Gym Rats, Monsters and Food Trucks, Oh My!

Another fun weekend with the besties! My plan for Saturday was to get up in the AM and mow the lawn and get the yard work out of the way before Julie and Dan got here around lunch time. Being that my wife is the most amazing human on the planet, she had gotten out of work early on Friday and took care of the lawn (and even some trimming) for me before I got home from work! Since she did that, we had a nice leisurely morning with no need to set an alarm of any sort.

J & D got here around 12:30 or so. Originally our plan was that Dan and I would go pick up our bibs at Rhode Runner in Providence (my local running store and also a race sponsor) and Julie and Tara would go to Scituate to pick up the raffle prize that Julie had won from the art festival. While we were all getting ready to head out, Julie said she was jealous that Dan was going to probably get new shoes while he was there. Then Tara piped up and said she still needed new ones. A new plan was formed…we’d all go together to Scituate to pick up the prize, then head up to Providence to Rhode Runner and then grab something to eat while we’re in the city.

We drove up to Scituate and the woman was supposed to leave her prize on her front porch (since they wouldn’t be home on Saturday). The way it worked is that the raffle winners would have picked their prizes up the last day of the art festival, otherwise they could come get them the following weekend. Julie wouldn’t have been able to, and didn’t want to make us go for her, so she contacted the woman who said she could pick it up this past weekend since she knew she’d be here for the race. We got to her house and Julie went up to the porch and we could see her looking around, puzzled. There was nothing on the porch so she rang the doorbell, since there were 2 cars in the driveway (hoping she’d luck out and someone would be there). No answer – so she knocked and then went down the driveway on the side of the house, but didn’t see anything. We ended up just leaving and on our way to Providence Julie called the woman and left her a message to hopefully have it shipped to her.

Once we got to Rhode Runner, Dan and I went straight in to pick up our bibs while Julie and Tara both started trying on shoes. Tara went straight to the same style Brooks she already wears so she was easy. Julie ended up trying on several pairs and then went with the same style Saucony, I believe. And Dan was the same once he tried on his shoes – he went with the same style Nikes. We’re creatures of habit I guess! I tried on some stuff while I was there, but really was just trying to get a fit for things to add to my Amazon wish list. I need a nighttime/waterproof jacket so I was really just browsing and not planning on buying anything. I was the only one to walk out of the running store with nothing purchased – a first for me!

After we left Rhode Runner, we decided to use good ol’ Yelp to find someplace really close to eat. We settled on Harry’s bar & burger, which was less than a mile away. It had really good reviews and Yelp, yet again, led us to a great place! It was a total dive-y place, with maybe only 10 tables and a bar. Very hole in the wall, very cute. The decorations were really fun and it just had a great vibe.

 

Julie was photobombing ALL THE THINGS!

 

The only way they serve all the sandwiches is as sliders, with an order being 2 (though you could add a 3rd if you wanted). We decided we were all going to order differently and share the sliders so we could try all sorts of different burgers. Everything I put in my mouth in that restaurant was delicious! We also ordered fries and onion strings to share, plus I got a drink called You Kiddin Me. It was the perfect “shake” to pair with my burgers. It was whipped cream vodka, oreos, caramel and ice cream and it was sooooo good you wouldn’t even know there was alcohol in it!

 

 

We were pretty stuffed after that so we headed home. Shortly after, Dan and I headed over to Planet Fitness so he could give me some strength lessons and different options to use the free weights and Smith machine instead of the silly regular machines that I feel like I have terrible form. We were there for about 2 1/2 hours (including doing an actual chest and tricep workout) going over everything I would do, when I would do it, how I would do it, etc. It was VERY helpful in getting my head around it and now I have a better plan in place for myself.

Sunday morning was the race that we’d been waiting for – the Monster Dash 5K. The race start was at 11am so we decided we’d plan on getting there by 10 to park and then have time to warm-up and check out the costumes. We got there and parked at our usual end of the mall parking lot, but when we walked out there were no road closures or people! I double checked the email and realized we needed to walk to the other side of the mall next to the convention center. A good warm-up in disguise, I guess! We got to where we needed to be close to 10:30 or so, after grabbing breakfast inside the convention center’s hotel. I wanted to make sure I hit the little girl’s room before the race and it was nice to be able to use indoor plumbing. The only issue with this was that the convention center bathroom only has 4 stalls so the line was out the door and down the hall in the ladies room. I ended up getting outside to warm-up around 10:45 and then Dan and I got in line.

