put together with a piece of rope.  The food table was decorated with bread baskets lined with cow print material, mason jars for drinking, and lots of twine :) 

Outside, kids enjoyed a "decorate your own horse" craft table, a "rope the horse" game complete with a sawhorse and a lasso made from rope and a good old fashioned pinata.  Guests sat on hay bales and dined on hot dogs, baked beans, potato salad and chips and dips. Outside, drinks were offered on ice in a wheelbarrow. 

At our parties, I always like to get pictures of the guests having fun and send them in the thank you cards.  I had a cute photo op set up with a card board cut out "wanted" poster.  Again, I didn't make it, but I did find it cheap.  About 7 bucks at a local party store.  The party favor bags had bandanas, sheriff badges, mustaches and playdough inside.  The tag around the favor bag was paperbag paper with the edges burned and tied with string/twine. 

Birthday boy (I know I need to cut his hair already)

My dad, the outlaw :)

I think the adults enjoyed roping the sawhorse more than the kids!

So, that was our Cowboy party and everyone had a blast!

Mardi Gras Mambo 10 K

Yesterday I ran my first 10 K.. finished it in 1:08:32 and I must say I am very happy with that time!!  I gauged how I would do off previous runs and roughly on my first 5K.  I figured I would finish in 1:15:00 or so.  I was 7 minutes faster than I thought!!

Leading up to the big day, I didn't feel well.  My throat was starting to get scratchy and I felt a little sinus pressure coming on.  Also, I was in full on party planning mode because Baby C's 3rd birthday was also this weekend (blog post to follow on his Cowboy extravaganza).  Some mom's can relate to the birthday party stress, I'm sure and well, if you can't, I'm jealous :)  There was a voice inside my head saying just don't go, you don't feel like it, you got too much planned.... yada yada yada..  But then there was that runner's voice, I call it.  You know the one saying, you'll feel so good after it's done, all the adrenaline you'll feel starting, all your running friends you'll see, not to mention, you've already told everyone you're running!!!  You know which voice won :)

My supportive hubby and I headed out that morning sans kiddos... My oldest abandoned me this time.  G-ma was here and he wanted to stay and play frisbee with her. My youngest was still asleep. We got just out of the city limits and I realized I forgot my bib number... AHHHHH!  We turned around, dashed back to the house, picked up the bib and made it to race start with just a few minutes to spare.  I walked up, found a friend, Wendy (who is also my inspiration and mentor in this whole lifestyle change) and started to walk toward the start line.

This was taken after the race, because, like I said hubby literally let me jump out of the car while he went and parked.     

As I started, I felt great. I was able to keep pace with everyone around me. Coming into mile 3, I got a headache. Not enough water the day before, I'm pretty sure.  I slowly began to pull back from the one group I had my eye on and I could tell I was losing ground.  I allowed myself to do what I never do, I looked back.  I saw there were tons of people back there and I started walking.  I knew I could have kept pushing and I am a little disappointed for stopping but my head was pounding.  It was then that I decided I needed a pack of some kind.  I always see runners with little packs and thought, it's not like we're running a marathon, it's 3 or 6 miles, come on.... Well, I'm a believer now.  If I would have had an ibuprofen and a sip of water, I would have been a new person.  All total, I maybe walked for a combined 5 minutes out of the hour-- that's being generous, I think.  I would slow and walk for 15-20 seconds, every now and then.  I was ill prepared for this race, actually.  I had maybe run 6 miles in the previous week to race week and maybe 4 the week before that.  But I figured, I paid for it, just go make it over the finish.  In a race, the adrenaline gets the best of you and you just push through... it's amazing really.  I'm very proud of myself.  I wish they would have had those race photos after this one.. I definitely would have purchased one of those high priced suckers:)

This course had a few hills, which nearly killed me in the end.  Around mile 4, we had to run up the levee.  Whew... that was tough.  I pushed through and ran up, then I had to take a breather...

