Race Recap: Corporate 5k

My youngest brother had a ton of questions after spectating at the Disney Princess Half Marathon. And he was super impressed by my race medal. So much so that he tried out for and won a spot on his schools track team! When I found out that my mom's job would pay the registration fee for employees and/or their family members I signed up so that my brother and I could run his first race together.

We got downtown a little before 5 so I parked in a metered space and only had to pay $1.25, instead of the $5 that the garages were charging *Score* After checking in, LB and I walked around Lake Eola a couple of times to warm up and then headed towards the corrals. Just before the race started I looked back and could not believe how many people there were. The announcer said there were 12,600 people registered!

I went into this race figuring I wouldn't set a PR. Both because I wanted to go at LB's pace and because I figured there would be a lot of people there who didn't know proper race etiquette. For instance, there were three different corrals, one for CEOS, one for runners, and a final one for walkers but there were walkers near the front of the runner corral. So we ended up doing a lot of dodging and weaving right off the bat.

LB fell a few minutes into the race. I tried to take a picture of it, but my camera didn't power up fast enough. What? I am his big sister lol. Apparently the poor kid was having a hard time staying on his feet because he slipped, but didn't fall, a few minutes later. After that he managed to stay upright for the rest of the race. He'd told me previously that he could run around the track at his school twice before having to stop so I made fun of him for wanting to take walk breaks before we got to mile two. That led to an argument about how long the track at his school was (I ended that one by telling him to ask his coach).

As we continued along the course which wound through a downtown neighborhood, I spent the rest of the race encouraging him and pointing out other partcipants. There were firefighters running in full gear and an amputee, all of whom we both thought were really cool and awe-inspiring. When we got to the last quarter mile I encouraged him to kick it up so that we could finish strong. While it wasn't a 5k PR for me, the huge grin on LBs face after the race was priceless!
Final time, 32:54.
After the race several runners high-fived him and told him how great he did. Then he asked where his medal was lmbo. I had to explain that they don't normally give them out at 5ks but that he could have my shirt. I found a medal on ebay that I bid on, hopefully I'll win so that I can have it engraved to commemorate his first race.

On the way home he kept saying "I did it, I did it!" :)

Race Recap: AFLAC Iron Girl 15k

Last Saturday, I set out to tackle my first 15k race. I was kind of worried because I've done very little running since my half marathon so I felt very unprepared. Nevertheless, on race day morning I tightened my laces and headed off to Pier 60!

After FINALLY finding a parking space, I got out of the car and decided to run with my camera so that I could take pics along the course. Once I got all the way downstairs, I turned my camera on only to discover that it kept giving me some weird error message and wouldn't take pictures! FML. Then I turned Gabby the Garmin on, only to have her flash a "low battery" warning at me. Seriously? You couldn't tell me that last night? *Sigh*

Post race but we'll pretend it's a view of everyone lining up lol
After warming up I got as close as I could to the starting line and a short time later we were off! The course runs up and over the causeway and I really enjoyed the views across the bay and of the sunrise. Then we ran down a street before turning into a neighborhood. Somewhere around mile 4 I spotted my friend M, who was in mile 7 and getting ready to head back towards the finish line. M is amazing, she ran her first marathon earlier this year and ran it with a BQ time. Who does that???

Anyhoo... it was around this time that I realized that I had to pee but there were no porta-potties in sight. I figured I had just missed them but since the course looped through the neighborhood twice I didn't freak out because I figured I'd be able to stop on my second time around. Ummm... no. Can you believe there were NO portapotties on the frigging course?!? Well, correction... there was one set at mile 1.5, which was also mile 8 #FAIL.

One the way back across the causeway I was feeling so good that I was actually singing along with Beyonce and Rhianna, which I'm sure annoyed the heck out of the other runners since I can't sing lol.

Finishing time 1:51:25.

The lack of training showed because my finishing time was more than 5 minutes off from my 15k split during the half marathon. Still, I'm glad for this experience because it taught me that you can't brush off any distance race if you want to have constant improvement (like I do).

I had some issues with the logistics of this race and I made sure to submit feedback to the race directors via email. But I still plan on running this race next year because it's one of the last distance races of more than 5k in my area until the fall.

DVD Review : The Belly Off! Workout - The Body Weight Routine

Since making the decision to live a healthier lifestyle, almost a year ago I have amassed quite the collection of workout dvds. Being able to workout at home keeps me on track because it eliminates the excuses that keep me from going to the gym or for a run; no personal training appointments to miss, inclement weather, etc. So I purchased The Belly Off! The Body Weight Routine and this dvd is definitely one of my favorites.

This workout is amazing! It reminds me of a local bootcamp that I participated in earlier this year that gave me fantastic results, both in terms of pounds and inches lost.

I've completed this workout several times now and it always leaves me sweating, which makes me feel totally hardcore.

The workout is a circuit training routine that alternates between short periods of cardio and strength training moves. I never got bored during the routine because the instructor doesn't stay on any one move for a long period of time. And you go at your own pace on the cardio sessions, so you control the intensity.

The instructor, David Jack is very likeable and not overly chatty. When he speaks, it's to explain the exercises or to issue brief encouragement (it really annoys me when instructors just chatter away during workouts). Plus, David does the entire workout and I could tell that the workout was challenging for him too (I hate it when I feel like the people on the tv are just breezing through a workout... especially when I feel like I'm dying while I'm doing the beginner modification lol).

The only thing about this dvd that annoyed me is that there are a LOT of pushups! Pushups work a lot of muscles at once so I understand why they were there. But I couldn't do any more after a while so I grabbed my dumbbells and did chest raises and chest flys instead of waiting for those sections to be over.

Beginner or intermediate exercisers should be able to get a lot of mileage out of this workout. There are beginner, intermediate, and advanced modifications for most of the exercises that are done, so you can move up the rungs as you get stronger.

This dvd is definitely a keeper. I plan on using it, and the Strength Training version of it for the next four weeks. I'll post my results at the end.