 

 

Julie and Tara are the BEST spectators. They made us signs and even wore Batman t-shirts and silly hats to cheer us on!

 

 

Dan specifically trained using a C25K program to run this race with me! We decided it was a no man left behind situation, or more specifically, no superhero left behind! He hadn’t run in probably a month though, so we weren’t sure what to expect. I told him if we walk, we walk – which we did. It was quite fun to see all the different costumes people wore. Some were really creative and some people were lame and didn’t even dress up. If you want to be competitive and race, run in a regular 5K, not a Halloween-themed costume race.

 

 

After the race, we had already planned to attend the Food Truck Bash that was going on a short walk from the mall. We finally figured out how to walk over (we don’t go into cities much LOL) and it only took us maybe 10 minutes to get there. We paid the $8 to get in, which now that I look back on it, was kind of a rip-off. After all, what were we paying FOR? The trucks were all parked inside the outdoor skating rink (which isn’t iced over yet), which means we literally just paid $8 to walk through a gate. If they had been parked on the street, it would have been free. Oh well. The trucks themselves were really expensive, too. Tara and I decided we’d split stuff, so we’d have more of a chance to try various trucks.

The first truck we hit up was Nuchas, from NY. It was $10 for 3 empanadas, so Tara and I decided we’d each pick one that only we wanted, then we’d split the third. I opted for the Argentine, Tara got the Portobello and then we split the Spicy Cheese. They were SO delicious, though I wasn’t the biggest fan of the people on the truck.

 

 

Next, we hit up Boston’s Baddest Burger and we split the Baconaatah Cheezzer Meltdown. OMG was it good!! And it was huge. This was actually worth the price we paid for it, without a doubt. We stopped at Phil’s Steaks to get some “whiz fries” to go with it and they were just as awesome!

 

 

We didn’t have a whole lot of time because the Patriots were playing in Foxboro (we actually watched/listened to the game because they had it on at the food truck bash) and this meant that Julie and Dan would need to leave before the game was in the 4th quarter to avoid the traffic on their way home. We decided to grab dessert on the way out and eat it walking back to the parking garage. And boy am I glad we did!

Our dessert was the most amazingly strange and awesomely delicious concoction I’ve ever tried! We got “de Bom” from the Wafels & Dinges truck. It was a soft Belgian waffle, with a scoop of ice cream, hot fudge, whipped cream and drizzled Belgian chocolate. It was straight from heaven. If you’re in NYC and you see this truck, stop what you’re doing immediately and get one. Well, if you’re driving, please pull over first…but then, GET ONE! I was too busy eating it to remember to take a picture, but trust me! Here is a pic I found online, except for mine had the hot fudge and whipped cream.

 

All in all it was a fantastic weekend, filled with great friends and good food. Oh yeah, and Patriots AND Red Sox wins to sweeten it up a bit!

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Face The Music Friday #6

My weight this week is:

 

185.0

 

Beginning:  240

Last week:  185.8

This week: -0.8 lb

Total loss:  55 lb

 

Eh, a loss is a loss. I’m not even going to talk about it this week. I touched on it a little yesterday.

Speaking of losses, my poor Red Sox went the way the Cardinals did in game 1 last night in game 2 and made some stupid mistakes. Unfortunately, now we’re tied at one game apiece in the World Series. Let’s go boys! Bring it home!

Now, on to the fun plans for the weekend!! Julie and Dan are coming down this weekend and Dan and I will be running in costume on Sunday at the Providence Monster Dash 5K. It will be his first 5K race! Yay! Pics will come of us later in our awesome costumes!

After the race, down the street, they are holding a Food Truck Bash. I can’t wait! Trucks from Providence, Boston and NYC will all be competing and I can’t wait to try something from all of them! Sounds like so much fun! They’re having a costume contest so we’ll just stay in our costumes after the race for a bit and probably bring some clothes to change into once we register the costumes. I imagine I won’t be wanting to stay in my costume all that time.

