2015 Lawyers Have Heart 10k

This is my second year doing this race.  You can check out my recap of last year if interested.  Last year, I would have said I loved this race and it was absolutely a must do every year.  Sadly, this year was a different story.  But I think that is mostly about the heat during this year's race and not anything in the race's control.

In fact, when I saw the forecast I threw out all thoughts of a PR.  I knew that this would be another 10k where I was just trying to get through.  And that's exactly what happened.  This was my slowest 10k ever.  I looked at the weather at last year's race to compare and according to the Garmin data, it felt 15 degrees hotter this year than last year.

But starting at the beginning... packet pick up was at a local running store in the city and they offered it for multiple days before the race.  A friend picked up my packet for me so I didn't experience it first hand but she said it was smooth.  They also had packet pick up on race day and the lines looked fairly short when I went by. One unusual thing is that they had 2 bibs, one to wear on the front of your shirt and one to wear on the back.

Beautiful morning by the river while waiting for the race to start

The race is in Georgetown so one of the logistical difficulties can be parking.  The race worked out an arrangement with several parking garages so you can get discounted parking in those garages, which is a nice touch.  You just have to remember to print out the parking coupon to bring with you.  We just chose to go early and there was plenty of street parking.  We got there at 6:30am for a 7:30 race start.

And there was already a crowd when we walked to the race start area.  But there were a lot of port a potties and no line at that point, so that was a definite plus.  A friend of mine tried them 7 minutes before the race start and while there was a line at that point, she still managed to make it back by the time we went off so the line couldn't have been too long.

They had a heart and briefcase to take photos with before and after the race :)

There are no official corrals but there are signs posted to mark paces and where runners should place themselves.  There was a 5k and 10k and one of the new things this year was that they started at the same time so we were all mixed in together.  There was also a fun walk and they just started behind the runners, no separate start time for them either.

Last year's course on the left and this year's on the right

The other big difference is that they changed the course this year.  Last year, the course was a simple out and back in Georgetown.  This year, the race started and ended in Georgetown but went toward downtown for the running.  I didn't like it as much because of all the turns and switchbacks.

It also felt like it had more uphills than the previous course, though it still wasn't too hilly. And it was probably in my head just because of the heat.

One good thing is that there was more shade toward the end of the course than there was last year. You can see with my splits where I flagged in the middle of the race because of the heat but gained a bit of momentum at the end due to the shade. 

 

Here are my official results.

Fun fountain at the waterfront where runners were cooling off after the race

My favorite thing about this race is that it ends at the waterfront and they arrange for a couple restaurants to be open early for brunch.  We had brunch at Farmers, Fishers and Bakers afterward and their buffet spread is amazing!  We enjoyed every bite as well as every sip of our celebratory mimosas.

Happy to be almost done!

So would I do this one again?  I think so.  It was really well organized and the proceeds go toward the American Heart Association.  In addition, I'm not in Georgetown much so it's a new area for me to run in. And the risk of heat is going to be there for any race in June. Plus, I enjoy all the legal puns on the various race shirts from the large law firms that participate :) We'll see what the course looks like next year but my distaste for this year's course is probably mostly due to the heat.

Weekly Review

The week seemed to go by in a blink!  It was a fun but busy week.  I was at a conference for work during much of the week, hence the rest days in the middle.

Monday - Elliptical for a bit less than 45 minutes

Tuesday - Rest Day

Wednesday - Rest Day, plus some dancing at the Nelly, TLC and New Kids on the Block concert :)

Thursday - Rest Day

Friday - Jillian Michael's yoga

Saturday - Lawyer's Have Heart 10k.  I'll have a full review up later this week but the heat really killed me and it ended up being my slowest 10k ever.  The Garmin data is a bit short since the watch had a hard time getting satellite under the bridge where we started.

Sunday - So You Think You Can Dance exercise DVD.  The warm up and cool down had a good amount of stretching, which I needed since I was sore from the 10k for some reason.  And the actual work out part was fun cardio.

