More Races

 1. The Zombie Apocalypse: An Infested 5K Obstacle Race (10/27/12)
 

 

This was my first obstacle course race (and my first race running for my life from zombies-imagine that). The goal is to get through the 5K race with at least one "life" left. We started with three flags attached to a flag football belt. Zombies try to get those flags while you run the trail run. The course was out at Tanganyika, and the course was really fun. The obstacles were a bit lame, but sprinting past hoards of zombies was the main point anyway. My friend Heather and her husband Cody ran it with me. We were in the third heat and the zombies were pretty aggressive. Apparently later on they were told to tone it down a bit. All three of us lost all our flags (I lost my last one about half way through). However, we "cheated". You could purchase extra lives at the beginning of the race and I bought three extra flags. We waited until the last flag station and each of us got one more flag. There were only two more areas with zombies after that and I made it to the end with that one. Kinda lame I know, but cheaters always win!

 

2. Inspire Hope 8K (11/3/12)

This was my first 8K race (considering 2012 was the first year I've ever run, "firsts" were all over the place). 8 kilometers is 4.97 miles. It was 38 degrees outside that morning, my first race in the cold (first, first, first). I usually warm up within about a half mile, but damn waiting for the race to start was miserable! Especially since I was there by myself and didn't have anyone to hold a jacket/warmup pants so I just wore my race clothes. I felt really good the whole race and finished in 46:02 (9:16 pace), which for my slow ass is pretty speedy!

3. Turkey Trot 10-Miler or The Race of Doom (11/17/12)

Yes, this was my first 10-miler. I was really nervous about this race. Ten miles is damn near a half-marathon after all. I'd only run about two long runs since the Prairie Fire. Regardless, I was really rocking it. I think I was running about 9:30 pace or faster, on my way to a really good pace for such a long run. Then at about mile six or so my left hip started hurting (I should preface this by saying my hip had been hurting some about a week or two prior to the race, but nothing major-just a kind of ache in my inner thigh). Well, then at about mile 7 I felt a kind of "pop" and it REALLY started hurting. I tried to keep running, but just couldn't. I was so upset. I walked the final two miles in quite a lot of pain. Luckily my parents and boyfriend were there. When I didn't come across the finish line at about the time I was expected, my dad started walking. When I saw him I immediately started crying. I did make it across the finish line though and immediately couldn't put weight on my left leg. I couldn't even hop on one leg without severe pain. Stay tuned to find out how I became a cripple...(temporarily at least).

My walk of shame

I only go half way aka My First Half-Marathon

I originally posted this on my Sparkpeople blog on 10/14/12.

I ran the Prairie Fire Half Marathon this morning. This is the race I trained for with the Start2finish program for the past 18 weeks. I decided to try for 2:15 so I ran with a pace group. Another runner who I've been training with and I stuck together and went ahead of the pacer after about five miles. My legs felt really good until about mile 8 or 9 when I started to feel some fatigue. Nothing too bad though. Finished pretty strong with a time of 2:13:39. I'm pretty happy with that.

Here I am at the finish!



With my finisher's medal:



Next up? The Zombie Apocalypse Infested Obstacle 5K on October 27th. Can't wait!

I'm not the Terminator, but I am a Supinator!

Google is a wonderful tool for self-diagnosis don't you think? I've diagnosed myself with tuberculosis, spinal meningitis, frost bite, macular degeneration and Asian Flu before.

Thankfully I was completely wrong on all those diagnoses, but I really think I'm right on this one. I oversupinate. For you non-runners out there, it means I land on the outside edge of my foot and it doesn't roll inward like it's supposed to naturally. This means I have less cushioning when my foot strikes since pronating (foot rolling inward slightly) allows your feet to absorb some of the shock of slamming three times your body weight onto the ground with every step.

My right foot hurt after my 15K a couple of weeks ago. I iced it, rested it for six days and that has seemed to abate the symptoms of what I was about to diagnose as plantar fasciitis--something I really don't want it to be. Now after my runs I ice it and it seems to work. From what I've learned at the University of Google my slight bow-leggedness contributes to my oversupination and so I'm not sure what I can do mechanically to fix it. Hopefully being conscious about trying to push off more from my big toes and icing any soreness after a run will prevent further pain. This girl has a half-marathon to run!

Race Weekend

And I do mean "Race Weekend" not just "Race Day." I'm a running machine and signed up for two races this weekend. The first was the Race for Freedom 5K on Saturday. It raised money for the ICT S.O.S., a non-profit organization that helps human trafficking victims. Yes, human trafficking occurs in Wichita.

 

My best timed 5K to date was 29:30. I felt pretty tired running this race, but kept chugging right along. No wonder I was tired. I ran a personal best of 27:29! That's an 8:50 pace. Training runs I usually run 10:30-11:00 minute miles so this was quite a bit faster.