For the song this week, I am posting the other one I was thinking of last week when I said I couldn’t decide. When this song comes on, I feel like I’m on an epic quest. It should definitely be in a montage of me ninja-kicking a bunch of bad guys!

 

Knights of Cydonia by Muse (and it’s a very strange video indeed)

 

Plateaus Belong In National Parks

Not in my weight loss.

 

 

I’m completely frustrated. I know tomorrow is Face The Music Friday, but I just wanted to talk for a minute about how I seem to have hit a plateau in my weight loss. I’ve been bouncing around the 180s for a couple of months now, losing some, gaining some, losing it again. It’s completely mind boggling and I feel like I’m doing everything right and it’s just not working. I log my calories/food and exercise. I know there are days I’m not perfect, but they’re not so bad that I should be gaining all sorts of weight or anything. I just feel stuck. I know tomorrow’s weigh-in is not going to make me happy.

I know as I strength train I may not be losing weight greatly because I’ll be adding muscle, but I only picked up the weights again this week so I know it’s too soon for that business. I have to get out of this negative head space. I’m also worried about my running. I’ve moved from 20 minutes to 22 minutes this week and while it doesn’t bother me when I run, my knee has been a little tight when I’m not working out. I’ll definitely be cautious, but I hate being concerned about it being re-injured all the time. I just want to run, run, run!!!

Let’s switch it over to a positive note, shall we? My Red Sox (yes, they’re mine, all mine) won last night in Game 1 of the World Series. I tried to stay awake to see the whole thing, but fell asleep somewhere around 10:30-11 right around when they took out the starting pitcher, who did amazing! Game 2 tonight, maybe I’ll drink some coffee this afternoon!

I seriously have the best wife ever. I got home, changed and went to the gym last night. When I got home, she had the TV on (which she rarely ever has on when she’s home alone) and was cooking dinner. I asked her what she was watching and she said nothing, she put it on for me to watch the game. How sweet! And bonus: the house smelled awesome because she was making some homemade applesauce! Yum!

Before I left for the gym, Tara told me I need to pose for her because I looked “cute”. Before my ongoing weight loss, I would have said hell no, but nowadays I figure why not. I actually think I’m starting to look not so terrible. So, I’ll end this on a positive note with some updated pictures.

 

My shorts are all getting baggy on me

Strong guy pose

You better watch out. I’m clearly very tough.

 

 

Oh Garmin, This Is The Beginning Of A Beautiful Friendship

Today, I ran outside. I’m giddy even just writing that. Let me repeat for full effect. I ran outside.

Why is this a big deal to me? I’ve only been able to run again for the last 2 weeks and all 6 times I’ve run have been in the gym, on a treadmill. I was too nervous to run outside because A) I don’t have any nighttime running gear yet and B) I was afraid of hills. I was too nervous coming back from my IT band injury that if I run my regular routes (which all involve hills, no matter how small) I’d aggravate the injury again.

Since we had nothing to do this weekend except some yard work, I decided I’d go out for a run outside today since it was in the morning. I set out around 10am with my plan for running for 20 minutes (next week I’m upping it 10% to 22 minutes). It was a gorgeous morning, perfect fall temperature and brightly shining sun. I also busted out my new “toy” that I haven’t been able to use since I bought it at the RnR Expo – my Garmin Forerunner 210.

I’m in love.

I can’t even describe how excited I was to get home and plug it in to upload to the Garmin Connect and check out all my stats. I’m going to absolutely love wearing this thing! It looks gigantic on my tiny wrist, but it never shifted while I was running and fit comfortably the whole time.

 

My stats from today (including 5 minute warm-up walk and cool down walk)

 

After my run (which felt AWESOME), I changed into some grubby yard clothes and mowed the lawn and trimmed some stuff. I finished just in time for the guy to get here for our “pre-test” to get the energy efficiency work done on our house. He set up some weird frame in our front door and pumped air in and out of the house. It was pretty interesting but I don’t pretend to understand what he was doing! Anyway, he said it was perfect and we could proceed with the work. We’re already pre-approved for the loan so he said we just need to wait for his results to get logged and they’ll contact me for the appt to get the actual work done. So exciting! Maybe we won’t freeze to death this winter finally!!

