In Praise of Me

I'm so not used to bragging type posts that I don't even know how to start this! But I accomplished one of my New Year's Resolutions and I just had to share - and to me, it's a pretty big deal.

You see, UDubb and I had been planning since last summer to run a 15k in December. It would be my longest distance race and we were pretty excited. And then came the back injury. And I was out of commission for months. No running at all, let alone 9 miles. I hadn't even completed my physical therapy by the time the race came and went. My physical therapist is a runner though, and she promised to have me back on my running feet in no time. We discussed a strength training and running regime on my "graduation" day.

I went right into training mode as soon as my physical therapy sessions ended and last weekend I did it! I ran a 15k! Now I take my accomplishment with a grain of salt because it was a bit weird of a 15k. Thatboy picked it out. The Spirit Run consists of a 10k and then a 5k. He picked it out because I herniated my disc during a 10k....and just kept running. He was afraid if I ran a straight 15k and injured myself, I would keep going. This way he could check me out after the 10k and make sure I wasn't being stupid. The plus side is that I got a new personal record on my 10k. The other plus side was that Thatmom agreed to do the last 5k with me - and not wanting to be left out, Thatbrother decided to join us.

I really really really hate the course. I say that everytime I run a race there. And swear I'm never going to do another race there. But on Sunday morning, while it was still dark, and freezing, I found myself ready to run around Newport Beach.

The 1ok was first. It had fewer participants than any other race I've run. I knew I had to finish it in 75 minutes, because that's when the 5k started. So I figured out I would need to keep a 7 min/kilometer pace, which would give me a 5 minute window to change my bib number and chip. (BLEH - whoever plans these things? Puh-lease let us wear the same bib number and chip. What a pain). Except, as soon as I crossed the start line, my ipod was all thrown off and couldn't find my shoe sensor. So I had no idea what my pace was. Which made me really push myself the entire time because I was worried I'd be too slow.

One of the reasons I hate the course is because it just has you running loops - back and forth multiple times. When I came up on the "finish" line at 5k, I was shocked to see I was running a 10min mile - which I haven't done since way before my back injury.

I finished the 10k way before I was expecting which gave me plenty of time to change my chip - good thing too, since they didn't have ANYONE to help cut off and collect my 10k chip. Then I pulled off my long sleeved top to reveal my tank which had my new bib attached. I found Thatmom and Thatbrother for a little pre-race posing before the 5k started.

We did the 5k at Thatmom's speed - which was a little slower than my 10 minute mile. Thatbrother ran loops around us, and ran backwards in front of us, and kept us in stitches the entire run. Although after his last "I wanna run with you" run, we were just happy he actually showed up!

We finished the race and headed out to breakfast, then spent the rest of the day curled up on the couch, watching tv before Thatboy and I headed home to start the week all over again.

And for those of you who are into that kind of thing -

15k playlist

• Cinema Italiano - Kate Hudson
• Down - Nota (I love this version so much more than the original...and I like singing along with the acapella percussion)
• How Far We've come - Matchbox 20 ("I started running but there's no where to run to.")
  
• Falling Down - Atreyu
• Ready to Fall - Rise Against
  
• What's My Age Again - Blink 182 (You'll note this playlist is very Blink heavy...Thatboy calls it my OC Rock playlist)
• You're gonna Go Far Kid - The Offspring
• Let's Get It started - Black Eyed Peas
• Adam's Song - Blink 182
• I'm Yours - Nota (I'm such a sucker for Nota)
• Breathe (2 AM) - Anna Nalick (Welcome to the girly section of the playlist)
  
• Opportunity - Soundtrack from 13
  
• Skater Boy - Avril Lavigne
• Mr. Brightside - The Killers
• All the Small Things - Blink 182
• You Give Love a Bad Name - Bon Jovi (This started on my last mile of the 10k and was super motivating)
• Amazing - Kanye West
• Stronger - Kanye West
• It Can't Be True - Soundtrack from 13
• Scream and Run Away - The Gothic Archies ("Run, run, run, run, run, or die, die, die, die, die, die, die, die, die, die, die.")
• Not Afraid to Fall in Love - Defense Breaks Down (and of course this has been in my head ALL day today too.)
• You Know I'm No Good - Amy Winehouse
• Makes Me Wonder - Maroon 5 (Welcome to the Maroon 5 portion of the playlist)
• Wake Up Call - Maroon 5
• Little of Your Time - Maroon 5
• We're Here to Tell You - Soundtrack from Whisper House
• Everytime I Look For You - Blink 182

In addition, over the past few weeks I've accumulated a couple of blog awards. To try to keep all my "I am so awesome"ness in one entry, I figured I'd include them both here.

First, RandRadventures has awarded me the "Beautiful Blogger" Award. Thanks RandR! I love other Californians' blogs - especially when they're from one of my favorite areas in California (and the close home to one of my soul mates - but that's a story for another time).

The Rules:

1. Thank and link the person that gave you the award.
2. Pass this award on to 15 bloggers that you have recently discovered and think are fantastic!

Holy moley. I hate the pressure of these awards. 15 bloggers I've recently discovered? I don't know if I can do it - so I'll just share with you some of my new reads.

1) One Kitchen, 2 Dogs, and a Girl - I have a soft spot for anyone who has dogs as sous chefs.
2) A Canadian Foodie - Because I collect Canadian bloggers the way some people collect shot glasses.
3) Burp and Slurp - I already told you I love reading Californians' blogs!
4) Gonna Want Seconds - I dare you NOT to drool.

Then, as if my ego wasn't inflated enough, Giz sent me a note to let me know she and Psychgrad awarded me the "Happy 101" Award.

Here are the rules:

1. Link to the blogger who sent you the award
2. List 10 things that make you happy
3. Pay it forward

10 Things that make me happy

1. Thatboy. Especially when he takes it upon himself to clean the ENTIRE bathroom - including sweeping and mopping the floors.
2. A nice long run. Because I'm sick like that.
3. Music. I listen to it when I'm sad, I listen to it when I'm happy. Thatboy writes me songs as I'm sleeping that go something like "dream dream dream dream dream." Or shower songs like "I'm in the shower/I'm washing up/getting clean."
4. Thatdog. I don't know what I'd do without him to protect me every morning from the evil blowdryer that threatens to take over the world.
5. My friends. I love hanging out with them! My other highlights of the weekend include breakfast with The Ks and making dinner with Mertile for our families.
6. My family - I don't even think I need to explain this one.
7. Vacations! Well, travel of any sort really. I'm already planning our next big trip.
8. Cooking. Well, this is probably a given, right?
9. The Game of Life. It's my all time favorite game. I like getting colorful money every couple squares and trying to fill my car up with little pink and blue pegs.
10. A really good book - I love reading something that makes me want to talk to everyone about it. I am such a talker. Good thing Thatboy and I are good about reading the others' choices.

And let's pass it along, shall we?

I'm so terribly late on this one, I'm just going to pass it on to K1 - because she's on a roll right now with good things happening. Check out her blog and you'll see some of the stuff going on. She's got a ton to be happy about.