At mile 5.5, there or about, I was hurting.  My hips were killing me, again, lack of good training runs before.  I was able to push through thanks to the awesome playlist I had so pain stakingly put together a week before this race...  Periodically throughout the race I will put my headphones in, take them out, just depends on whats going on around me.  If I'm in a group that's talking, I'll listen.  Sometimes, they're being funny.  I'll get a little chuckle.  Sometimes, the song at the time, I'm not feeling, I'll take the ear pieces out and let them dangle.  I can still hear the tunes, just not blazing in my ears.  Well, at this particular point, I heard the first few notes of the song I had been waiting for.  The song I knew if I heard it, would make me dig deep.  I scrambled for the ear phones, put them in and listened like I had not ever listened to that song before.  Eminem "Till I Collapse" was the song, that day, that carried me through the last half of mile 5 and the first half of mile 6. 

I have so much fun doing these races and running in general.  I hope I continue.  My mom gave me something to ponder before this race.  She said, so what are you running for?  I was like, for my mental health (chuckle, chuckle).  She was like, no, for what purpose, what good cause?  She said, you may as well bring some awareness to a cause you are passionate about.  I have some things in mind.  Just not sure of a way to implement just yet.  I'll keep you posted about that. 

Until next time....

I did it!!! Cypress 5k Challenge

I ran my first 5K. It was exhilarating!

It was a crisp 28 degrees when we woke up that Saturday morning. I think I didn't feel that cold because of the nerves. I quietly had a few butterflies. Of course, I wouldn't let anyone know this. This was no big deal, just a little race. Inside I was dying. I don't know why. I guess because I wasn't running with anyone. Would I get there in time? Would I know where to go? Would I get lost? Then there were the kiddos to worry about. The whole fam came out to cheer me on. Would the boys be warm enough? Would their dad get sick of entertaining them while I was running?
We got there with about 15 minutes to spare. Parking was a breeze. Lots of people walking, so we just followed the crowd. I immediately saw someone I knew, which helped with the nerves. We talked about just finishing. That was my goal, just to make it through it.... I didn't have any mile/minute expectations, although I knew I had been around a 12 minute mile while training. Back in my prime, haha, I completed a 5K in 33 minutes... I knew that wouldn't happen today. There's been many years and many pounds between me and those days:)


Granted I have not ran any races lately, but this was one of the most organized and most pleasurable events I have attended. People cheering along the route, (the whole time, not just the first 10 minutes), jumpers for the kids, music, finisher's medals (YAY). The route was a nice one downtown, kind of an up and back. The course started at the steps of the State Capitol and kinda went around the back of it. This was an opportunity for the kids to see momma run:) It was nice, they cheered me on. That gave me some "Umph". I wasn't to mile 2 and saw the first finisher's looping back. I cheered them on. That was awesome for them, kinda sucked for me.... but I pushed on. I stayed around the same people the whole time. I used that as a gauge sort of. If I stayed with the same people, at least I wasn't getting left in the dust. Ya know? lol. However, there were people that did the walk/run method the whole time and finished with me. I plugged along, running the whole time, which I was proud of. I finished in 37:00, official clock time.

I was so excited that my whole family came out supporting me in my crazy whim.  Surprisingly, it became a great teaching moment for my 5 year old.  You know, I haven't always been the healthiest eater, wasn't raised with parents that "worked out".  I want to pass along healthy habits to my kids and this was a great opportunity to have this talk.  We have made little changes around our house and now my little one wants to run.  I'm gonna check into Rocketkidz races for him.

This whole experience was great.  I am so excited for my next race.  I haphazardly just registered for a 10K.  Too much, too soon?  Maybe, walk/ run method?  probably!  But hey, I'm moving right?



This week, I bailed on my trainer :( and have been feeling a little whimpy.  You know how when you feel like you are doing everything right and the scale still isn't moving?  You feel like what's the point?  Yeah, having one of those weeks.  This post has helped me to remember that the important thing is a healthy mama!  That's why I started this.  To feel alive, and not so tired all the time.  So, thank you BLOG.  On a positive, last week I ran 7 miles....that's a high for me for a week:)

Monday starts my second bootcamp type class.  6- 1 hour intensive workouts over 2 weeks, or 3 classes each week.  Should be a fun time :)