OK, perhaps I should call this trial by ice. As in, it was so cold the water at the water stop froze between when we poured it and when the girls arrived. Yeah. This past weekend was the Girls on the Run 5k. I've volunteered many times for this race and others. This was my first time, however, being the manager of the water stop. And I was rockin' it. I got there crazy early and another helper and I set up the stop. We were quite thankful for the Knuckle Lights I won from Another Mother Runner, as there were no streetlights above the water stop. As dawn was breaking, the rest of the water stop crew showed up. We poured water. And poured water. And poured water. And then we noticed that some of the first poured cups were … [Read more...]
4am wake up call
I'm not a morning person. I can count on the fingers of one hand (heck on the finger on one hand) the number of times I've gotten up early to run. But twice a year, I get up stupid early to give back to the running community. Yep, it's Girls on the Run race day. For the last three years, I have volunteered as a Start/Finish Line Team Leader for the Girls on the Run NOVA. It's one of the biggest GOTR races with around 6000 runners, so it's a pretty big production. I arrived before 6:00am and runners were already beginning to arrive. My job today? To stand between the first group of girls and the starting chute. Always love a chance to exert my authority! ;o) In actuality, I have never had such a pleasant set of people at the … [Read more...]
Moving On
No, I'm not quitting blogging. You'll be hearing from me at least until I finish this crazy five half marathon thing. Where else can I talk about nothing but that and not drive my friends absolutely batty? I'm moving on from coaching. Two years ago I had big plans of creating a new career. I wanted to help moms return to running after having a baby and help other moms start running. It was a fairly small target audience, but I didn't plan to make a huge amount of money or have a huge clientele. But, for a variety of reasons, I've slowly been letting this go. The market is actually pretty flooded with options, I didn't feel like RRCA Certification gave me enough to be a truly good coach, and I felt like my own training had to be … [Read more...]
GOTR and a new soup for you
You can see me at about the 1:15 point. ;o) I really want to participate in "What I ate Wednesday" one of these days, but that would require two things: 1) planning and pictures, neither of which happen often around here, and 2) admitting to the weird combination of foods I eat. I will say that the HBBC has definitely gotten me to pay more attention to my fruits and vegetables. Yesterday I had a veggie burger topped with lettuce, spinach, avocado, and a boatload of salsa for lunch. It was yummy, filling, and hit at least 4 servings of veggies. Dinner was Potato Leek Soup, mostly because I happened to have all the ingredients from our veggie delivery. So, yeah, no problem hitting the 7 fruits and veggies yesterday! Potato Leek … [Read more...]
Girls on the Run 5K Volunteer report
Sunday I had the pleasure of getting to volunteer for Girls on the Run of Northern Virginia. One of my friends convinced me to be a Team Leader and I was assigned to the start/finish line. My goal? To keep the girls moving after they crossed the finish line and to keep the parents from jumping over the barricade. I was mostly successful.I woke up super early on Sunday morning (thanks, Shoo) and headed out to George Mason University by 5:15am. There was no one else on the highway AT ALL for the first couple of miles. You have to understand. I live right.outside.DC. There's always traffic. Always. I think this may have been the first time in more than 15 years living here that I've … [Read more...]
Girls on the Run and MCHH Race Reports
So, all the stars aligned and I actually ran two races this past weekend. Right up until we got in the car to drive to Fredericksburg, I was pretty sure I was going to wuss out.Girls on the Run 5KI ran this race as a "buddy runner" for a girl at Jones' school who does not have a family member to run with her. I had the pleasure of running with the same girl I ran with in December. She's a third grader, so I may get to run with her for the next couple of years. The race was held about 20 miles from my house, so I got up at 5am to get out there by 6:20 am. The race didn't start until 7:30, but with road closures and traffic, it can get difficult to get there. I was excited because I'd recruited tfh to run as well and I was looking … [Read more...]
Shorts weather
Spring is definitely here. Yesterday and today were both in the low 70s by late afternoon. While that's perfect capri weather when hanging out, it's shorts weather for running.I hate running in shorts. I have rather heavy thighs (seriously, my thighs could be the "before" picture in a weight loss photo and the rest of me would be the "after" picture.) I always thought that eventually they'd slim down with all of the running. Instead, they are stronger and more muscular, but still large. Because of that, I find wearing compression shorts with a long inseam to be the only comfortable way to run. Somehow, I feel comfortable running races in them with just a short tech tee ('cause I'm more concerned about speed than appearance LOL). … [Read more...]
