Wimpy!!

Wow......What a crazy week!!   Where to begin...with the fun?  The serious?   The Good?  The bad???

Ok, lets start with the fun...then we will get to the weight stuff......or maybe I will intersperse it all together kinda chronologically.....Yeah, that's the plan!

Last week I really struggled with my eating.  My weight was up on my weigh in day (mid week) and I just struggled to get my eating lined up!  I started to think about it and vowed that the weekend was my new start!

On Wednesday afternoon/early evening when I got off work (and the technical beginning of my mini vacation, I headed out and went hiking.  The locale?  Gambril State park near Frederick, MD.   I'll go back...parts of the trail was pretty and overlooks are always fun to visit!

I was off some days last week and headed to Charleston, SC for the Cooper River Bridge Run.  I did this last year with my friend Sue.   I ended up walking it last year and I vowed that I would return and conquer it!     My best laid intentions failed me this  I wasn't ready....it had been a weird downward spiral for the last six months with illnesses and injuries.  Excuses really...but I was NOT prepared.  Yet I packed my gear and headed south for my girls weekend.   I decided to wake up super early and drive six hours early so that I could eek out a full day of site seeing.  I pulled out at 3:50 AM and arrived at my first destination at 10AM.  

I had some deep thoughts while I drove.   LOTS of deep thoughts!   I won't go into it...but I had a total epiphany!  I had already thought about the need to lose weight....based on the fact that I want to be 70 years old and still able to hike up a mountain....or site see all day long.....or run a marathon....or ride a bike!  But as I drove, I was thinking about some things happening in my life and I discovered another HUGE motivator.  I'm TOTALLY motivated now!  This weight is coming off, there is no question about it!

Averasboro Battlefield (Tiny little battlefield....the graveyard and slave cabin intrigued me most)

Transportation Museum (evolution of transportation in the area)

Geocaching in Historic town

Museum of Cape Fear (shows the history of people in the area from native Americans to the Antebellum Age)

Poe House  (Built by Edgar Allen Poe...not the poet....beautifully preserved/restored and the artifacts that are directly tied to the house that they have are incredible examples of the Victorian era)

I headed a bit further south to where my hotel was.  I searched and found a little locally owned BBQ place to eat named Tommy's.  

As I was pulling out of the parking lot an older gentleman ran toward my car and motioned for me to wind my window down.  Turns out that it was Tommy...the owner.   He was an ex cop who opened this business in his retirement.  He wanted to make sure that I liked the food and that I was not leaving hungry!.   I assured him and talked to him a few minutes.  I didn't tell him that I saved room to head out to Cook Out for a milkshake for dessert!   Ha ha ha

I relaxed and slept well.  In the morning I headed to Charleston, SC

I hit up the Run Expo....then headed to the Fire Museum of Charleston. (More geared toward kids, but it was still cool)

A quick lunch at McAlister's Deli (Yeah, a chain, but not one I can get at home!)

and then I was off to Charles Towne Landing and zoo (museum about the first settlers of South Carolina)

By that time my friend was arriving so I went to meet her.....lots of talking, laughter all evening.

We started to talk about our weight and some goals.....We worked up a plan!  (more on that later)

Saturday morning....calling for thunderstorms, lightening and rain.    We totally wimped out.  (I didn't fight at all when she said she wasn't running!).  And lets be fair....if I had been trained and ready to run, nothing would have stopped me from going.  I would have told her "great", get your butt to the race course and take some pictures of me as I run by!  But I wasn't ready.    Instead we went site seeing and spent the day talking and catching up!

Drayton Hall (TOTALLY worth it!)  This is an old plantation.....that is being preserved NOT restored!   Quite neat actually!

Why yes, they are real alligators...

The Angel Oak Tree (really old tree)

Charleston Tea Plantation (apparently a tea farm/plantation in North America is rare...especially one that processes their own tea themselves!)

Some more geocaching..... 

Then Sullivan's Beach

And we ended our evening with a late evening Ghost tour in downtown Charleston.   

It was a full day!  

I drove home on Sunday.  I was sad to leave Charleston.   I was sad to say goodbye to my friend.   I was utterly excited and maybe even a bit giddy to get home to see Jason.  I am utterly motivated and ready to lose this weight!

So Sue and I sat down and created some goals for each of us.   We are already planning to go CONQUER the Cooper River Bridge Run next year!   My goals for the next year are as follows!  (she has her own goals)

My Goals

1.  Beat personal record for 10K which is 1:19  (all running...no walk breaks)  
2.  Weight at or  below 180 pounds (51.6 pounds)
3.  Exercise consistently 3x's a week
4.  Track food each day
5.  Stay accountable all year long...checking in on Wednesdays
6.  get totally off diet sodas (again)
7.  take a picture of progress every 10 pounds
8.  large reward will be something fun (extra day, neat site seeing venture, something) at Charleston next year when we smash the 2017 Cooper River Bridge Run

I may not have run the 10K...but I did get a fair amount of walking/steps/miles in on my trip!   

March 30  7.34 miles

March 31  3.26 miles 

April 1   6.08 miles

April 2   8.16 miles

April 3   1.45 miles (not bad because the traffic was horrible and the 9 hours in the car ended up to be 12 hours in the car!)

The verdict on the scales from the weekend?  I'm down about 2 pounds from where I was last mid week weigh in....so MAYBE this week will look nice when I do my official weigh in!  (and that would give me a REALLY nice start to my years goals as I based my numbers on my last official weigh in!!)

