Shark Run 5K

Today was the Shark Run 5K in Bay Head, NJ. It is a beautiful course, running along the ocean for about a mile, and through the town of Bay Head which is so beautiful! I had not planned to run this race, since the Half is tomorrow, but Active.com was running a free entry deal, and I cashed in!
It was probably about 60* when I rode my bike into town, being only 1.25 miles away, how could I resist leaving the car at home? I locked up my bike, got my bib and tee, and went to look for my friends. My friend Eileen from JSRC was there, as well as friends from High School, Kristine and Janet, PLUS a friend I met through PTO, Nancy! I love seeing friends at races!
With no chip timing, and no gun, I was worried that the timing would be off, but at the one mile marker, when the volunteer told me my time (somewhere around 10 minutes), I realized it was only off from my watch by about 10 seconds. Woot!
Somewhere around the 1.5 mile marker, we hit the beach...and the wind! I was supposed to be taking it easy, but with a PR in sight, that was *not* happening! It felt so easy, so I kept at it! At around mile 2.5 it was time to turn away from the beach, and this was where the cop stopped us to let traffic go by the last time I raced in Bay Head. I was so nervous, and so thrilled when he let us run past! Hooray! PR here I come!
As we turned the final corner before the parking lot Finish Line, I glanced at my watch and realized I would be hitting 3.1 before the Finish. I stopped my watch at 3.1, with a time of 31:04, my fastest 5K time yet! I crossed at about 31:15 I think, still an amazing time! I was definitely winded, but so excited to have finished so fast!
A quick photo op with my friend Kristine before i rode my bike home:

LOVE running with her! Oh, and by *with her* I mean, finishing a minute or so behind her, she is *fast*. Almost all of my friends finished ahead of me, I am so proud!

And now, my Flat Mama for tomorrow's race:

I am wearing my Jersey Shore Running Club hat, and I am so excited that my Moms Run This Town shirt came today! I will be sporting attire from both of my running clubs tomorrow! A close up of the shirt:

If you son't already belong to MRTT, check it out! There are over 300 chapters nationwide, and abroad! They are such an amazing group of ladies!

Do you belong to a running club?

Countdown to Staten Island!

3 days until Staten Island!
I am so excited to run my 2nd out of 3 Halfs to earn my Half Fanatic status! You need to run 3 within 90 days, but I will be running 3 within 36 days! WOW!!
Rain is in the forecast for Sunday, but I am hoping that it is late rain!

Yesterday I continued my quest to strength train by doing Bob Harper's Pure Burn Super Strength DVD. It is 67 minutes long, and uses light weights. No prob, right? I started up with 5s, ended up with 3s, and wished for 1s by the time I was through. It was rough! I felt like a boss afterwards though, and it satisfied the requirements for my 2 Upper Boddy Challenges that I joined!

Today I had a run planned, but the humidity is so insane that I decided to do Zumba. Morgan wanted to join me, yay! We set up the DVD player.....but kept getting an error message. We tried several DVDs, but none worked! The darn DVD player broke! Just my luck, since I just quit the gym! Wii to the rescue! We did just over 40 minutes of Zumba on the Wii, and I used the maraca weights from my Zumba DVD set. FUN! AND I can make up the run on Saturday when I run the Shark Race 5K in neighboring Bay Head. I love when I can ride my bike to a race!

I just joined a new challenge, because I just cannot get enough of challenges, and went with the upper body theme. Check out One Hundred Push Ups facebook page. I am determined to finish this one! I have always wanted to be able to do full form push ups, and this will get me there! I even bought the iPhone app for $1.99, something I rarely do. I am all about the free apps! I managed 7 push ups in the fitness test, and day 1 has me doing 25 today, in increments of 4-6 at a time.

How many full form push ups can you do?

Non Scale Victories

We all know what they are, those wonderful things that happen at just the right moment, that moment when the scale isn't budging but you suddenly realize it doesn't matter. The NSV. Non.Scale.Victory.

I received an invitation in the mail the other day for a Fundraising Dinner, one that has been on my calendar for months anyway, and I was so excited! This will be my first, and I have always wanted to go to one. It is next month, 6 weeks away. Then comes the big question. What will I wear?

