Finally, a race!

Saturday morning I was finally able to enter another race, and it didn't even get cancelled. Imagine that! The Great Wake Up is a 5k that is actually in my town (another imagine that!) so I only had to go a few blocks down the road to the start. This was really nice, and I wish they had more races here.

The weather was great, nice and cool, but it did get warmer as we waited...and waited. Apparently an exit was closed on the freeway, so they wanted to give people more time to arrive. The part I didn't understand is that the next exit is only two miles down the road, so I don't think anyone needed much more than 5 extra minutes, and we waited 1/2 hour, but whatevs.

The race went out on the St. Tammany Trace, a paved running and biking trail that goes through Abita Springs and many other towns and is the trail I train on exclusively. It is always amazing to me, though, to see how much faster you can go when you are carried by the crowd around you. I didn't wear the garmin, so I don't know the splits, but I do know that a woman about 5 seconds behind me yelled out 9:02 at the first mile, so I must have been under 9 minutes then..yay!! I'm sure I dropped the pace a little, because after the second mile I felt like I was really struggling. This was frustrating, because I've been running often...and it was only a 5k! But I guess I was going much faster than I usually do, so maybe that's why? Anyway, I finished at 27:31, which is 3 seconds off my other 5k...but I'll take it! I finished 10th out of 75 woman, and first in my age group. And I got a trophy! Haha...I'll have to add a picture here as soon as I finally figure out how. Seriously- anyone know of any 'blogging for dummies' classes?

I am doing two 5ks next Saturday, so we'll see how that goes. I've never been running twice in one day, so it should be interesting. They are both Octoberfest races, so there should be good food (and beer) at both. Luckily for me I have to work in the middle, so I won't be doing any drinking at the first one....Eating, on the other hand.....

Yeah, eating is something that hasn't been going well. I don't know what's wrong :( I have been sabotaging my diet repeatedly, and GAINING weight instead of losing. I know it's self indulgence, but I can't stop it. I keep cheating. Aside from going over my calorie goals I am also really high on fat. This is something I'm trying to work on, but so far no luck. I do great all day, then overeat at night. I think I'm also doing badly BECAUSE I'm not seeing results. It's a vicious cycle. If I saw that I was losing a little weight I would be so motivated to stick to it. Well, this is a new week, so hopefully a fresh start.

Speaking of fresh starts, I think I need to suck it up and get new shoes. I am not entirely frugal, but I just haven't been able to justify getting new ones when there is only about 50 miles on the ones I've been using. Unfortunately these have been an incredibly uncomfortable 50 miles, and while some may say they're just not even broken in yet, they are just not working. Not only are they about 1/4 inch too short, they are also too narrow, and too stiff. I was told I slightly overpronate on the left, but this shoe has been killing both my feet and doesn't seem to cushion at all. I'm mad because they were expensive, but I feel like I'm on the verge of stress fractures and injuries, so I just need to suck it up. Anyone have any suggestions for shoes they've just loved?