For the month of January I participated in a Half Marathon contest put on by Pat.  For my efforts I won a gift pack of Penguin Sportswash single use packets and Powerbar Powerblasts.  I had been really wanting to try the Powerblasts and I have to admit I was disappointed in them.  They were larger than I had anticipated making them rather difficult to chew when I was taste testing.  I was afraid to even try them on the run.  I decided I am going to stick to my shot bloks and they haven’t failed me yet.  The sportswash packets really came in handy for my trip to WDW last week since I had 3 races and 2 training runs I knew I was going to need to do laundry several times while down there.  They really were a life saver or at the very least a nose saver.

Pat won the prize I offerred of the Disney collectors pin for the WDW Marathon weekend.  In addition I threw in a Circle of Life 5K pin as a surprise as I shipped it.  No here is where things get embarrassing.  I participated in one of Pat’s last challenges which was for the Biggest Loser 2 or 3 seasons ago.  Pat won and I had purchased MD items to send him then the proceeded to sit in the box for…I don’t even know how long.  I ended up having to replace the items because they had expired.  So as I packed up the pins I threw in the MD items I had intended to send before.  What better way to represent MD than with McCormick spices including our beloved Old Bay.  The Old Bay I got from BJs so it was an industrial size box of Old Bay, lol.

Even this time I didn’t get to ship the items when I had wanted to.  I had been working overtime to try to make sure I had everything I wanted to have done at work done before I flew to FL.  Unfortunately the Saturday I planned to ship the package I ended up at the hospital helping to care for my great aunt as she passed away (RIP Aunt Josie – we love you).  I was finally able to ship the items just before I left, so they should be safely in Pat’s hands now. 

Next up in the blogging department will be the ESPN 5K, but that is for another time…now I need to get ready for work.

I told myself I wasn’t allowed to get ready for work this morning until I blogged at least one race, so here I am.  First up in the race reports is the Superbowl 5K. 

Dad and I usually wait till race morning to register for this race because you never know what the weather is going to be like.  Race morning we made our way to registration and scored some bright hellow race shirts.  We go there early to ensure that Dad would be able to get the size that he wanted.  This race benefits the local police department memorial fund, so they tend to be well supported.  We walked into the community college gym to find bananas, apples, water and an assortment of donuts, bagels and pastries.  I started eyeing up some of the pastries but decided to sit down and behave myself.

Following my success with the virtual partner feature on my Garmin for the WDW Half marathon I decided to give it another go.  I set it up for a 35 minute 5K as we headed to the start line.  It was cooler that morning, but the race didn’t start till later in the monrning so the sun had a chance to come up and warm the pavement some.  My Tough Girl was plenty warm to get me through the race.

This race is fairly challenging because it is an out and back where the first half is downhill and the second is up.  I felt pretty good after the downhill and tried to dig deap for the uphill return.  I ran the majority of the uphill but as I got towards the steepest section of the course I opted to slow to a walk just until I got over the hump of the hill.  The path in towards the finish line is flat, but unfortunately the walk on the hill ate up a good bit of time and allowed my virtual partner to pass me. 

In the end I did manage to cut a minute off of my finish time from last year.  Still not anywhere near my sub-30 PR, but every little bit counts right?

I know I am really behind on posting anything to this here blog.  I have been working so much recently I just haven’t had the time to post at work nor the will to post when I get home.  Right now I am behind 5 race reports, which I plan to try to squeeze out this week, so keep your eyes here for more to come.  First up – Superbowl 5K.