I’ve been doing my best to catch up on emails from last weekend and throughout this week because of the art festival last weekend and finally have it down under 75. My two fur babies have not been much help, sleeping on the job. I suppose it’s a good thing to be doing while watching Game 6 and hoping the Red Sox can clinch another entry into the World Series. Let’s go, Sox!!

 

Face The Music Friday #5

My weight this week is:

 

185.8

 

Beginning:  240

Last week:  185.1

This week: +0.7 lb

Total loss:  54.2 lb

 

I’m OK with this as it’s the end of my two “bad” weeks, water retention-wise. Hopefully the “good” two weeks coming up will make up for the gains.

Obviously I haven’t posted since last Friday’s Face the Music, but I’ve just been so crazy and I don’t have all sorts of posts that I schedule ahead of time to fill in the gaps. I had the NIN concert last Friday, the Scituate Art Festival all weekend and then catching up on work and emails hasn’t been easy.

To sum up, the concert was amazing, the festival was great (mostly perfect fall weather) and we’ve had a lot of fun recently. Not to mention a killer game day on Sunday with both Red Sox and Patriots wins.

 

 

I’m just going to throw some pictures up and let them tell the story and then move on to this week’s song.

 

He always does amazing things with set design and lighting!

You can’t really tell JUST how many people are there, but it’s a LOT.

This is what I live for every year!

Just call me the jewelry gnome

Rockin’ the pink!

This is my absolute fave pic of the weekend – all 3 of us are photobombing Julie!

Business was booming!

 

On to the music, now that your eyes are probably bleeding from looking at all my pictures.

This week, I couldn’t decide between two songs, so I’ll do one this week and the other the next. The suspense is killing you, right?

So everyone is obsessed with Lorde’s Royals I’ve noticed. Super song, loved it since the first time I ever heard it. It’s starting to enter it’s “overkill” phase with me though because everyone is talking about it and they play it all over the place now. I still love the song, but just don’t want to hear it talked about so much anymore.

This week, I’m going with a new-to-me single by Lorde that I just started hearing on the radio – Team. I love how it starts off slowish and then boom. Awesomeness ensues. Hope you enjoy!

 

Face The Music Friday #4

My weight this week is:

 

185.1

 

Beginning:  240

Last week:  182.1

This week: +3 lb

Total loss:  54.9 lb

I’m not at all surprised of a gain this week (nor will I be if I have one next week). I’ve entered the “bad” 2 week portion of every month. If I were smart, I wouldn’t get on the scale at all during these 2 weeks, but if I’m going to do weekly updates, then that’s how it is. I have to say though, 3 lb isn’t that bad. I’ve had weeks I hold on to 7 lb of water weight. It’s kind of ridiculous. Oh well…moving on.

This week was customer service week. What we did this year was have food each day provided by management. Monday was a free lunch from Chelo’s (I had a tuna melt), Tuesday was cake, Wednesday was breakfast, Thursday was lunch again but from On The Border (Southwest chicken tacos, yum!!) and then today was breakfast again, but I decided to take today off to extend my 3-day weekend into a 4-day weekend.

Between all the food provided to us by our bosses, and the food sent to us by some of our reps, I’m honestly surprised I didn’t gain more. However, I was really cognizant of everything I was eating and everything outside of those meals or snacks was my normal healthy eating. Plus I went to the gym EVERY day this week, alternating elliptical w/ running on the treadmill, plus one day I added the 30 minute circuit that Planet Fitness offers.

Here’s a taste of what I received this week from my generous reps:

 

 

This week’s music will be a two-fer. I’m going to see Nine Inch Nails tonight and couldn’t be more thrilled to see him for a third time. Each time I’ve gone has been with a different person and FINALLY my best friend Julie is coming with me. Without further ado, I’m putting up one of my favorite loud, rocking songs plus a bonus – one of my favorite quieter tunes. Enjoy!