Leesburg 10K

This was my big weekend. Why yes, it was the weekend that I had my 10k.  My longest run to date and the longest (by double) race I've ever run in.  I had been absolutely religious about my training.  Until a week ago that is.  And then I fell off the rails.  I only ran once in the last week and a half.  It was a four miler, but only once.  Uhhhhhh....why does this seem to happen to me each time.

I was nervous about certain things.  I am always afraid that I'm going to be last across the finish line.  Huge fear of mine. (stupid I'm sure)   But regardless I packed for my short trip with my friend Paula and we headed out yesterday at about noon.   We made the trip to Leesburg, VA in fine time.  The first stop was the store where they were holding packet pick up.  We picked up our bags and perused the store.  Stop one complete we headed to the outlets in Leesburg.  A few hours of shopping later. (I bought new lids for some of my damaged and old Pyrex storage containers.....and otherwise I was a window shopper).  We did find a perfect bag.....we didn't buy just posed for a picture with it.

 We hit up a local park for a nice little walk.  We lounged a bit in our hotel and we had dinner.  Let e add that I had breakfast and a diet coke with breakfast and we had dinner really late at about 8:30 and I had a diet soda with dinner.  Dinner I was so hungry that when I started to eat I gobbled my food and my stomach started to hurt so I only ate half my meal.  That was ALL I ate and drank the whole day on Saturday.  Yes, I know....not exactly the healthiest and wisest food and drinking choices.

Sunday morning we were up bright and early.  It was COLD outside.  Brrrr.   We got ready to roll.   I typically run on an empty stomach (ha ha ha...once again probably not the wisest but hey, it's what has worked for me).   So we headed out. 

The run was VERY small.  Only about 50 people or so.   I decided to not worry about being the last person.  Who else can say that they once weighed over 300 pounds and are now running a 10K???   And doing it on arthritic knees and a few other feet issues???  

 We started to run and I kept my pace steady.   I have been consistently running a 13:00 to a 13:40 mile pace. I knew if I stayed at that (slow) that I could finish it no problem.   I ran where I felt comfortable...or rather edgy comfortable.  It went well.  It was an out and back route, so at the turn around I grabbed a water and walked for maybe a minute and then picked back up running.  (my stats showed that I lost about a minute on that mile from what I was running so that's why I assume I walked about a minute.)  I was fine...getting tired but fine.  (And admittedly I saw I wasn't last....and I even passed a few people on the return trip! My fear of being last vanished and by that time I had decided I DIDN'T CARE Anyway!)   And then about midway through mile six I began to struggle.  Oh yes, I struggled.  I started to get physically ill.  My stomach and head started to hurt.  My legs felt like they were so heavy that I couldn't even pull them up to walk.  It was BAD.  At about mile 5.70 I waved Paula on (so as to not ruin her run) and I began to walk.   

And then a lady, a skirt wearing lady came up beside me...literally less then 10 paces after I started walking and she looked at me and said "You've got this, the finish line is just ahead."    She ran on and before she was even 3 feet in front of me I knew that she was right.  I felt like dog doo but I knew that I could do it.   I started running.  I stayed on her tail the rest of the way in.  

I can't find the official times posted yet..it was not a chipped run (go figure....it was a small small run...maybe 50 people doing the 10k...if that).  Luckily since Paula had gone on ahead she was able to grab a pic. Yes, that is me in the glaring sun but I have my time!  Slow but you know what?  Who the heck cares!

So I got across the finish line and I had something important to do.  I had to talk to the skirted lady.  I needed to tell her what her words meant to me.  I found her easily (remember she was only a bit ahead of me....although she pulled further ahead in the last 100 feet or so).  I told her that her words are what pushed me to run. I told her that I had decided to just walk the rest of it and call it a good deal, but her words gave me the courage and spunk to run the rest of the way.   Her face glowed when I told her and then she turned to me and said "Thanks is due to you too though"   I looked at her and she giggled a bit and said "I was on your tail the whole run and I decided that I was not going to let you pull ahead of me.  You didn't walk so I had to run the whole time also!  Thank you for unofficially pacing me."   :-)

I grabbed a water and headed over to Paula.  That water tasted so dang good.  And then I remembered to turn off the mapmy app.  Oops  I got it turned off.   My last 3/10ths of a mile look slow....partly because I didn't get that turned off immediately and partly because I was STRUGGLING!

Wow.....so my pace was much better than my average for most of the run.  My turn around mile was slower and  mile 6 were I hit that wall was slower...but still 'average' pace.  Go figure.

 I took another drink.  Holy cow that water tasted good and I drained that water bottle in a few seconds.  And that is when I knew it.  What did I know?  I had to sit down or I was in danger of falling down.  Yes, I KNEW that that horrible feeling of being sick that I had encountered back at mile 5.7 had reached its pinnacle. Oh yes....I was ready to drop.  I sat down for a few moments and answered some well wish texts and knew I was ok.   I stood up, grabbed another water bottle and Paula and I headed back to the car.  Yes, we stopped along the way for another picture.  Come on now...it's us!

10K done!!!!!  I've got my starting base line numbers and now I can improve upon that!

So upon further reflection.  I realize that I had totally dehydrated myself on Saturday and since I hadn't drank anything in the morning before running it was carrying over to Sunday.  I was suffering from total dehydration.  Ooops.