Weekly review

This week went by very quickly!  But it was a great week overall, especially because I had no problems breathing and didn't have to use my inhaler at all.

Monday - strength training. I've added in some upper body weight lifting since I had been neglecting my upper body and I'm hoping to change that.

Tuesday - rest day

Wednesday - elliptical machine for about 45 minutes

Thursday - elliptical machine for another 45 minutes

Friday - rest day

Saturday - morning run with a friend.  My Garmin died near the end since I had neglected to charge it but it was 4.5 miles according to my friend's watch and then we did a cool down walk for about another half mile. It was a beautiful morning and we even saw a deer while we were out there.

We also celebrated my birthday on Saturday since its on Tuesday this week.  We had dinner at China Chilcano, a Peruvian restaurant that showcases some of the Chinese and Japanese influences on Peruvian cuisine and followed that with court side seats at a WNBA game.

Sunday - Jillian Michael yoga and some gardening in the afternoon.  I keep forgetting how strenuous pulling weeds can be!

This week is a conference for work so most of my days are going to be spent sitting in hotel ballrooms.  But I'm hoping to at least get some workouts in during the week, Saturday will be the Lawyers Have Heart 10k and I'm planning on a barre class Sunday.

Tasty Tuesday - Vegan snickerdoodles

Mike and I were the ones to bring desserts for the camping trip we took a couple weeks ago so we decided to bake a bunch of cookies.  I wanted to make sure at least one batch was vegan so I went to my favorite vegan resource, Post Punk Kitchen.

And I found her recipe for vegan chai spiced snickerdoodles. I'm not going to pretend these are healthy, but they were delicious!  And surprisingly easy to make. These are a great option for a dessert that travels well, is vegan, and suitable for people with an egg or dairy allergy. I used almond milk so not good for nut allergies but it would be if you choose another type of non-dairy milk.

I'm not going to post the full recipe since I exactly followed her instructions from the website.  Definitely check out the website for this and other amazing recipes.  I've loved everything I've made from it. However, I'll talk about my experience making the cookies and things I might change next time.

The first step is to make the sugar and spice topping.  Next time I make these, I would increase the spices as I felt like the chai taste was pretty subtle.

 

Then you mix together the oil, sugar, syrup, and milk until it resembles applesauce. And then mix in vanilla.

 

You add in the rest of the ingredients and mix until you’ve got a fairly stiff dough. The recipe advises getting in their with your hands, so I did.  I felt like this was a work out to get all the flour mixed in!

 

 

Next, you form the cookies by rolling the dough into walnut sized balls and patting them into the sugar topping to flatten.

 

 

 

And voila!  Here are the finished cookies right out of the oven.  They were a big hit and most people felt like they wouldn't have known the cookies were vegan if I hadn't mentioned it.

The other thing I might try to change next time is to put some of the spices in the cookies themselves.  Like I said, the chai flavor was pretty subtle and I think it might help if some of the flavoring was in the cookie dough as well as in the topping.

Friday Five - more lessons from running

I hope everyone had a great week!  My week was definitely an improvement over the past couple weeks as I'm over the bronchitis and can breathe again :) It's amazing how much that improves everything.  And being Friday, it's also time for the Friday 5 link up with Courtney, Cynthia and Mar.

This week's theme is National Running Day so I thought I'd take this opportunity to talk a little bit more about what I've learned from running.  I wrote a similar post last year for another Friday 5 link up about 5 fitness truths I had learned as a new runner and here are 5 more things I've learned recently.

1.  Communication - This is a weird thing to associate with running but I feel like one of the things that has really improved with me and my running friends is my communication skills!  I've always been one to avoid things that I feel may lead to confrontation or hurt feelings.  But these are often just my own projections of how people will feel and not reality.  Running with friends has forced me to be direct about some things and it's always ended up an easier conversation than I thought! 