 

 

Exciting Stuff

I really need to win the lottery. Then I could hire a personal chef, trainer, sports chiro/PT and massage therapist. Then I’d be all set. But of course you have to play the lottery to win…that’s kind of an issue.

I’m way too picky of an eater. I can’t plan a workout to save my life. And lastly, if I’m going to keep getting injured, I want to have the last two on call!

OK, back to reality!

I had my second and last PT appt yesterday morning. I asked her about my running on the treadmill on Monday and what she thought about it. She said that was a good sign I was able to do it as long as I did and recommended that I not go longer once I feel any pain (which I figured, I know it was stupid).

There was also a really nice guy there that I didn’t see the last time. She asked him to hop in and help me towards the end of my appt. Turns out he’s a PT teacher, plus a triathlon/running coach. He walked me through a few new exercises to do (since one of them she gave me before was too easy for me) and then they both observed how exactly I foam roll at home. They were both kind of amazed at how easy I made it look because of how much it hurts when you do it (which I know everyone knows!). I told them when you roll 3, 4, 5, 6 times a day that you get used to the pain! HAHA!

He told me he has a Facebook page specifically about his races and training and that he helps people out with any questions they have for free! Score! I liked his page as soon as I left the office. I’ll take anything I can get at this point. He also suggested I could add 10% per week of time instead of distance if I opted to do that, which I think I might. He was a really nice guy, which I was happy about since he just kind of took over my appt and that makes me nervous when it’s not who I’m used to dealing with.

Last night we went back to PF. I wasn’t sure what I would do, but then in the afternoon I decided I needed to work off the cake we had at work so I opted to do ½ hour on the elliptical and then the 30 minute circuit thing they have set up at PF.

I didn’t use a single one of the stepper things they provide though, as I’m a bit of a klutz sometimes and didn’t want to trip on it. I opted to do 5 floor exercises, twice each, in between each strength machine. I did: burpees, squats, mountain climbers, lunges and jumping jacks. Each time the light goes green, you have 1 minute to do whatever station you’re on (whether the strength machines or in between) so for those 5 exercises I was absolutely gassed after 1 minute. I gave it all I had though!

I’m really bad at planning workouts (like I already mentioned), so while we were there last night I took advantage of signing up for one of their “design a custom workout” sessions that they offer one on one with their resident trainer. That will be on Oct 21^st, so hopefully he can help me. I have to just figure out what I really want from him.

My ultimate goals for 2014 are to complete a half marathon (just finish, I have no aspirations of time) and complete a Tough Mudder. For the first, it’s all about the running but I’d like him to work in the best stuff I can do to strengthen my running. For the second, I KNOW I need a lot of upper body work. I need a lot of work on grip strength and overall arm strength or I’ll never be able to do any rope climbs/monkey bars/anything like that. My core isn’t all that strong either. Yeah…so basically I need to work on absolutely everything. I just need to know the best way to go about it without overdoing. I think I did that to myself while I was trying to go from 5K to 10K distance and don’t want a repeat.

It’s funny, because at home I have a binder overflowing with printouts from the web. I’ve got helpful articles, different circuits I’ve seen, stretches, recommendations for running plans, etc. I’m seriously hopeless in putting it all together though. Anyone out there on the interwebs want to coach me for free? I feel like if I had someone to literally say “do this, this, this and this” I’d be all set. I can follow instructions like nobody’s business.

Switching topics, I got a couple of packages today. One I can’t talk about because it’s a secret and someone that reads my blog will find out about it. The other was a prize that I won through a blog I read regularly, From Couch To Ironwoman. I won a giveaway that she had for a Tommie Copper shirt from their ActiveFit line. The link I included is the actual shirt I chose (in the sky blue color). I prefer men’s shirts because I don’t like the cut of women’s shirts and I feel like the sleeves are too short for my liking. I was so excited to get it that I wore it to the gym tonight to test it out!

Straight out of the box, I loved the way it felt. It was really soft and smooth and fit just right. The only issue I had was the sleeves were a good length, but for some reason they kept riding up into my armpits (or pretty close to it) while I was walking around prior to leaving the house. I didn’t have any issues on the treadmill though. Definitely a new favorite shirt to wear while I’m running.

