It's been a really busy weekend for me – a busy week, really. According to my workout log, I put in over seven and a half hours of physical activity this week! That included a lot of tennis and some running and walking, and yesterday I got to mix it up a little bit at my cousin's July 4th party by kicking a soccer ball around with her 8 year-old stepson, Jason, for a while! It was actually really fun – so many years ago I played soccer on my high school's team and I felt like some things came back to me. I wouldn't mind doing that again. (Mind you, I was a senior in HS when the girls' teams were formed, and anyone could join who wanted to. I wasn't good at it or anything!)
So that was a really positive part of my week. My tennis game is improving a lot and I'm feeling stronger and more confident on the court. I got two runs in; one training one and one that I will tell you about in more detail: the Bubble Run, a novelty "race" a la Color Run except with bubbles instead of colored powder. (OK, to be fair, they don't claim for it to be a race, but something fun for people of all abilities to participate in.)
Since the end of my challenge, I've been doing OK. I last reported having gained five pounds overnight, and that sucked, but since then I've dropped back down to 281 and change and except for yesterday and some irregular eating (not planning well and eating too much in the morning, going to my cousin's picnic party and eating even though I planned not to, going to the drive-in and sharing a popcorn and a soft pretzel with my partner, yikes!) and gaining a couple pounds, I feel good about the eating part still. We've got a good main meal planned for today and I still feel very much under control and comfortable with the choices I'm making. I'm confident that I will be back under 280 this coming week.
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| Vanessa, Amy F., Angela, and me at the starting line! |
Anyway, back to the Bubble Run. I went with friends and that was nice. I got to run, and that was good. The course was down at the Outer Harbor right on the lake, and that was lovely.
BUT, so many negatives and SO many reasons why I will never do an event like this again:
• The course was not advertised as a trail race, but a lot of it was! Uneven ground with ruts seemed to be a "feature" of the course. There were some paved parts, too, but I was surprised by how much of it was on ground. Because the fun level was so high at this race, the ruts made things extra challenging trying to navigate when you're actually trying to like, you know, run. Silly me!
• Yeah, the navigation was also harder because of the fun factor. The majority of people there were not there to run. It was a lot of families with young children, groups of friends sprawled out across the path walking, people dancing and moving unpredictably, etc. etc.
• Many people didn't follow rules, like not standing directly below the bubble machines and blocking the pathway. (I am a hopeless rule-follower despite my tendency toward anti-authoritarianism.)
• The course was about a half mile short! It's on the website that it's a 5K, but my app measured 2.7 and so did my friends'.
• I'm not as fun of a person as I sometimes think I am. The bubble machines were cool in theory, but I realized that I really wasn't interested in that at all – I just wanted to run and finish. This event made me realize that I really AM a serious runner, so if nothing else the whole thing was worth it for that alone.
My result was that I finished the 2.7 miles in just over 41 minutes, which set me at about a 15:15 pace – not too shabby considering the circumstances in which I was running! I'll take it. Again, it was nice to just to get out there and do it. My friends and I also had to walk what was probably a good half mile each way to and from the event, so all in all, it was a decent workout.
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During and after the race I was thinking a lot about how I've gone ahead and signed up for that 10K race (an actual race!) next week and how I really don't think I can do it. But, my thoughts since then have been the opposite – like, Why not try? You've done it before! etc. etc. So I am going to go ahead with it – I mean, it's paid for and everything – and just do my best. I do still want to try to do it all running and no walking but I think it might be important to get into the mindset that I have permission to tackle the race however I need to, you know?
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