Dragon Boat Race

For the past five years, the hospital I work for has hosted an annual Dragon Boat Race to raise money for the Children's Miracle Network. Since I've never participated in these races in the past and open spots were available on our hospital team boat, I decided to jump right in!

 

After missing the weekday practice due to rain and not really knowing any of my teammates except one, I'll admit that I (right at first) regretted my decision to sign up for the race. I'm not one to jump right in to uncomfortable situations, especially when I have no clue what I'm doing. However, once our team was assembled that morning and the logistics were figured out, I felt much more comfortable!

My morning began bright and early with a six mile run around the downtown area with my friend Heather!

It was a super humid morning which served as a reminder that summer time is just around the corner. We timed the run just right because we finished about 10 minutes before I needed to meet up with my dragon boat team. Thankfully, I didn't even have to move my vehicle as our run took place at the same location as the boat race!

I was honestly surprised at the size of the event as it encompassed an entire section of our downtown/lake area and was literally an all day affair.

The team I joined was called the Life Savers, composed of EMT, cardiology, and oncology personnel. Funny pun on words, huh? :)

This was my first time to actually see the dragon boats in person and I was honestly surprised at their size!

Each boat fit 22 people - two rowers per seat, one drummer, and one person to steer.

I was really nervous as the unknown always gets me.  Also, our water isn't the cleanest (aka, it looks like mud), so I was worried we would flip over in that mess...ewwww. Gross.

Off we go!

Our first race was terrible, I'm not going to lie. We totally lost this race as we weren't in sync and couldn't get a rhythm down. This is where a practice would have come in handy.... oh well.

 

I even had a few cheerleaders out to cheer me on! :)

Our hospital picnic also coincided with the event, so we had yummy food to eat!

Our second race took place right after lunch. We were only up against one team this time (our local news station) and we won this one! Yay!

Funny side note...their team name was the "Technical Difficulties"...

Boat #1 for the win!

Our third and final race was another bust as we also lost that one but oh well - we still had fun and I really enjoyed the day.

Seriously, though. Rowing is no joke! My arms and upper body hurt so much by the time the day was over. I'm really surprised I wasn't sore the next day.

Team Life Savers! 

See how our drummer was dressed? That's another fun part of this event - the drummers had the chance to dress in fun costumes and were entered into a contest. I think my favorite drummer costume was the one who was dressed like a shark!

 A local industry team ended up winning the entire competition. These guys are hard core and have won the entire event the past five years. They even have their own boat, tryouts, and practice sessions. I knew we were in trouble when I turned around to see them all stretching and warming up in synchronized motions behind us! Oy.

In all, it was a really fun day and I'm glad I can say I participated in the event! Will I do it again in the future? Maybe! We will just have to see! :)

Have you ever gone out of your comfort zone to participate in an event? Did you end up liking it in the end?

12 Mile Run...& All Kind of Craziness!

Happy day before Thanksgiving! Today, I have half a day of work which will be followed by a bit of baking for our Thanksgiving festivities. I also can't wait for my crew's annual Black Friday shopping shindig! We are going to have so much fun!! :)

This past Saturday, I ran a 12 mile training run with my running buddy, Heather. This training run was our last "really" long run before our December half marathon and was a huge confidence booster for both of us.

Starting out that morning, the weather was incredibly chilly and I had no clue how to dress. I mean, I felt like I regressed back to my newbie running stages where I either over or under dressed all the time. You'd think I would have learned by now! After putting on two different pair of tights (a maternity pair accidentally made it into my tights drawer...whoops), I was ready to hit the road! I might have been late, too...I was incredibly confused by the tights I had on at first and couldn't figure out why they were so big on me. Guess that's what happens at 5:30 a.m.!

After meeting up with Heather and our running group, we began our run. Somehow, it was colder at our meeting spot that it was at my house, which means we spent the first part of our run trying to warm up. That hasn't happened in forever and I kinda liked it! 

Throughout our run, we encountered several "interesting" things...

• A car passed by and saturated us with a very odd odor. Apparently that odor was weed and it was only 8 a.m. Stay classy, Lake Charles.
• During one of our neighborhood loops, we looked over and saw a guy who was urinating behind a restaurant near a dumpster. Yes, he was outside and fully exposed. I could go without seeing that ever again.
• If you've ever had a baby, you will know what I mean by this....well, let's just say that my bladder isn't what it used to be (without being incredibly TMI). Thankfully, I spotted a much-needed port-a-potty somewhere near mile 8 or 9 along our route. As we began running again, we realized that there was NO construction around and pretty much NO reason for said random port-a-potty to be located in that spot. So strange. Hopefully I wasn't being secretly filmed and I won't end up on some random crazy TV show down the road.....!

