Valentine's Weekend Recap

I hope everyone had a fun Valentine's Weekend!! It feels like we celebrated all weekend, because there were so many great things!

Friday night, we headed to The Patron for dinner. (It's so hard to not call it El Patron, like in Farmville. But I'm pretty sure I still call this one El Patron anyway, oh well.)  It was a last minute decision, but I was glad Matt thought of it, since it was where we went for dinner last year on Valentine's Day.  We had a great dinner, but I really could've just eaten chips and salsa the whole time and have been perfectly fine!

Bright and early Saturday morning, we headed out to New Kent Winery to participate in the Race for the Chocolate 5K/10K.  Let me just tell you, it was COLD.  The wind made it the worst, but we made it through!! Once we started running, the wasn't as bad and we did warm up.  However, the last .2 miles, we running up hill and against the wind.  We could see the finish line, just couldn't get there fast enough!

I was really surprised and proud of us for how well we did.  Neither of us trained at ALL for this.  And by that, I mean that the most running I've done in the past month and a half was running 1 mile on two different days.  That's it.  We've been doing more strength training than cardio.  I signed us up with a predicted time of 70 minutes and we finished in 69!! The only times we stopped were about half a mile in, when I had to re-tie my shoes, and then again at 4.9 miles, for some quick stretching.  That's it.  Like I said, I'm definitely proud of us!

These were the post race snacks, along with water and a Monster energy drink.

There was also a (long) line where you could get wine, but neither of us cared about that, so after getting our food, we just headed towards the car instead!

 

They also handed out flowers at the end of the race, but didn't order enough.  Since we were unable to get one, Matt found one that had been dropped on the ground, but still looked great, so we kept that!  Matt made it look pretty in my glass:

A few hours (and a few sore muscles) later, we headed to Outback for dinner.  It was YUMMY!! We had their wonderful bread, a blooming onion, soup/salad and our dinner!  The wait really wasn't bad, seeing as that it was Valentine's Day.  They told us a 45 minute wait, which we were totally okay with, and 30 minutes later we were at our table (and luckily, a booth!!).  I could go on and on about how delicious everything was, but we also had a fantastic server, who definitely made it a great meal to enjoy!

I have to share one of the Valentine's gifts Matt gave me: earlier last week, Matt found the Disney version of Robin Hood on Netflix.  I told him, "you cannot start watching this now, because it's too late for us to both get sucked into watching it!!"  (Robin Hood is one of my favorite Disney movies :)  Well, Matt found the Robin Hood DVD, out of the vault for a limited time, or whatever it is, so of course he bought it!  We haven't watched it yet, but I'm thinking it'll be a good movie for one of these snow days coming up! ;)

And, can't forget the Valentine's gift Matt got for his favorite girl:

 "How do I get these treats?!"

Matt's first home brew was finally ready this weekend, so he was excited to try it!

Sunday morning, we had Valentine's donuts for breakfast, which Mom, Aunt Dot and Uncle Lee brought on Friday!

For lunch, we went out to eat again with Mom at Mexico.  When I asked her if she wanted to go there for lunch, she gave me the strangest look because I NEVER want to go to Mexico! Haha.  But, after having Patron on Friday, I was definitely crazy some more chips and salsa! ha.

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend have a warm week coming up with all this snow! I'm *hoping* to be home at least a few more days with my Maple.  We can't wait for her to go out and play in the snow for the first time!  I'm definitely going to have to take some pictures!

25 Days of Christmas: Day 7

This morning was one of the most fun mornings I can remember!  We woke up bright and early and headed to Busch Gardens so I could run the Christmastown 8K!! I've been looking forward to this for SO long!! 

It was super cold this morning, but I was ready for a cold morning after running in the half marathon in the freezing cold!  If only the wind wasn't blowing this morning, then it would've been much more bearable! We saw some crazy costumes...a lot of tacky Christmas sweaters!  I, however, chose to wear one of my Elf shirts :)

I've done a big ol' handful of races, but this one definitely ranks high at the top of my list of favorites! Now, the first part of the course and the end were running through the parking lot--those parts were kind of boring.  However, running through the park was the complete opposite--there was so much to look at, Christmas music playing, volunteers and workers cheering everyone on...it was so wonderful!!

