Halfway There July 1, 2011

My first Half!

Hello all and welcome to my first half-marathon! I was so excited to finally be signed up and ready for my longest race to date. My mom, my little brother, my mom’s boyfriend, his two children as well as me all ran the race this past weekend, which we soon found out was harder than imagined.

Almost to my hometown!

My little brother, Stephen and I decided that instead of flying, we would drive down to West Palm Beach so that we could pass by our home town of Cocoa Beach, FL and see our grandparents on the way down. Once in Florida we contacted our grandparents to set up a lunch date, eventually coming to the conclusion of Chili’s at 1.

Love seeing family

After an hour with them for lunch we kept on our way, unfortunately we had to continue the rest of our trip in a horrible rain storm that cost us another 45 minutes or so of drive time since we had to drive so slow through the torrential downpour.

My habitat

Thank goodness for an extremely early start that morning, which allowed us to be able to have an hour or two on the sand and in the salty water before we headed back home for a wonderfully home cooked dinner and much needed rest before our big day! On either side of this photo are a few men fishing off the shoreline, which meant no wandering unless you wanted to get caught in their hooks!

Momma's oatmeal!

What an early start! Up at 4 am and left the apartment with everyone in the car by 4:45. But thankfully my mom was awake enough to make everyone oatmeal with milk, brown sugar, and of course delicious blueberries. Since the race was an hour away from my mom’s place and since I was extremely tired, I decided to take a quick nap in the back seat, little did I know, this nap would help me tremendously. haha.

As soon as we stepped out of the cars, bugs immediately covered us in bites, so we ran for the first can of bug spray we could find. Luckily we were one of the first groups to get there so we took full advantage of the small amount of bug spray available. Once most of the people got there, announcments were given and people were given instructions on how to run the race. For us half-marathon people, we would have to go around the trails four times, not the best news I had heard that day, until I found out what kind of landscape we were supposed to trench through.

We are at the beginning of the race, and Stephen, the boy who works out every single day and beasts at everything he does, notices this one lady who he soon dubs as “The Tank” due to her high muscle mass and extremely fit body. He says to me, “I swear if she passes me I’m going to be so mad!” haha gotta love that spirit!

BANG! and we are off! we start out on a gravel trail with trees on either side of us, which gives us protection from the florida sun. I see the trail leading us into the woods, which I was fine with until we came upon the rivers. The trail bottlenecks and everyone comes to a standstill while we try to crawl across two logs over the first river, I am happy that I didn’t have to get wet on that obstacle. A few minutes later, we come across another river/creek that does not have a platform for us to go across, so I jump as far across as I can, which is a little over half the creek, and waddle through the rest of the water and mud to the other side, luckily not losing any shoes in the process. immediately following the second body of water is a large mud trap with tiny roots being our only way across, so doing my best not to get muddy, which is a bit unsuccessful, I make it to the other side, with dirt covering my shoes and calves.

Me slowly getting over that stupid ramp

Just let me tell you! Running through bushes and down trails that are wide enough for one person to fit, and to go up ramps, bridges, hills, and jump off of rails can get your seriously tired after only two laps! The most exciting lap was my last lap which consisted of an egret flying away from me in fright, a squirrel belly flopping on the trail directly in front of me (yes belly flopping onto the ground from the trees above), and a 3 foot black snake crossing my path. All those thing can kinda get to you when your “in the wild”. Yes I know a trail isn’t necessarily the wild, but compared to city life it’s the closets thing I’ve can relate it to haha.

Stephen "The Machine"

After I finish the race I find out that Stephen had finished THIRD PLACE! How amazing is that? I dont yet have the pictures of all of us together at the end of the race with our medals but they are coming soon! CONGRATULATIONS STEPHEN, MOM, RICH, & JOSH! You guys are awesome!

Patterns and Suprises June 2, 2011

My favorite image in nature

Mental preparation. Relaxed jaw and shoulders. Two steps, breathe in, two steps, breathe out. For every run there are patterns, which help us run farther, faster, and stronger every time. For every run there are events and things that happen that are not in the pattern which are my favorite part of my runs. As I was running my 7 mile run for the day today I saw so many beautiful things, the first of which was this grand tree which I really wanted to climb, but didn’t have the time for.

Deer having a picnic

As I was coming around a corner I saw a car slow to a minimal speed, which at first freaked me out a little since there were no sidewalks and I didn’t want anything to happen to me on this small road. About 20 feet later I look into a large field that I soon find out that the car actually slowed to catch a peek at a family of nine deer eating some dinner near the forrest. I know this picture sucks, but not having a real camera leaves me with my 5.0 mega pixel camera with minimal zoom. So with that fact I can only show you these 9 little dots in the distance that represent the 9 bodies of the beautiful white tailed deer staring at me from the distance. I immediately called my mom to brag about my findings haha.