Needless to say, we had several good laughs during our long run that morning. Out of all of my runs lately, this was by far the best. My knees felt great, my lungs were feeling better and I was finally able to breathe again, and I had good company along the way!

This run ended on a high note and definitely made me grateful for the random bad ones because I was able to appreciate it so much more!

I love getting a ton of steps in before 9 a.m.!

After the run, I stopped by Starbucks for a Christmas/Holiday beverage.

I also had to get this adorable snowman cookie to eat as a snack later on that day. Both the drink and the cookie were delicious! :)

What's the craziest thing you've ever seen while out for a run?

Christmas, Football, and the Weekend

Last week was a bit crazy around my house. We had something to do outside of our home almost every night of the week last week and I had to plan a big church function that I oversee which took place last night. Needless to say, I was exhausted every evening and went to bed as early as possible (hence the sparseness of my blog posts last week). This weekend however, we had a blast!!

On Friday afternoon after work, I had a few tasks to complete. Brayden's 6 month pictures were ready, so I picked those up on my way home. I love them, especially considering how cranky he was that morning!

I also put together several Operation Christmas Child boxes to ready them for delivery. The girls group I'm in charge of at church sponsored these boxes with the kids bringing items to stuff them with. We have been teaching them about foreign missions and how it's possible to impact a life right here from home. I love this organization and the cause! We were planning on five boxes, but the girls brought enough items to stuff seven boxes! I'd say that's a win win!

My last task of the day was to help Jason get the Christmas items out of the attic. I know it looks like a lot of stuff, but it's stuff I've accumulated over 10 years and there's a few boxes in the mix that we no longer use. I definitely need to take the time to throw away, donate, and downsize. Maybe one day!

When Saturday morning rolled around, so did a COLD front! It was in the 40's for our run and I was at a loss on how to dress. It's been so long since I've had to deal with really cold weather! Yes, that's REALLY cold to me! 

My running buddy Heather and I ran our last really long training run before our next half marathon! We ran 12 miles and it was an amazing run...I'll tell you all about it later this week! :)

After my run, I stopped at Starbucks for my usual Saturday morning coffee. I'm so hooked on their new Chestnut Praline Latte. It's a Christmas beverage and oh so delicious! I might have also picked up a snack for later in the day. :) Yay for red cups, too!

Brayden has a few Thanksgiving outfits so he had to start wearing them early! :) This is one of my favorites. Well, I lie...I love them all! These pants are especially adorable - they have a little turkey on the butt and they have turkey faces on the feet!

I spent a good portion of Saturday afternoon and night setting up our Christmas stuff. This Mickey village takes a while to setup, so that was my first big task and I tackled it during Brayden's nap time. So far, the entire inside of the house is complete minus the tree...I'll get to that this week!

My dad and mom are season ticket holders for our local university's football games. Well, they were unable to attend the game on Saturday night, so they gave their tickets to us! Bonus: we all (my dad, mom, Jason, myself) graduated from this school! Fun times!

After dinner, we bundled up and headed to the stadium. It was SO COLD, y'all. Thankfully, I had a blanket, too.

Brayden LOVED the game. Jason and I took bets on how long he would last and we were both WRONG! He loved all of the movement on the field during the game, ate some puff snacks, then intently watched both bands during halftime (a total of 5 songs). Our band even played the theme from the Incredibles! How fitting for our little Disney guy at his first football game! :)

He started getting restless after halftime, so we decided to call it a night. I couldn't believe he lasted 2 quarters plus halftime - it was definitely past his bedtime too!

Remember that cold weather snap I mentioned? Yeah well, it was enough for us to turn on the heater AND I got to wear my hoodie footie pajamas for the first time! My dad bought this pair for me last Christmas and I love them!! :)

For our "Thanksgiving Sunday" morning, Brayden wore his fall/Thanksgiving outfit.

On Sunday night, we had a function at church for our girls program and I spent most of my afternoon working on last minute things for the program. We also dropped the Operation Christmas Child boxes off at a local church.

Whew. I definitely slept well last night!