And finally the most exciting thing tonight was the running. I was able to run for 30 min straight and didn’t have any pain in my knee! I probably could have kept going because it felt so good to be running, but didn’t want to push too much too fast. I may stick around 30 min for a bit until that feels completely regular again before I up it anymore. I’m so pumped though…I’m not gonna lie!

One more day left in my work week and then I get a 4 day mini vacation. Three of those will be at the Scituate Art Festival working with my best friend at her booth, so if you’ll be around stop by and say hi!

Sunday Stew With A Side Of Hope

Yesterday was a miserable, rainy day here in RI. It was the perfect time to bust out the crock pot for the fall/winter and make something warm and comforting.

 

 

We decided a nice beef stew fit that description, so while Tara was out yesterday morning I threw all the ingredients in the crock pot to have for dinner.

 

 

I caught up on filing paperwork and Tara caught up on some house stuff. After that, we both caught up with some of the DVR and then Downton Abbey on Amazon Prime. It’s quite the addicting show. We’re almost through season 2 now. I’ll be sad once we finish season 3 because then we’ll have to wait for season 4 to catch up to Prime for our viewing pleasure.

Cue our delicious dinner being ready to devour!

 

SO good!

 

On Saturday, we were out and about on a bunch of random errands, which also involved signing up at Planet Fitness. I opted to get the “black card” because, for the price of 2 regular memberships, I can still take Tara with me each time I go as a “guest”, plus I get unlimited use of the hydromassage bed and massage chairs. And we can use any PF location too, which will be nice when we’re up in MA visiting our friends. It wouldn’t have been the first gym I would choose if money were no option, but since it is, and it works for us, PF it is!

Now for the best part of this post – the hope!

We went to PF this morning and we only planned on going for ½ hour. I opted to use the treadmill to see how well I could run (since I hadn’t run at all since the Rock N Roll on 9/29) and for how long. Tara hopped on next to me and off we went. I warmed up for about 5-6 minutes walking then started jogging. I kept it at a 12 min mile and was able to keep running without stopping for 20 minutes! Very exciting! I realized I probably should have stopped around 15 min, but was too excited. I may have pushed it a bit far because my knee was pretty stiff at work, but I took some ibuprofen and it loosened up a bit. I had stretched and iced before work too, but it was still kind of locking up on me the longer I sit (which unfortunately is a side effect of being tied to your desk in customer service).

I have my next PT appt tomorrow morning, so I’m going to see what she says about it and if she’ll maybe be angry at me for trying to run (haha!). I only plan on going for this second visit and then calling it quits since it’s not in the budget to keep going at $35/visit. I’m more than capable of doing stretches/exercises on my own at home (which I have been). I’ll check with her on what type of a time table I’m looking at to actually be pain-free and if she thinks I should have taken it more slowly before jumping right back into running for 20 min straight. It’ll be interesting to see what she has to say and I look forward to it.

For now, I’m enjoying the fact I was able to run this morning. It felt great!

Electric Run (More Like Electric FUN!) Recap

I can’t even describe how much fun we had last night at the Electric Run! I had originally signed up for this by myself as just another race to do, but it was so much more than that. I was supposed to do this with 3 women I went to high school with so I created a team the day that registration opened (because you could save $5 per person that way). Not a single one of them signed up – NOT ONE.

When I realized they weren’t going to about a week or two before the race, I asked Tara if she’d be interested in just walking the race with me. Technically, I wouldn’t even consider it a race because it wasn’t timed. She can’t run due to a partial muscle tear in her calf a while back, and since I’m injured as well, walking seemed perfect for us so we signed her up at the ridiculously high last minute registration price. It was totally worth it.

I switched shifts at work so we could get on the road sooner because traffic at the stadium is a nightmare to begin with. There is a huge shopping plaza right next to it called Patriot Place so between regular shoppers and racers, there were TONS of people going. We later found out the race had sold out and there were 15,000 people there. Tara met me at work at 4:00 and we ended up getting to Foxboro around 5:00 – not bad for a Friday!

