Fitness Updates

It's race week! I am so excited and nervous about my first half marathon. When I first decided to run the ING half marathon it seemed so far away. I wondered if I would be able to keep up with the training and if I would even be able to run 13.1 miles. Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought that a five mile run is a short run. Now I know I can physically and mentally do a 13.1 run. Now I think a five mile run is a short run and a three mile run a joy run. The best part of all my running is seeing how it trickles down; Cati now loves to run and she gets upset when I go running without her. One day she even told me she had a race to go to and that she ran faster than me. This is what it's all about: running is something I do for me, but it is also something I am doing so my girls will grow up thinking of exercising as fun and a part of our everyday lives.

Since I began officially training in October, I have logged close to 170 miles. I have seen my mile go from a 12+ minute mile to a 9-minute mile. I owe it all to the awesomeness of the Miami Galloway running group. My goal for this weekend is simply to finish the race. I'll be happy with whatever time because it means I finished, but I would be lying if I said I didn't have a time in mind. From here on out until Sunday, I'll be carb loading, doing lots of stretching, and hydrating more than I did when I was pregnant.

But, before this weekend there was the Superhero Scramble. Superhero Scramble is a mud run/obstacle race. It was 5.7 miles plus 20 obstacles of good fun. I was so nervous because I was doing the event by myself but I met two great women who let me run and do all the obstacles with them. I was very close to not going because one of the obstacles terrified me (a wall climb does not fit well with someone with little upper body strength) but my great friend gave me a good talking to and I decided not to let fear get in the way of doing something fun. And the race was so much fun! I jumped into a lake, climbed rope, climbed walls, crawled through mud, and, of course, the wall that almost scared me out of the race. I had help with the wall but the point is that I did it. Everyone was so helpful and the camaraderie amazed me. The best part about the race really was seeing Alex and the girls waiting for me by the wall, cheering me on. As soon as Cati saw me she started yelling "go, Mami go!" There's no better motivation to reach the finish line than giving a big muddy kiss to your biggest cheerleader.

Here are pictures from Superhero Scramble:

Taking the Leap of Faith

Jumping over fire

Big slide

Getting muddy

With my girl

I can't say enough about how much fun this run was. I'm doing another one in next weekend (Foam Fest) and I can't wait. I think everyone should try an event like this. It's a great workout and you didn't even feel like you've been moving for as long as you have.