My staycation

I get three weeks off for vacation a year.  I typically use one to take a family vacation.  The other two I use to get projects done around the house that I never have time for.  You know, like matching and folding socks.

Last week I took one of those weeks.  I had some ideas, and I did get some things on my list done.  I refinished a piece of furniture.  I cleaned the microwave (Seriously, that was on my list.  I'm busy, don't judge!).  I spruced up the boys bathroom a little.  Did the laundry.  Took care of my now 3-legged dog. ( He is doing better, getting around without assistance, but still not eating)

I call him hop-a-long

But other than that?  I didn't do anything.  I went to the gym everyday.  I took a few naps. I cooked healthy breakfasts and lunches for myself.  It was delicious. I cleaned a little, but didn't kill myself doing it.

On Saturday, I ran/walked in a 5k supporting breast cancer.  My mother's coworkers formed a team to honor her, and me, my sister, Chris and Luke joined.  Luke had a fever the night before, so he was out.

My sister met with the team at their office for pictures, but I'm a freak about getting places on time and I just didn't want to rush and fight traffic, so we skipped.  The plan was to wait at the back of the start line (with the walkers and strollers!), until my sister got there and then walk the 3 miles.  Well, my sister ended up not participating due to an ankle issue, so that just left me and Chris.

Chris is used to winning.  So when we starting walking, he didn't like that we were in the very back. Even though he had a soccer game later, he decided we should run.  Sigh.  I hate running.  I really do.  I worked out at the gym for at least 1 1/2 hours everyday last week, no problem.  I lifted weights, I did intense intervals on the elliptical.  But I hate running.  It hurts my knees.  6 minutes in, and I am thinking, "I am going to die.  I've been running for hours."   In every other form of exercise, I push myself.  I make myself keep going, even when it hurts.  I do 2 more reps when I don't think I can.  5 more minutes on the elliptical.  A few more squats.  Whatever.  But not running.  (In my opinion, runner's high is the feeling you get when you finally get to stop running!)

So when Chris suggested running, I'll admit, I died inside a little.  I hated being in the back too, but not more than I hate running.  So, we started jogging.  He had no problem weaving in and out of the crowd.  I kept losing him, he'd stop and wait until I caught up.  Finally, I just told him to go ahead, and that my sister would wait for him at  the finish.  So then I was alone.  I could have walked the entire time.  But, I didn't want to get nothing out of it, so I decided to do what I could.

Because we thought we were walking, we had both worn sweaters.  Which were both tied around my waist. Chris's kept falling off as I ran.  I looked like such a jackass, picking the damn thing up and re-tying it 100 times.  Finally around the halfway mark I had MacGyver'd it to my sweater so that it would stay put.  So I ran til I thought I would die, and then I walked.  I repeated that until the end.  When I walked, I kept my pace brisk.  I figured if I got a good calorie burn, I'd at least get to skip the gym later.

My finish time was terrible of course, but each mile was faster than the last.  So I'm happy about that.  The first was 18 minutes, but we walked more and had the burden of weaving in and out of 1000's of people and that damn sweater.  Chris only finished 10 minutes faster than me, and he's a champion swimmer.  He hates running too :)

My legs hurt for the rest of the day.  So sad.

I will say this, I definitely got the racing bug.  When's the next 5k? half marathon?

Yeah, I'm screwing with you.  I'll do the ribbon run again next year, but that's about it.  But if you wanna climb on the elliptical next to mine tomorrow morning, it's on!

(Btw, Did you know that the dude that won the race finished in 15 minutes?   Is he freaking Flash or something?  He ran the entire thing faster than I walked/ran the first mile.  That blows my mind)