 

 

Once we got into the parking lot, we decided what we wanted to carry in our pockets because the site had said there would be no bags or backpacks allowed. This didn’t turn out to be true because we saw tons of people running with bags or backpacks. Oh well. We then walked all the way over to registration to pick up our packets and when we saw they only came in a giant ziploc baggy, we decided to walk back to the car to dismantle them and repack ourselves. We did end up carrying all of our light up stuff we were planning on wearing in a grocery bag, but we were planning on tossing that with the rest of the garbage once we got dressed up, so we didn’t worry about it.

 

 

After we walked back it was now only around 5:45 or so (with a 7:15 start), so we decided to start putting on our glow gear. We had gone to iParty and Five Below to pick up some cheap neon stuff. We ended up wearing necklaces, bracelets, anklets (which were bracelets but were so huge they fell off our hands), rings and hanging sticks around our neck. We were given glasses too, but Tara’s broke as soon as she opened the package and mine looked really awkward on my face so we ended up getting rid of them.

 

 

After we got all of our stuff on and glowing, we took some pics with the cool backdrop they had set up and the scandalously underdressed SoCo guy. Woo woo! Then we had a little time to kill so we wandered and I kept trying to get my picture with the “bug mobiles”. I don’t know what they were, but they were like golf carts that were all decked out to look like insects or something. They drove around all over the stadium grounds, blasting music from speakers on the back of the cart. So fun!

 

 

We got kind of bored, so we decided to head over to the start chute and found out they were throwing tons of glow stuff into the crowd, so we tried to work our way up closer to get some more stuff. We definitely should have put some more thought into our attire because some people there had awesome costumes! Next time, we’ll definitely be doing that! We ended up getting a foam light up stick that they were throwing that I carried throughout the race but nothing else. The guy at the start line was definitely great at pumping up the crowd and the DJ was good too.

 

This is just the people I could get in the picture – it went MUCH farther back!

 

Once the race got started, it was REALLY hard to see. We were running on the pavement/parking lot/sidewalks around the outside of the stadium so it was nice and flat, but not well lit at the start. Once we started going through each of the “lands”, the decorations lit things up nicely without being too bright. Each “land” had a different style of music playing that suited the atmosphere that the decorations provided. It was really well thought out and I can’t imagine the planning that goes into an event of this size!

 

 

It ended up taking us around 1 hour to walk the whole thing, stopping to take tons of pictures and video along the way. We never knew how far we were because we never saw any mile markers. Tara was SO excited when she saw the finish sign! The whole thing went around the stadium, then it came inside and went up, up, up to the nosebleed seats via the ramps and then we came down the ramps on the other side.

 

 

They had 2 DJs playing sets after the race, along with beer and food, but we were exhausted and the lines for food were huge, so we decided to avoid the crowds leaving later (remember: 15,000 people!!!) and head home. I think we got on the road by 9:00 and, after picking my car up from work, were home by 10:00.

I would highly recommend this for FUN. If you are trying to be a serious runner and actually race, I wish you luck because it was too packed to get any speed unless you started at the very front. Tons of fun and I would recommend definitely doing it with friends. I kind of liked that I ended up doing it with just Tara. It was like another one of our “adventure dates”.

 

Face The Music Friday #3

(#1 here, #2 here)

My weight this week is:

 

182.1

 

Beginning:  240

Last week:  184.1

This week: -2 lb

Total loss:  57.9 lb

I’m pleased with this week. I did really well and it showed. I did the elliptical once, but have mostly been working on my PT stretches. I don’t have a whole lot to say so I’m not going to try. Pretty upset I still have such pain in my leg that I can’t run (for a month now) so I don’t want to continue griping about it.

On a better note, we’ve decided to join Planet Fitness. It’s less than 2 miles from my house so I could walk up there, workout and walk home. Plus we’ll have the indoor treadmills (which I’ve never used) for when I CAN run again and the streets aren’t plowed/are too icy.

On to the music…the title pretty much sums up my brain lately. No more needs to be said really. And the normal version of this song is full of F bombs, but they put up an edited version of it on YouTube, so no worries.

 

Lil Jon w/ LMFAO – Outta Your Mind