That time I did crack

Ok, so I never did crack, but anyone that knows me knows that I had a major Mt. Dew addiction. Like hardcore, no joke. I have been running in 5k's for a year and a half now, and  since I have expanded my goals and  am currently training to run a marathon, I knew it was time to give up my "crack" for good. I am happy to say, it had been two weeks and three days Mt. Dew free for me. This is pretty big for me, usually by now I am walking around like a crack addict going through withdrawals. But this time I am doing pretty well. I do wake up with a headache every morning, but I am hopeful that will go away soon. If not, at least I am the only one up in the morning so no one sees me all crazy and what not.

I did have one incident where I did sniff an empty Mt. Dew bottle that Brian had. I was rinsing out the recyclables and there was the empty bottle and I totally sniffed it just to smell the soda. Then I laughed at myself because it was totally ridiculous. I didn't try to squeeze a few drops out so I am pretty proud of that.

Since I have stopped drinking the Mt. Dew I have noticed an improvement in my running. I used to get a side pain something fierce after about 5 minutes. Now I am getting to about 2 miles before I get a side pain and even then it's not nearly as bad. I can still run through it.  I think that finally getting to first shift has also been great for kicking my crack habit. I get enough sleep now which eliminates a lot of the dependency I had on soda just to stay awake.

I think this may be the last time that I have to try to kick my addiction. I've tried many times before and have always failed, but I think this time will be different.

On another note, this weekend I ran in another 5k This was a local run and it was rather small. I ran with Ashley, we both set goals for finishing and happy to say, we both finished in our goal time! Ashley killed her goal! I made my goal, but didn't crush it. But, I'm ok with that. I am improving all the time and that's the important thing. Ashley and I have both decided that we prefer doing runs that are a bit bigger. I feel like I stand out too much in the small runs. Despite all the flashy colors that I wear, I don't like people to look at me when I run.

Here we are, are you sick of our post race pics yet? Hope not because we aren't nearly finished yet. We already have plans to do a 5k on the 4th of July, and we are registered for a mud run in August, so more pics are coming!

How do I know?

   How do I know I am a runner? Let me tell you, I know that I am a runner because I recently realized that I have earbuds stashed all over the place. Like seriously, I have a pair in my truck, a pair in my purse, a pair in my running bag, a pair in the little holder on my treadmill, a pair in my nightstand, and a little container with some more in. I always like to have them handy because I don't buy very expensive ones so they tend to break sometimes.

Reason number two that I know I am a runner, I have little piles of pins in various places. The pins come off my race bibs and I always say that I am going to bring my own pins along to my races since I have so many of them. But I never do. If I run enough races I will eventually have enough to donate back to a run and supply a good number or people with race bib pins.

Reason number three, I made a holder to hang the medals on that I have earned for running and I hung that holder in my dining room. Why should I be the only one that sees them? I've worked hard for them. I don't display a lot of things, my diploma is in a box somewhere, but those medals, they needed to be put where everyone could see them.

There it is, isn't it pretty? This is an out of date picture, I've added a medal to the collection since then.

Reason number 4, every time I know I am going out running I get a feeling of calm. Running is my time for just me. It's my chance to relax and let all the stress go.

Reason number 5 that I know I am a runner, I have signed up to do this ridiculous run (The Dopey Challenge) that my bestie and I officially started training for yesterday, and man am I excited! Only a runner would say they are excited about training to run 48.6 miles!

I'm not saying that I'm a fast runner, or even that I'm great at it, but I really have fallen in love with it and I see this relationship lasting a long time.

Salute our troops

Memorial Day meant a three day weekend for me, so of course Ashley and I decided to sign up for a 5k. She was very excited to get back to running after having the baby and found us this 5k to do on Sunday morning. So while most people were still sound asleep at 5:30 in the am, we got up and drove to Fond Du Lac to get our run on. We had a goal of finishing in under 45 minutes, and let me tell you, there was no way Ashley was letting any of us slack on that. It was me, her, her son Ayden who I am a big fan of, and her tiny man Xander in the jogging stroller. Ayden ended up ditching us the last portion and finished ahead, that boy did not whine once at all, he is a great kid! And Xander, apparently he finds running as relaxing as his mom and I do because he fell asleep for the whole thing. We all finished in under 45 minutes which makes this a personal record for me with a 5k. Yeah, I know, I'm slow. Oh well, I'm working on it and I'm always doing better than those that don't try at all or those that don't leave the couch.

With each run that we complete, I am always thinking about the next one. In fact, on the way home from the Salute our Troops 5k Ashley mentioned that she was going to start looking for  a run to do in June since we had nothing on the books yet. So this coming weekend we are again signed up for a 5k that's pretty local to us and I am pretty excited. My first ever running event was in Kiel I did a 2miler so it's pretty exciting to go back to where I started and do a 5k.

 Here is us post race

No, this is not meant to be a butt shot, I bought us awesome wonder woman socks and if you look you can see that they even have capes attached on them that flap when you run....ZOOM