Cold, and ready to start!

So, the first mile or so of the course was up hill, through the parking lots (there were also a couple hills in the park).  The hills didn't bother me at all....what bothered me is the amount of people I was passing between 1/2 mile and Mile 1 who were already walking.  Based on my estimated finishing time, I was in the 3rd out of 4 waves.  All those fools should've been in the 3rd or 4th wave if they weren't ready for those hills.  Just saying.  They don't even know "race course courtesy" and move over to the side if they're walking.  All of us who were running at SUCH a hard time getting through because they were walking side by side, almost blocking the entire pathway! Plus, if you've done a race before, you know how congested the first mile is anyway!  Okie doke, rant over, on to more festive, fun stuff! :)

 

When we finally headed into the park, I took my phone out of my arm band to take a quick picture of the decorations.  It didn't take me long to decide to keep my phone out the whole time I was in the park to document everything!

The amount of people stopping to take selfies was expected, with all of the fun decorations around. But me, I didn't have time for stopping! haha

 

 "Runnin' around the Christmas tree.."

This bridge was one of my favorite parts of the whole run.  They had Marines lining the sides, giving us high fives as we ran by and telling us Merry Christmas.  I wish I had thought about it then, but I wish I had thought to take a video running through there--that would've been so cool!

 

 

SANTA!!! OH MY GOD!!! I KNOW HIM!!

(Elf is on right now, so it only seemed appropriate to include that quote.)

 

One of my favorite countries to visit at Busch Gardens, Ireland.

 

Closer to the end, I pulled out my phone again to tell Matt I was at Mile 4, to give him an idea of how close to the end I was. (I discovered I'm fairly good at texting and running at the same time, haha). He texted me back telling me where he was, so I was able to find him and pose for a picture...I'm pretty far back though...

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Matt, for getting this video of me crossing the finish line AND of them calling my name as I did!!

 

DONE!!  My official time was 50:59. For not caring about what my time was going to be, I am definitely satisfied!!

 

One of these elves saw my shirt and came up to me and said, "you need a picture with us!" haha. She must've read my mind anyway, because I was getting ready to ask them.

 

After going to Williamsburg twice in one weekend, we were ready to go home!

 

My First Half Marathon

I really just have three words to sum up how I felt yesterday: I did it!

Never did I EVER think that I would complete a half marathon! I used to loathe running and sometimes, I still do. (And sidenote, let's just accept the fact that I used the word "loathe" and said it in the Grinch's voice because I'm already in the Christmas spirit, haha.)  But, after completing the Monument Avenue 10K in the Spring, for some reason, I decided that I was going to sign up for the Half Marathon. Um, okay, I know one of my goals for this year was to participate in more races and everything, but I thought I was just going stick to races that were between 5K and 10K. NO idea how a 13.1 mile race made its way into the line-up!

So, I signed up. I signed up to run with a pace group, the slowest half marathon pace group, in fact, because I knew I would want to start out too fast and wouldn't be able to keep my own pace throughout the whole race.  Plus, it was a time that I felt was a good goal to set for myself.

I continued running all year, but I really started my training plan for the half marathon in July.  I really stuck to it with each particular running day and its distance, my cross training days and my strength training days (which I was already doing while training for the Spartan race).  Did I have speed bumps along the way? You betcha. In the early fall, my right knee started hurting...a lot.  I could barely walk without pain, let alone run.  When resting it didn't work, I finally had to suck it up and go to the doctor, so I wouldn't get too far behind on my training.  Well, going to the doctor usually isn't good news for me, and this was no exception.  I had pulled the anterior ligament in my knee, and flared up an old knee injury. LOVELY. Through that whole injury, from the initial resting to after the appointment and more rest, I was out of running for a month! That was kind of a big set back that did not make me happy!!  Then, several weeks ago, I did who knows what and ended up pulling a muscle in my back that wrapped around my right side, too. It hurt to do simple stuff like get in my car with my work bag in the mornings, roll over in the bed, play bells at church. It was ridiculous. Finally, the week leading up to the half marathon, this muscle started to get a little bit better, but it still was hurting some when I woke up that morning, but I had so much adrenaline that it was the last thing on my mind.

