Some More Austin....

But to counteract all the food, or at least a few bites of it, we ran the Trail of Lights 5k! It was pretty sweet, I gotta say.

DPP 15: Texas Style Holiday 5k

Trail of Lights 5k tonight. This guy took it seriously. I love the dedication.

Birthday Weekend!

Two weekends ago was my birthday!!! It was a pretty crazy weekend just in general. And I feel like I've been going non stop since. Ill bulletpoint it!

Friday night was spent running all over town between Blaines and Walmart gather supplies, and then proceeding to design and create our Color Run t-shirts of glory.

Saturday:
Tim and I drove down to Des Moines for the Color Run.
Ate a glorious Whole Foods breakfast.
Found the perfect parking spot downtown.
Perfect parking does not equal perfect weather.
Windy, cold (40s), with no sun. Not ideal for running in a specially designed thin tshirt.
Finally got to visit the Lululemon Showroom, disappointing, only three racks of miscellaneous clothes.
Brief walk to Runners Village, freezing.
Saw Ryleah, a former video board kid. Loved it.
Sat in the car making the rough decision.
Cold, had a 2hour wait, still having neck pain.
Decided TOTALLY randomly to drive up to Minneapolis to go birthday shopping!
Got to Minneapolis, straight to the Athleta store.
Shopping efficiency, 90 minutes.
Slightly double the limit spent. Oops.
Thank God Minnesota doesn't have sales tax.
But I did get more than workout clothes! I got some work clothes and holiday options too!
Tim made for a great shopping buddy. He holds AND advises. Without complaint (as long as he has his smartphone).
There MIGHT be a cupcake store between the car and Athleta….but we saved them for after dinner!
Big dinner conundrum of where to go.
Best decision all day, The Anchor.
An amazing dive, packed super early on Saturday.
Best fish and chips since Australia (that's saying something)
Second Whole Foods run for stocking up.
Headed home via the parents house for a quick hello.

Sunday:

Red Velvet & Cake Batter...mmm

Slept way too late. (Yesterday was jam packed!)
Princess delivery service took me to Hot Yoga
First time back after medical issues and injuries.
Been way too long.
Hyvee run for birthday breakfast and a caramel apple.
Nixed breakfast for birthday lunch with the family.
Knee pads, fro yo, and a workout rounded out the hang out afternoon.
Mini fashion show for family at birthday dinner!

Got a new NLXF shirt, massage gift card, a halloween plate and halloween socks!
Grandma and Grandpa came over for the awesome meal of rouladden, cucumber/tomato/mozzarella salad, and spaghetti corn.
Sweet potato cupcakes from Scratch for dessert!
Evening concluded with mom's travel questions from a box!

Happy Birthday to Me!!!!!!!

Lookin like a Fools 5k

I ran my first 5k last weekend. Which is really strange actually, I run on the treadmill every day. And I mean EVERY day, for 10+ miles, but I have never run a 5k, or any race for that matter. What it boils down to, is that I hate running outside. How am I supposed to watch Real Housewives when I'm out running on the sidewalk with nothing but squirrels to look at and my own thoughts to drive me completely insane? If anyone should not have free time in their own brain, its me. It just gets so freaking boring. I'd stop after a mile, guaranteed. Not even the Jersey Shore soundtrack can keep these feet pitter pattering once I'm officially bored. But Tim has become a runner over the past year or two, and has done a couple of 5k's himself. Somehow, i have never even been able to attend a race of his. This does indeed make me a bad person. And when I heard that a bunch of NLXF members were going to be running in this 5k (Fool's 5k), I figured I might as well give it a shot.

The NLXF crew

 I had planned on practicing outdoors before the big day. Never happened. Oops. Day of race. Low 40s. Cold. Br. With a thousand people racing, we had to be there over an hour early. Did I mention it was cold? But we survived along with my lovely NLXF pal Jen and started the race with everyone else.

Braving the cold with Tim & Jen

 I could have done much better. I had to stop to tie my shoe three times in the first mile. And right around mile two, I was hit with a massive shin splint attack. I tried to relax, but yeah, good luck with that when you have burning searing pain in your shins that only grows with every hit of the pavement. It was my last desire in the world, but I knew that if I didn't walk a bit, I would be crawling to the finish. And I'd have to forget any workout I had planned for the rest of the day. So I walked for maybe a tenth of a mile. So not too bad. But I was never even winded in the slightest, so that’s happy. I remember back in the day of the mile run at school. I was lucky if I could get 20 minutes. And thats looking on the upside, I would have never thought this would happen. But I did.

After the Fools 5k!

 Of course Tim beat me, by 2ish minutes. I blame at least one minute of that on the shin splints, but considering Ive never really run outside. I think I did pretty damn good.

 Besides, it gave me a reason to eat a Scratch mini cupcake completely guilt free once I crossed that finish line!

Silly me.

I have been running for five years now. Mind you, on a treadmill, not outside. I like being able to stop whenever I want, watching trashy reality tv on tivo, and running year round despite the weather. Running outside seems like a mind boggle to me.

I just signed up for a 5k in March. I do a 5k every day inside. More like 3 or 4 5ks. Why am I so terrified?!