Plate to Plate 5K!!!!

Are you there god?

It's me, Kristina.

Guess what I did today? i finished my first EVER 5K run!

Go ahead. Tell me how awesome I am.

A few people deserve a lot of credit:
1. Everyone on FB who suggested the Couch to 5K training program. Cass, Mary C., Jannie, LIZ, Jeka, Super Char, Jeanne, and Jamie.
2. Amanda P. for her unwavering support and remembering to check-in pre- and post- race.
3. Mom, who came to the CIty to stay for the night and come to the race in the morning.
3. Scotty, who loves me no matter what. He's my brother, he has too.
4. Eric. Ditto.
5. My co-workers who made sure I knew I was supported.
6. Everyone who takes the time to read these posts, even if they don't care that much.

Some highlights:
-Mer joining me to jog most of the way
-Foggy weather to keep it cool
-Finishing in right field where homeruns from the other team are stopped.
-Finishing the race in UNDER 40 minutes!!!! (P.S. Thanks, Mer)
-Walking past the dugout to see where the Giants players hang out
-Getting my Safeway bag, getting some bananas, then literally slipping on someone else's banana to fall. I slipped and fell on a banana. Let the jokes begin.
-Seeing Mom and Scott after I got to where the were in the park.
-The surprising and immense satisfaction of completing and meeting a goal.

I am so proud of myself.

Feel free to feel the same.

With sincerity, this was a long process, and took more from me then I thought. It also took less stress and work then I thought. For the present all I can say is, wow.

Recovery

Went out for a jog today. Swelling in the knee has started to go down, and the lacerations have all scabbed over.

It wasn't painful. That was amazing. The water on the knee feeling was mostly gone. A little ice, a little advil, and it's feeling pretty good.

Guess whose running across home plate on Saturday?

Mother-loving-banana-hugger

I can jog three miles. I can jog three miles.

Unless that jogging takes me off-track. Then it's a whole different kettle of monkeys.

Today was the last class in the neuropsych series...child assessment...psychosis stories...lady who always had a story to share...done! Left Bezerkeley for Lake Merritt. Lake Merritt is a three-mile loop that smells funny but is pretty flat. Plan was go for a run, then head to Pippinland for some chattin' and grubbin' and baby-huggin'.

About a quarter of a mile in, the path goes from paved to unpaved. Unpaved looks like lots of rocks poking out at odd angles, loose pebbles, and the odd root. You can guess what happened. My toe caught a rock, and....I tripped. Fell forward. Rolled onto my back.

The nicest guy stopped his jog to make sure I was ok. Two other people asked if I was hurt badly. Those people restored my faith in humanity.

Assessment of injuries:
-Left Palm: Scrapes
-Right Palm: Small laceration, 1 embedded pebble, scrapes next to the (healing) wasp sting.
-Left Elbow: Surface scrapes, no blood.
-Left Knee: Scrapes with seeping blood, bruise/swelling under the kneecap.
-Left Shin: Road-rash from knee to half-way down the leg.

Knee is the worst in terms of depth of laceration and pain. Having a hard time straightening the leg. But the injury is only a few hours old, so there's time.

What did I do after this spill? I did what any athlete would do-had the guy help me up, walk it off for a bit, and keep jogging. See attached map for how far I got....

The odd thing is this-the jogging didn't feel great, but it didn't hurt that horribly. Until I stopped running. That's when the pain set in. Pounding pain that shot through my leg and prevented me from walking without a limp. I'm not ashamed to admit i teared up. It hurt that much.

Thank goodness for the Pippins! I went to my friend's house, and they had the apoco-kit of injury treatment. I got things cleaned up well enough to dress. Then took a shower when I got home, swore like a sailor, and poured on the hydrogen peroxide. Two words: OH F*&^*!!!

Now I have painkiller and ice incorporated into the treatment regime.

Wish me luck with healing. The 5K is a week from today. Got the bib in the mail this week. Like I said, don't care about the time, just want to finish.

Easier route

Running in circles is boring. Even if you get to run around a beautiful lake and kick at (not kick, kick at) pigeons. Even the turtles trying to sun on the submerged logs have their charm.

Running up hill at the end of a run is hard. Even if I get hit by sprinklers and accomplish something difficult. It's hard.

Running a route with fewer uphills, all of which are in the first mile, is better. Getting on paths big enough to pass tourists is better. Getting out of the park, if only for a few blocks, is better. So this new route seems to be the new favorite. Even in the wind (into the wind, uphill both ways-Dad) didn't slow me down.

Sounds like I found my new 3 mile route!

Oh, and if you notice the ending location is not where I started, that's because I needed to get a few things at the grocery store. Who wants cranberry oatmeal white chocolate chip cookies? Next goal-better then Hot Cookie.

Goal: 3 miles

Goal: Accomplished.


New goal: 3 miles without having to jump over fat pigeons the tourists are feeding.

Miss me?

I'm baaack!

It has been a while since I've blogged about the running process For those who have sent the love and support about the last post-YOU ROCK! That new swimsuit has now swum in the Sea of Corez and provided some lovely tan lines. For the record-yes, I did get a sun burn; Yes, it is almost done peeling.

The Couch to 5K program is complete! After thinking things over, I did move on to the 9th week run. I was jogging 2.75 miles on my little hilly route in 30 minutes. Pretty good, if I do say so myself. With the trip to Mexico, the plan was to take the week off.

Now, there are a few reasons for taking the week off. One-it's vacation. Two-the weather was quite warm. Not quite warm. Crazy hot. Insanely hot. Melt-your-face hot. 100*+ during the day, and in the 80s after 9 pm. Past experience with hot day jogs convinced me I would die. As in drop from heat exhaustion. And margaritas are better at night.

SIDEBAR: Came up with a way to make money. Take a bunch of people into the ocean at about torso-deep. Have them stand in one location without using their arms for an hour. Call it a core workout. Float out some music and change position every 90 seconds to keep it interesting. You know people would pay a lot of money for an "Ocean Core Workout". We could even make a video! Try it-it's harder then you think.

Looking forward to getting home and resuming exercise. The heat slows me down and lack of sustained exercise was making me feel lazy. Relaxed (hard to not be) from the slow pace of life. See the above picture for one of the beaches we spent time at.

The trip home was reminiscent of the trip to Greece (see-"How I made 3 out of 8 flights" in the History of Kristina). Late bus, no one spoke English, I didn't speak enough Spanish to understand anything, bus broke down, nice gentleman who gave me a ride from the bus stop to the airport, and making the plane because it was already delayed. The usual.

Got on the plane. Than it hit.

Food poisoning.

Worst places to get food poisoning-confined spaces (like an airplane), lack of access to a bathroom (like when taking off or landing), when you smell everyone eating food (like the start of the flight). Suffice to say I was glad to get home, cried through the night, didn't sleep well, and got a good core workout.

No run on Tuesday. Or Wednesday.

But Thursday, first run back!

Only did 2 miles. (Pshaw. Listen to me: "Only 2 miles". Who am I?)

Mile 1 was pretty comfortable. A few stitches in the side as I went, got pretty sweaty, and by the end I wanted to keep going. (Ha ha ha. "Wanted to keep going." Stop. I'm killing me!) Glad I stopped when I did. My hand was shaking as I held my glass of water. Guess I need to eat things other then saltines and Gatorade.

Next goal-3 whole miles on a flat course.

The Plate to Plate 5K is in 3 weeks! Look out for the countdown...