My second race was on Sunday, and I was really nervous about this one. It was the Meritrust Tiger Trot 15K (9.32 miles) at Tanganyika. My longest training run prior to this race was 8 miles the week before. I made sure I paced myself with this one! I felt really good and was able to pick up the pace a bit about half way through. The last mile was pretty tough though and my legs got tired. No official time yet as results haven't been posted, but my iPod shows 1:36:33. I never remember to turn it off right away, so I probably ran it about 10 seconds faster. No action shots for this race so here's a picture of me with my ferocious little black tiger (otherwise known as domesticus cattus).

Although it was nice to get a PR in the 5K I think I may have just fallen in love with long-distance running. How can you not love something that you do so long that your stomach starts growling near the end, which means you get to eat a lot of food afterwards and not feel guilty about it?!

I'm a...runner?!

I originally posted this blog on my Sparkpeople page in June 2012. I figured if I'm going to think about starting this blog up again, I might as well start easy and post something I'd already written.

Something odd happened to me a couple of months ago...I became a runner. I've dabbled in it a few times in my life, but neither my body nor my mind ever took me seriously. Until now. I signed up for a two mile "fun" run and "trained" on my lunch hour. I was nervous at the race; it was my first ever organized race, and I wasn't sure if I could jog the whole thing. My friend, who had run a couple of 5Ks before, took off and I knew I had to keep up with her or get swallowed by the masses. We finished that run in less than 20 minutes, and I knew I was hooked.

This weekend I "ran" my first 5K: The Color Run in Kansas City. There were over ten thousand runners; so many that it was impossible to run the entire time if you wanted to get water or get color thrown on you at each kilometer. But it was still a 5K, and if I did it in about 40 minutes then I can only get PRs from here on out!

Daily Challenge 2/25/11

Holy toledo it's been a long time since I've blogged. I've been trying to upload a video for the past three days and haven't had any success. So, in the meantime I thought I'd post a picture of today's Daily Challenge. Today's challenge was to draw a floor plan of your house from memory and identify the fire exits. So here's my very-professional drawing of my house with the windows and doors labeled. I swear I must have been an architect in a past life. That or I've truly missed my calling.

New Year, Same Me

Yeah so it's a new year. 2011 and all. But, apparently I'm still the same me. Darn. Remember when I was exercising and eating healthy and blogging and being a responsible adult? Hmm...damn. It was fun while it lasted I guess. For the past three months or so I've really been slacking again. I'm not sure why. I guess my depression just starts getting the best of me. I'll go into more details later (well, I have intentions to, but you know how that goes), but I just wanted to post to let all my readers (all 0.01 of you) know that I'm still here, just in one of those "phases." I do have some good news though that I'll talk more about later as well: Andrew and I joined Snap Fitness 24-7, a 24-hour gym. It's just one of those one-room gyms, but it has really nice equipment. Plus, it's literally a five minute walk from Andrew's apartment. We've already gone 5-6 times and we just joined last week. I really think this is a great jump-start for us, and I hope it gets me out of my funk. I'll blog more later! Yay! I finally did a blog post again! Woo-hoo! I rock! I'm awesome! I rule! (hey a little positive self-talk never hurt anyone)

Kerry's Brilliant Idea

So yesterday I had a brilliant idea; a way to get more cardio exercise into my day without taking up so much time after work. I absolutely abhor ("abhor" implies much more than "hate" I think) getting up early. I get up at 7:00 a.m. for work (okay, more like 7:06 if you must know), but I have these moments of thinking, "I'll just get up a little bit earlier and workout before I get ready for work." I'll even set my alarm early, wear my workout clothes to bed and all. Then the alarm goes off and I want to cry...so I hit snooze...or re-set it for the regular time. Well, the other morning I woke up at about 4:30 and couldn't go back to sleep right away. I didn't even feel all that tired. I thought to myself, "Hey! I could totally get up right now and do one of SparkPeople's 10-minute cardio workouts and then go back to bed for a couple of hours!" And then I promptly fell back asleep. Well, I thought about that all day and decided I was going to try it! I could get up at 4:30 or 5:00, workout for ten minutes or so and then go back to bed. Then I'd only have 20-30 minutes of cardio left to do after work. It was a brilliant idea (hence the title of this post)! I know what you're thinking, "Oh, but Kerry; it's not a good idea to workout and then try to sleep. Exercising in the evening can make falling asleep difficult." But, trust me. Falling asleep has never been much of a problem for me so I wasn't worried about being able to fall back asleep at 5:00 a.m. So last night I set my alarm for 4:41 a.m. I wore my sports bra and workout pants to bed, I set my laptop up in the workout room so I could access it quickly and went to bed. Fast forward to 4:33 a.m. I woke up before my alarm went off. Checked the clock. Chuckled to myself. Re-set my alarm for 7:00 a.m. Turned over and went back to sleep.