Here's to another fun week! Hope you all have a great week! Happy Thanksgiving prep! 

12 Miles on the Road

Saturday morning brought clear and cool Fall temperatures – the perfect weather for a long run!

My friend Heather and I met up extra early on Saturday because we each had 12 miles to tackle. Prior to Saturday, it had been a long while since I’d run 12 miles or longer (probably the Princess Half) and I wasn’t sure what to expect. It’s one month until the Wine & Dine Half, y’all! ONE MONTH! I can’t wait!

I was worried about my right IT Band for Saturday’s run because it bothered me on last week’s 8 mile run. I decided to attempt KT Tape and purchased a roll on Friday night. After watching a few videos on KT Tape’s website, I was taped and ready to go! (More on that later.)

As I mentioned before, we met up extra early to begin our run. Much of the first part of our run was in the dark. As we rounded the corner near the river, the sun began to peek out on the horizon.

We chose an out and back course – 6 miles out and 6 miles back. I prefer that route because I would rather not loop and loop the same area over and over again.

These birdies enjoyed the beautiful morning, too!

The miles seemed to fly by! I love running with a friend – good conversation is the best, especially on a long run! :)

We did it…and felt great, too!

I was all minnie’d out on Saturday! I wore the red shirt as a test run for my Wine & Dine Half costume! :)

How did the KT Tape work?

AMAZING. The tape didn’t bother me, it never rolled, I hardly noticed it, in fact! The best part? My IT Band never bothered me at all during the run. The combination of rolling, PT exercises, and KT Tape did it’s job. I plan to continue using this stuff as long as it’s needed. Best part? KT Tape comes in a lot of fun colors! :D

Hope you all have a fabulous Monday and a great start to your week!!

Do you wear KT Tape or something similar? Any tips for this newbie?

12 Miles and a Little Christmas

In preparation for the Woman’s Half Marathon on December 10th, I ran 12 miles with Heather on Saturday morning. It’s been a while since I’ve run 12 miles, but it wasn’t bad at all…I actually enjoyed it!

 

I was grateful for the cooler weather, even though the temps did drop while we were running…and there was a light, nasty mist in the air.

If you’re from the north, you’re probably looking at these weather temps and shaking your head at me. For the south, this is cold…and it only got colder as the weekend went on!

An enjoyable run as always…the miles flew by as we chatted!

Here’s where I made an uh-oh. I never ever stop my watch on GoRun Saturdays when we stop for water, stop to chat with another runner, stop midway for GU, and I almost always forget to stop it at the end when we are finished with our run. (In this case, it stayed running for a good 8-10 minutes.)

I do know that the first mile was a 9:35 and we kept a pretty consistent pace the entire time….so if I had to guess, I’d say between a 9:35 and a 9:50 is a good overall average pace for us.

It’s been a habit for years…if I stopped my watch, I always always always forgot to restart it – so I quit stopping it. Oh well.

There is one thing I didn’t forget to do…..I did not forget to stop for Panera after my run! :0) I even brought breakfast home for Jason and he was exceptionally grateful.

For lunch, we ate at a local Mexican restaurant with my parents in celebration of Jason’s upcoming birthday (on Thanksgiving Day).

We also put up our tree. Sad star.

My favorite ornaments are the ones that were made in the Days of Christmas Store (Downtown Disney) during Marathon Weekend over the past few years.  Of course these ornaments were the first to go on the tree!

2010 Half Marathon, 2011 Full Marathon, 2013 Goofy Challenge

I’m proud of each and every one of these accomplishments. Disney was my first Half and my first Full and I wouldn’t trade those experiences for anything in the world!

After all of the Christmas excitement at my house (2 days worth), I went to my parent’s house last night to help them decorate! (I’m a bit obsessed with this season if you couldn’t tell.)

It was fun re-living old memories with my parents and remembering where certain ornaments came from. These mall Santa photos crack me up. I was not impressed with Mall Santa on the bottom right. I didn’t want to take the picture because I was too old for all of that business (even though I was  wearing a Santa shirt…go figure), but I agreed because my brother wanted to take the picture. Aren’t I a sweet sister? Yes, I’d say so.

We had a great weekend and really enjoyed the extra special moments that made it a memorable one.

How was your weekend? Anyone run a race or a long run? Share the details!

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Don’t forget about the Spartan Racing giveaway happening right now! Ends Wednesday, November 27th!