After mile 4 I started to notice more wildlife throughout the bushes. They say that a black cat crossing your path is bad luck. What about 2 adult and 1 baby bunnies crossing your path at three different points in my run? Seeing these little guys hopping along as fast as there little feet could take them made my run so much more enjoyable. I wish I could have pulled my phone out fast enough to capture a picture of these little guys, which may I say is the hardest thing to do before they scurry into the bushes. As soon as they catch wind that there is a person is running in their direction their little hearts pick up pace quicker than I can stop running to check them out.

Only part of the sunset I could see, still beautiful

The last two miles of my run, it started to get dark and the sky gave me this wonderful view of the tip of tonights sunset. I am, as few of you know, a huge science geek, my best subject other than fitness. To see the sun’s rays change our skies every morning and every night is an ever changing and always unexpected beauty that I, and I am sure everyone else enjoys.

Simple yet quite yummy

Recently I started a diet to jumpstart my fat burning, since according to a recent test showed that I have too much fat percentage in my body. I also started this diet to help me not be so sluggish in my runs since I have my first half marathon at the end of the month in Miami. I decided to cut out bread, for the most part, no candy, no caffeine, etc. So far I have cheated a couple times but only in moderation and just try harder to keep to my diet the next time.

Psychology said that in order to change a lifestyle that your brain is used to, it takes a few trial runs before your mind can wrap itself around the fact of a change. When someone tries to quit cigarrettes, stop drinking, or even changing a diet, it takes anywhere from one to ten and even more tries in order to switch, each person unique to their own situation. My situation is my own and I know it doesnt take a first time for me, the only difference is that I know this and am using it to help me as best as it can. Did you know that every diet works? every diet you can think of helps you lose weight, it’s up to the person’s will power and perseverance that will determine whether or not they will start to or continue to stick to it and actually lose the weight. It takes those trail runs in order to  get the brain used to the change that is being made.

Thanks for reading!

CASSanova

New ways of thinking! May 25, 2011

New shoes from momma!

After owning and running in the same pair of shoes for the past two years I was so ecstatic to recieve these awesome asics for my birthday. Thanks mom! For my birthday I decided to run a race the morning I turned 22. This race was in order to benefit the cleaning of Charlotte’s air quality. This made me happy because I hate it when I am running down a main road in Charlotte and a school bus or dump truck pass and send a cloud of smoke my way. Before this race I read the June Runner’s World and found an article on the best form to run with, which helped me so much!

T-shirts! Yay!

 

 

 I start to walk down this little pathway and I hear people counting outloud as a group. Wondering what the heck is going on I go around the corner and see everyone being led by two ladies and what appears to be a superhero coaching people through some thai chi and yoga before the race starts.

Awesome superhero

 

Yup there he is! Haha he definately lifted our spirits for the races start!

Start of my first trail race!

Mr. Superhero was at the starting line to cheer all of us on….. And we’re off! I started strong in the first two miles without stopping, which I was very proud of myself for because running continuously is not my strong point and neither is speed work for that matter. It was so awesome to run through the woods, past the creek, and around the lake, such beautiful scenery. After mile 1.5/1.75 we hit our first steep incline which made my calves burn like no other! This reminded me to run in more places with hills to practice, since I haven’t done a lot of that lately. After mile 2 we arrived to the lake and I could see the finish line so I started to sprint, little did I know we still had another mile to go! They sent us past the finish line and through another part of the woods again, oh my! I pushed through my cramps, yes I did walk for a little bit but after counting to twenty I picked up my pace again.

Finish line!

I came out of the woods and saw the finish line for the second time, this time I knew we had to be almost done, so I trucked it around the lake, thank goodness for all of the volunteers cheering for us. As I ran up to the finish line I saw my time, 27:50! My heart jumped! That race became my new personal record at 9 minutes per mile, which I have never done before unless I was only running a mile or two. I walked over, well more like limped over to the tents to recieve orange slices, water, and a banana.

Improvement!

 After my race I immediately went home to shower and get ready for a celebratory luncheon with my little brother, step sister, and step mom at On the Border.

Family

 

What a handsome group! This was my first race I did by myself, my first trail run, and I set a new personal record. I think that calls for a magherita!

 

Yay me!

 Look at what came in the mail a few days ago! Turns out my new personal record helped me get in 3rd place for my age group! I was soo excited to learn this! I dont place in things very much so I am very excited!