So, that was my brilliant idea. Smart right?

Share five things on your bucket list

Today's Daily Challenge is to share five things you want to do before you croak. I'm fairly certain I've done a post like this in the past, but oh well. Some of these things I've already done, but that makes it an easier bucket list to finish!

1. Go to Europe: I've been there four times, but I haven't been since 2003, so I'm really aching to go back. 2012 is the golden year. It's London or BUST!

2. Go skydiving: I went skydiving in August 2008 and it was awesome. I want to go again, but go higher up next time so the free-fall lasts longer. That was definitely the best part.

3. Learn a martial art: I don't know which one, but I want to learn how to be able to kick someone's ass with my pinky finger. Oh and learn how to be zen and all that.

4. Drive a car really fast: I'm not sure how I'm going to accomplish this one since I'm too chicken to speed too much. I doubt I've driven over 90 mph and that was probably just for a few seconds. I'm either going to have to drive on the Autobahn or drive a car on a racetrack. Either way I've got the need for speed!

5. Get married and have six kids: Ha! Just kidding. Just wanted to see if you were paying attention.

Niko found the toilet paper

Modern Art

I created a piece of art today. I'm thinking about submitting it to a modern art museum and retiring early.

POTENTIAL

Boyfriend's Version of Stand-Up

Here's Boyfriend's contribution to my "Eight Days of Blogging." He's all the time cracking himself up with jokes. Fair warning: some of these are pretty offensive.

1. What do you tell a woman with two black eyes? Nothing, you already told her twice.

2. How many feminists does it take to screw in a light bulb? That's not funny!

3. What's better: a picture of Jesus or the real thing? A picture because it takes only one nail to hang up. (see I told you)

4. Why don't women wear watches? Because there's a clock on the stove.

5. What's big and green and if it falls out of a tree it'll kill you? A pool table.

6. A guy walks up to a mailbox.

7. What did the farmer say when he lost his tractor? "Where's my tractor?"

8. What's the last thing you want to hear at a gay bar? "Can I push your stool in?"

9. Why do so many black men die in wars? Because when their commander yells "Get down!" they all just start dancin'.

10. What do you get if you cross a chicken with a donkey? It's a CHONKEY!

Share a Favorite Memory From 2010

Today's Daily Challenge is to share a favorite memory from this year. The idea behind it is that remembering pleasant memories is good for your emotional health. I imagine I don't do this nearly often enough since I had an initial moment of "I can't think of a single pleasant moment!" Then I realized that although I may not have a lot of "big" moments I do have tons of "little" moments that are still pretty darn cool.

My favorite memories of 2010:

1. seeing Star Wars in Concert
2. waking up in the middle of the night to a dog sleeping with her head on my pillow
3. waking up in the middle of the night to a kitten sleeping on my head on my pillow
4. spending time with Jodi and Olivia
5. painting a "masterpiece" at Paint the Towne with some really awesome gal pals
6. spontaneously going to K.C. with Andrew for the weekend to eat at The Melting Pot
7. going shopping at Kohl's with my mom
8. spending time with my family in Texas for my grandpa's birthday
9. getting back into my "skinny jeans"
10. playing Wii Tennis with my parents and brother
11. getting to know my co-workers better
12. adopting Jasper, the hamster
13. buying new shoes
14. watching the new Harry Potter movie
15. reading lots of good books
16. buying my new Camaro
17. driving my new Camaro
18. taking Maddie and Bailey to the park
19. sleeping in on weekends
20. going to the zoo

I'm sure I could come up with more, but I need to go to bed and do one of my favorite things: sleep!

Who says it's not a choice?

Niko Sits

Niko sits on demand for canned food. Here's a video to prove it and to show how Niko's humans confuse him unnecessarily.

My Favorite Christmas Movies

To get into the holiday spirit (since I really haven't felt it much this year) I thought I'd make a list of my top six Christmas movies. Yes, top six. Not five, not seven. Six.

Number 6: Scrooged

This is the parody of "A Christmas Carol" starring Bill Murray. It makes my list because Bill Murray is a hoot, and I like the scary "Ghost of Christmas-Yet-To-Come." Oh and the dead guy.


Number 5: Home Alone

This movie would likely annoy me now if I watched it, but when it came out in 1990 it was a really clever and funny movie. Plus, I really love the version of "O Holy Night" that is sung by the choir in the scene with the church and whatnot.


