Category: regular

Saturday I ran a 3.9 mile Mud Run at Irvine Lake in Orange County with my bestie, her brother and his wife.

Where did I get my sweet outfit? The Thrift Store…for less than $3.00! Win!

We arrived early for our heat at 10:15am, but we started on time. Which was amazing considering how many people were there. The race started with individual runners at 8:00am, and we were in the 4 Group Teams that started at 10:00am. 

The weather was overcast and grey, but we didn’t mind. Yet. 

We hit the course and started chipping away at the obstacles. There were mud pits, water pits, hills, water slides, nets to crawl under, walls to crawl over, and poles to jump over. I enjoyed the muddy pits at the end of the race much better than the long stretches of running hills and switchbacks in the beginning. 

I was nervous about falling, and since the ground was very uneven and rocky I was super aware of where I was putting my feet. I took it slow down all the hills…it was creepy that the feeling of sliding down a hill felt so similar to when I fell and broke my bionic ankle. Wait, that’s because I slid down a hill when I broke my ankle! By the end of the course many people were sliding down into the mud pits on their bottoms, and I happily joined them. I prefer to be closer to the ground – I’m tall and I have a long way to fall! 

We finished the race in about 1:30. There was some major crowding at some of the obstacles, and some major getting stuck in the Jurassic Park Mud. 

At the end we looked like this:

Yum.

I couldn’t wait to get my mud and rock shoes off – they weighted 10lbs each! The race had fire hoses and showers to clean off, but they were powered by hose water. Chilly. 

The weather never warmed up so we were dying to be clean, dry and warm. It was sort of a bummer that the weather was chilly, and we were soaked because it would have been fun to enjoy the beer garden and food trucks at the race after party. 

I made it out with minimal injuries. Just some bruises and scrapes. 

Most of the race I was longing for some level paved ground to run on. I’ll get my wish at the Hollywood 5k on Saturday :) 

I watched a documentary today called Hungry for Change. I’m aways a sucker for a good documentary…Loose Change, Food, Inc., Iraq for Sale. 

I heard about Hungry for Change on one of the Healthy Living blogs I read. The documentary is screening for free online until Saturday so I thought I would give it a shot.

Most of the information presented isn’t anything new, but it’s always powerful to have stats and percentages thrown at you. Our bodies aren’t designed to be unhealthy and overweight. Their natural state is to be clean and lean. 

It’s amazing how much sugar, chemicals and processed by-products we consume daily. if you haven’t seen Food, Inc. I highly recommend that you watch. You think the PINK SLIME issue is something new to the food industry? Nope. It just finally hit the masses. 

God made our bodies to be efficient and productive. I only get one body, and one chance at this life. So I should make the best of it. Our bodies are amazing machines, they can heal, grow and reproduce. You remember biology class? It’s amazing what our bodies are capable of!

It’s unfair to be angry at our bodies for not being ENOUGH. Pretty. Skinny. We can’t blame our bodies for not preforming to perfection when we’re filling them with unnatural fuel. That’s our fault. We need to be healthy. 

Educate yourself. Go for a walk. Drink an extra glass of water. Eat a green veggie. 

I did it! I completed my first 5k! It was a crowded and hilly course, but I had so much fun and I can’t wait for my next race :)

It was even more fun since I was able to share the experience with my cousin, Heidi. She hosted me for the weekend in her adorable neighborhood of North Park, San Diego.

We started the weekend out by making our shirts for the race:

Hopefully it gave the people behind me something to smile about while we ran :)

We attended the packet pick up on Saturday:

Mmmm…chocolate. 

When we picked up our race jackets they even had us try them on to make sure we got the correct sizes. Smart move RAM Racing…otherwise there would have be lots of unhappy people with jackets two sizes too small.

We ate dinner at the amazing Ranchos Cocina and called it an early night since we had a 5:20am wake up Sunday. 

I was really worried about the potential rain, and very cold conditions on Sunday…but, the weather played nice and my warm layers kept me happy while waiting for the race to start. We were in Corral C by 6:20am and waiting for the start. Heidi’s Madre joined us just in time for the start and we were off! 

The first mile was tough, it was really crowded and there were lots of people walking so I had to do a lot of zig-zagging to get a clear path and find my groove. Oh, and we started on a hill. Started. We climbed on an incline for the first mile and a half. Then, we got a short down hill break. Then we hit a huge hill. It was long and steep. Most people were walking so it was impossible to run up. I also made a mistake and grabbed a Gatorade (thinking it was water) and one sip was enough to anger my happy tummy. Heading up that hill I was faced with a choice: fight to run around people and potentially upchuck, or walk. I chose to keep pre-race banana where it belonged. 

The downhill was fun, but I’m not too confident on RUNNING down a hill. Remember how once I WALKED down a hill and got a bionic ankle? Yea…

We ran under a freeway overpass and all the volunteers were yelling at the runners to stay to the right…I was confused. People were telling me to leave the course and pointing…Then I turned and saw the pacing bike for the 15k on my right shoulder passing me and leading their runners off the course to the split. Nope! I’m running the 5k! Those 15k runners had many more hills to climb. 

A few turns and blocks later I finished in 35:45!

After the race we got this as our reward:

I seriously didn’t think I’d want anything to do with chocolate after the race, but I really liked the fruit so I was happy. See:

The race was really fun, well organized and the weather was beautiful. Such a great first 5k experience. 

For our celebration brunch we went to The Mission and I ordered this amazingness:

It’s called the Mission Rosemarry. Order it. 

After a shower, and a quick coffee meet with my BFF from high school (who was between water polo games) I hit the road north. I knew it was pouring down rain at home and the drive would be rough…and it was. 

ICEE and I were white knuckled a few times, and spent a good deal of the drive in bumper to bumper traffic. 3.5 hours later I was so happy to get home and stretch my tight muscles. 

My Mud Run is this Saturday…here’s to a messy race!