After all that had happened, I wasn't sure about the anticipated finishing time I originally hoped for. Since my training had its interruptions and challenges, and this point, I just wanted to finish!

I know it probably sounds like I'm just pouring out excuses, but when I look back years from now, I want to remember how I prepared for my first half marathon, the set backs I had, and how I still completed it!!

So, yesterday morning, I woke up way earlier than the alarms I had set because I was both anxious and excited. I finally got up and got dressed for the below freezing temps that I wasn't really excited about running in, as I had never run in temperatures that low before!  We finally got out there, and Matt was walking with me to find my starting wave. I was looking for my aunt, Kandi, and my cousin, Aimee, because I knew they would be around the same area as me. Coincidentally, I just happened to hear Kandi's voice and they walked right up behind us!! It worked out great because we ended up running the whole thing together!  And, that pace group I signed up to run with? Yeah, I never looked for them, because I had a better group to run with!

Matt, Mom and Dad were standing right at the starting line as we passed, and the start all happened so fast! Before I knew it, we were at mile 2 and that's when I got mad. My left knee started hurting. Seriously?! My left knee has never hurt me while running, and it chose that time to start?? Perfect. I kept changing my stride, and that would help alleviate the pain for a while, but then it would come back. It was a constant battle through the rest of the race! I was so mad.

It was so much fun running through Richmond! I was most excited when we ran past the Science Museum, which was in the first couple miles. Shortly after that, we conquered the hill on the Boulevard right by the Diamond.  Of all the hills we ran/walked, we owned that one! haha. I kept looking forward to Mile 7, because I knew we'd be in Bryan Park at that point, and that was the next Party Spot for the half marathon, and that's where Mom, Dad and Matt would be.  We saw Mom first, so we stopped for some stretching to loosen up.

Check out this sign Mom made!

Shortly after we passed her, we ran into Matt and Dad! It's always nice seeing familiar faces on the side for some encouragement to keep on going!!

Dad got these pictures of us running:

Matt got this pic:

I can't remember at which Mile this happened, but we started hearing police sirens behind us on the left side of the road. I turned around to see police motorcycles, but I didn't know what it was for. Aimee and Kandi told me the Elite Marathon runners were coming up on that side of the road! It was so cool to see them come breezing by, 20+ miles in, like it was NOTHING. We cheered them on as they came on by, and I decided I was completely fine sticking with 13.1 miles! haha.

When we were in the last few miles, I felt like we would NEVER get to the finish line. My knee was still killing me, and then, just when I thought things couldn't get worse, they did. My calves started cramping. BAD. I honestly thought they were just going to pop right through my skin. (I know, what an exaggeration!) I kept stopping to stretch them, running different ways, but I could NOT get them to loosen up. It killed me being so close to the end and having to keep stopping.  When we approached Mile 10, we ran through our favorite spectator set up: Christmas!! They were playing Christmas music, and Santa and a couple elves were there! It was there that some random stranger from the Christmas-scene gave me a pat on the back and said, "Just 5K left! You can do it!!" My initial thought was, "Yeah, easy for you to say. YOU'RE NOT RUNNING!" But, after getting that out of my system, I realized that's why I love these running events: EVERYONE is so supportive and encouraging, and it was more than fitting that it was a Christmas person who gave me a boost of encouragement to keep going! haha.

In the last stretch of the race, Aimee kept reassuring me, "we're literally almost there!" "the rest is all down hill!" and I kicked up the pace, forgot about all of the pain I was in, because when I saw that finish line, I was going to cross it as quickly as I could!!!

Here we are getting ready to cross the finish line!! Video by Mom, pictures by Matt!

Regardless of all of the pain I endured, I was most proud of myself, because never once did I get tired aerobically. I could've definitely kept on going if I wasn't hurting so much. Who knows, there may be another 1/2 marathon in my future....I haven't decided just yet. Let me recover from these injuries, first!

And, to finish out this post, I thought I'd share these half marathon quotes I have been finding on Pinterest either as inspiration or as something I now read and think, "oh yeah, I can totally relate now!"