Number 4: Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas

How can you not like this one? I especially like it because I'm a bit of a Grinch myself sometimes, plus the dog is so adorable. Remember the part when the sled gets going too fast and Max ends up riding on the back of it and waves at the Grinch? Love it!


Number 3: Die Hard

What you didn't know this is a Christmas movie? Uh, it totally is! The bad guys interrupt a company Christmas party remember? This movie makes the list because it totally kicks ass! Yippee-ki-yay mother f@cker.


Number 2: A Christmas Carol /Scrooge

This story has been made and re-made at least a billion times (seriously a billion, look it up). I have two versions that I like the most: "A Christmas Carol" with George C. Scott made in 1984 and "Scrooge" with Alastair Sim made in 1951. I watched these versions almost every year growing up.

Number 1: Love Actually

I pretty much love this movie actually. I love the soundtrack, I love the humor and I love the stories. This is a really awesome movie with a pretty cool message if you pay attention. My favorite story lines are Colin Firth's and Hugh Grant's. They make me feel all warm and fuzzy.


Merry Christmas 2010! Perhaps next year I will not be such a humbug and get my shopping done sooner than the day before Christmas Eve. Maybe I'll put up a Christmas tree, send out Christmas cards and actually get into the spirit. Or not.

Eight Days of Blogging

Instead of the Twelve Days of Christmas, it's the Eight Days of Blogging. I'm going to write a blog post every day for the rest of the year. Er...well, at least that's the plan. So, keep checking in every day until next year for new, exciting, riveting, informative, awesome blog posts! Yay! I totally rock!

And just to get you excited here's some random pictures.

Niko being a cutie

Heather and I with some random dude out and about for an "Ugly Christmas Sweater" party

Me in my office at work today

Construction Confusion

Do you see what I see? The "One Way" signs are pointing in opposite directions on the same one-lane street. Hmm...which way do I go?

Cousin Time

My cousin Wendy was in town for Thanksgiving and so was my brother. We went out with Wendy's cousin Adrienne (who might as well be Josh's and my cousin also) for a few drinks...which ended up being more than a few. It was pretty fun.

Adrienne and Wendy at the dinky bar we ended up at.

Wendy drinking one of many

Wendy, me and Josh at da bar.

So colorful!

Okay seriously. Both of them texting. I swear I never even looked at my phone the entire night and these two were texting fools (especially Wendy).

I'm so thankful that my cousins, brother and I have such close relationships. No matter how long it's been since we've seen each other we can always have a great time together.

Brag on Yourself

Today's Daily Challenge is to write down three things you've done successfully recently and give yourself a pat on the back for the accomplishments. It can be a goal you've reached or a contribution you made. I'm not very good at thinking highly of myself, but here are my three recent accomplishments:

1. I've lost over 20 pounds since June 2010. Until June I really thought I was going to stay chunky and lazy for the rest of my life. Then something kicked me in the butt and I decided I would NOT let me do that to myself. I joined SparkPeople.com, starting eating right and began daily cardio exercise by simply walking. I walked everywhere in Derby or Park City for several weeks. Then, I started adding workout DVDs into the mix, like TurboJam and Biggest Loser. I recently started majorly slacking and gained back a few pounds (I think), but I'm kicking it into gear again. I want to stay active and I want to keep feeling good in my own skin. It had been awhile since I've done that.

2. This one isn't an accomplishment as much as a contribution: I adopted a hamster from the Kansas Humane Society in October and then talked Andrew into adopting a kitten from there in November. Jasper, the hamster, has his forever home in a large aquarium cage in the computer room. He exercises daily on his wheel, has a nice cozy nest in his purple house and is fed endless supplies of hamster food, seeds, milkbones (yes, hamsters like milkbones) and fresh fruits and veggies. Niko, Andrew's kitten (and mine!), is now a 13-week-old black cat who loves to play with his toys, take naps on his kitty condo in front of the window and snuggle up to his humans at all hours of the night. The next big step will be to get him and Bailey together...cross your fingers for that one.aZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZz (that was from Niko)

3. I'm reading. This sounds ridiculous, I know. But, how much I'm reading is a good indicator of how well my depression/anxiety is being controlled. When I'm suffering from depression I don't read. I love reading so it's a pretty good motivator for me to keep my depression in check. I've already read two books this month: a quick read from Dean Koontz and a Sci-Fi novel that was really good. I think I'm going to go to Barnes & Noble tomorrow at lunch to get the sequel. I read all kinds of genres: Sci-Fi, historical fiction, thrillers, mysteries, etc. I've read all the Harry Potters at least twice, the Twilight series twice, Ken Follet's historical novels, the Clan of the Cave Bear series (twice), most of Jodi Picoult's, Ursula Hegi's and Alice Hoffman's books and a bazillion other books. Without reading I don't think I'd be me.