I have a whole selection of dresses in the back of the closet, some that fit, some that don't. I have 2 that I just love, and neither has fit well in a really long time. The first was a dress I wore in Vegas over 2 years ago when hubby and I did a vow renewal. Can you guess where we did it? That's right, the only way to truly get hitched in Vegas. Elvis baby!

Sorry about the picture quality, I snapped a photo of a photo lol. Anyway, it was the best night ever, I laughed the whole time. That guy was *awesome*. He sang as he walked me down the aisle, he sang as he married us. He sang afterwards. He rocked, literally and figuratively! But back to the dress. It is a size 10, and I am wearing Spanx in this pic. The dress fit. But there was little room to spare. Flash forward 2.5 years, and at this time last year you couldn't get me into that dress. No way. Amazing what a 30 pound weight loss can do for a gal! I tried this dress on last night, but it's still a no go. It's too loose! WOW! Did not see that one coming!
The 2nd dress I pulled out, thinking of it as an incentive dress. You know the kind, you hang it on the wall somewhere, so that you see it *every day*, as an incentive to lose weight. I did it once before with a shirt that said 13 point Freakin One. I wore it after I ran my first Half, but it hung on the wall for almost 5 months as incentive. Once again, back to the dress. This dress reminds me of Marilyn Monroe's epic white dress.

Only my dress is black. And a size 8. I decided to try it on, see how much work there was still to be done. Only there isn't. Not that I can't use some tummy firming, and my arms are not as cut as they once were. I am working on that, though. I was truly shocked to find that the dress fits. It fits! And it looks awesome! No Spanx necessary. And I still have 6 weeks to go! WOW!
Maybe I will buy some new shoes, lol. And I will definitely share a picture!

So back to the real world, for now. I got in a 3 mile run today. My nice, easy pace worked out to be a 10.5 minute mile! I really am improving my pace! woot! Only 5 more days until

So excited!
And even more exciting? Tomorrow  morning (Wednesday) is 99 days until we leave for Disney for the Marathon!
Let me leave you with another favorite picture of one of my all time favorite people:

The Weekly Chase...and October Goals

It is time for this week's Weekly Chase. First let's look at last week's goals:

1. Run 2 short runs, 3-4 miles each DONE, I did 2 runs, one was almost 5 miles and the other was 5 miles
2. Kick butt in the Race for the Cure on Sunday DONE! I beat last year's course time by 6 minutes!!!!!
3. Keep up with the Plankaday Challenge at Running for Dummies and maybe beat my best time! I kept up with it, but still have not beat my 4 minutes + time! 
4. Keep up with the School House Rock Hard Abs Calendar at Sisterhood of the Shrinking Jeans DONE, and finished! Today starts a new one!
5. 2 Rip 60 workouts (one done already, woohoo) I did one, and then one day we ripped up part of our deck, so I counted that, lol. It was very physical work!

And now for this week's goals:

1. Run 2 short runs, 3-4 miles each ONLY
2. Run a nice easy Shark 5K on Saturday because.....
3. Kick butt at the NYRR Staten Island Half. By kicing butt, I mean finish, lol. Not worried about time, just going for my Half Fanatic status!
4. Keep up with the Plankaday Challenge at Running for Dummies
5. Start up the new Spooktacular October Calendar at Sisterhood of the Shrinking Jeans
6. Track my workouts for Sara's Use it 2 Lose It ROCKtober challenge
7. Start Pretty Little Loser's MRTT Frightfully Fabulous Arms Challenge

I know, that's alot this week, I will condense them in future weeks, but I wanted the links in there in case anyone wants to check these challenges out. They are all truly awesome, my abs thank me every day for the Shrinking Jeans Challenge and the Plankadays!
I also plan to start back up with my journalling. I have been entering food and exercise at Sparkpeople but have not been doing my journal pages.  Having it all laid out in front of me really helps! I also put my October Goals in there, so I can check back each day to be sure I am not missing anything.
Another Challenge I am trying is the Girls Gone Sporty Wicked Wallies. You hold a wall squat for as long as you can each day, and report in with your times. Just like plankaday! This one is a fundraiser though, and to be entered for prizes  you donate $10. LOVE it!
All of these challenges will keep me on track!