Becoming even better friends through running

2.  It's ok to not love it all the time - I used to think "true runners" loved running all the time and never had days when they would rather just relax and sit on the couch.  I used to beat myself a bit when I felt like not running because what type of runner did that make me!?!  But I've learned from talking to and reading other runners' blogs that most people have those days when they just feel meh about running or just don't make it out there.  And that's ok.  The love will come back.

3.  Perseverance - But those days have taught me that sometimes you have to just persevere through runs where you're just not that into it.  And sometimes faking it until you make it actually works and you re-discover a joy of running by just going out there and doing it, even if you didn't really want to.

4.  Little pleasures - Of course, there are those big joys in running like PRs.  But there are definitely runs and races that won't have any of those big pleasures.  Especially the runs you're forcing yourself to go out on when you're not really feeling it.  But I've learned to try to enjoy the little pleasures I find in those runs like cute kids, pretty flowers, a nice breeze, etc.

Seeing a family of ducks during a cold run

5.  Optimism and confidence - When I started running, I kept reading or hearing about how much of running was really about the mental aspect.  And I don't think I understood that.  But I've learned that this is really true and a bad mood can definitely impact my performance on a run.  I still get negative thoughts but the more I'm able to turn them around to be more optimistic and confident, and remind myself that this is something I chose to do for good reasons, the better the run will be.  And this is a lesson that probably can be applied to almost everything in life!

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend :)

Reddit gift exchanges

Mike is on Reddit (I don't even really understand what the site is) but a cool thing they do is have random gift exchanges.  They can be on various themes (examples are cook books, shot glasses, the avengers, Disney, etc.) and you get paired up with one person to buy them a gift and paired up with a different person who buys you a gift.

Well, Mike saw that one of the gift exchanges had a runner theme so he signed me up for it.  It was a pretty cool experience.  First, I had to fill out a little questionnaire that talked about myself, my interests, running specific information, basically anything that would help a stranger choose a gift for you.

So my gift arrived and it was really cool!  It included a Nike running shirt (that I wore at the Semper Fi 5k).  The material was super soft and the shirt had a lot of venting so it was really cool.  I also received an armband and a tube of a new flavor of Nuun I hadn't tried yet.

Shelby approved of the gift too

On the other side, I was super excited about choosing gifts to send to someone.  The recipient we were paired with did a great job about describing her running and weight loss journey and all the things she was into.  She is running the Philadelphia marathon as her first marathon, she loves motivational quotes, and she enjoys running with her dog.  So here is what I got her :)

Another cool part about the Reddit exchanges is that the recipients go back on the site after receiving their gift to describe it and express their feelings about it.  The recipient we were paired with left a really sweet thank you and that definitely left me with a nice feeling about participating and made me think this may be something I want to do again!

Have any of you ever participated in a gift exchange with strangers?

Weekly Review

I hope everyone had a great weekend! My week started out not so well but ended much better. As I mentioned, we came back from out camping trip early last weekend since I wasn't feeling well.  And I didn't improve so I ended up going to the doctor on Thursday. It turns into that I had bronchitis and the doctor sent me home with antibiotics and prescription cough medicine.  I am feeling much better once I started taking the medicine.

But this means that there was no working out for most of the week.  There were times that I felt winded just from walking to the bathroom and back.  I tried to at least get in my 10,000 steps a day from getting up at least a couple time per hour and pacing around my living room but there were days that didn't happen either.

But I was feeling much better by the weekend so I managed to go for a walk Saturday morning.

I also did yoga on Sunday morning.  My muscles felt really tight from being inactive all week so it felt good to loosen them up.

Since I was feeling better, and the doctor said not contagious, we went to a local science fiction convention in DC on Saturday and Sunday.  This also resulted in lots of walking.

I didn't have any actual costumes planned but I did manage to out together some geeky outfits and we had a great time :) 

It was a lot of great people watching and some people really went all out with their costumes.  There were a bunch of Disney princesses and the Rapunzel, Cinderella and Belle looked amazing!

I'm feeling a lot better today (yay antibiotics!) and hoping to get back to the working out.  I have the Lawyer's Have Heart 10kk coming up in a couple weeks and need to start running again.