What are your October goals?

Race for the Cure

This morning was my 3rd Race for the Cure! In 2009 I ran it with a friend and we finished in 34:07. In 2010 we did the 3 Day for the Cure, so we did run the Race. In 2011, I had just started running again and I finished in a very disappointing (for me!) 37:31.
My daughter and i set out bright and early for Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson, NJ. She would be doing the one mile health walk with her High School for the 2nd year in a row. We got there in plenty of time to get my bib and tee, take a potty break, and hit the Expo. They always have great stuff there, including the Ford Warriors in Pink scarf, tons of pens, nail files, tote bags, drawstring bags, water bottles, etc. We also made time for a photo op:

You can't see our bibs in full, but all walkers had #2012 and my number was #3012. Pretty cool, huh? Afterwards, she went off to be with her friends, and I went to prep for the 5K. I did some Zumba with the crowd before lining up, to pass the time.

Then it was off to the starting line, which was right by that balloon arch. They delayed the start to let last minute registrees line up and then we were off. After a bit of bottlenecking, the crowd thinned out enough that I could pass a bunch of slower runners/walkers. The course is exactly the same every year, so I knew about all of the hills. We ran around the parking lot and towards the Safari. After we passed the entrance we ran around another parking lot and back the way we came. I was amazed at my pace when I saw the one mile marker, my time was 9:46!
Back up the hill we went, past the parking lot, past the water station that I tried to zip past. Unfortuantely therer was some bottlenecking there and my pace slowed down to 12:00 temporarily. Once we passed the station though, it thinned back out. Hooray! Through Huuricane Harbor we went. Up and down hills, around bends, and past the 2 mile marker. My second mile time was 10:39. SO happy so far!
Some more twists and turns, staying on task and keeping up my speed. UNTIL. :::sigh::: youngins. Two 10ish year old kids, no parent, weaving and stopping and cutting people off. That slowed me down a tad, and I actually had to ask the girl to please be careful, because she almost tripped me. They became a little more aware after that!
One last turn, the home stretch! I am gonna do it! I am gonna PR!!! Holy crow, not only will I beat my course time, I am gonna PR!
NO.
A group of 5 twenty somethings, running 5 across, blocking every body. Bottleneck. UGH! People finally manage to pass them, I get past them, Final time: 31:41 WOW! Not an overall PR but what a huge PR for this course!
I had a great day, and got to see some great team shirts. This one was my fave:

Did you race this weekend?

Thursday's Run and a Flat Mama

Thursday I did another Zombie Run. I had planned to run with my running club, but my pace partner couldn't make it so I decided to run on my own. I chose a simple out and back on a semi-hilly road, and planned on 6.2 miles. My schedule said 3, but I felt like doing a little extra. Zombies really wear you out, however, so I decided to turn around at mile 2.5 and finished it off at 5 miles. I finished in just over 56 minutes and averaged an 11:15 mile. I was really bummed that the Zombies caught up with me at one point, especially since my watch said 8:37 pace when they caught up! Yikes! Those are some seriously fast undeads! I am really happy with my progress, all of my runs are averaging out in the low 11's these days, and it feels more natural when I run at that pace. This time last year I was averaging at 13+ minutes per mile! WOW!
Tomorrow is the Race for the Cure and this will be my third year. I ran it in 34 minutes in 2009 and 37:31 minutes in 2011 (I hadn't been training long, and that 37+ minutes killed me!) My plan this year is to finish in under 33 minutes. The race is run at Six Flags Great Adventure and it weaves through a parking lot, past the entrance to the Wild Safari, through Hurricane Harbor, and back to the where you started. It is a very hilly race, but I have been doing very well with hills lately!
I put together my Flat Mama:

I forgot to inlcude my Komen visor, but I will be wearing my Komen sports bra and black Komen running shirt, pink running skirt, pink ProCompression socks (see the link on the right hand side of my blog, they are awesome!) and SweatPink laces from Fit Approach. I also have my newest Brooks Adrenalines. I chose purple this time for a change, I have never had purple running shoes!

Guest Blog!

I am a guest blogger on FitBlogger today! Check me out!
FitBlogger

Short and sweet for now! Hoping for a run tonight if the rain stops!