Tag Archives: 4th of July

Freedom Run 5-K

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“You can do anything for 21 minutes.”

This is what I say to myself before every 5-K.

Forget for a minute that I’ve only pulled off a 21 minute once (and that I very seldom run 5-K’s).

Yesterday was the Freedom Run 5-K.  Aaron was injured, so it was me and my sister and friend Loren who ran this race.

Loren is a crossfit/martial arts type dude who I’ve known since high school, and yesterday he ran his first 5-K since his days on our high school cross-country team.  So, naturally, there was some smack talking on facebook before the race.

Loren and I started off the race together, and we reached our first mile in 6:54, pretty close to my goal time.  But I couldn’t keep it up.

Meanwhile, the elites were running some ridiculous finish times.

For this race, and the last 10-K, I’ve had a weird issue.  I’ve felt like I’ve had to pee so bad that I am literally putting all of my concentration toward not having an accident.  (P.S., I love that I can talk about things like peeing to you.  As runners, I feel like pee is the least offensive of all bodily fluids/excrements that might come out during a race).

I don’t know if it is all in my head since as soon as I finish running, everything calms down, but my pace is absolutely affected by it.  My concentration goes toward avoiding an accident, and I’m terrified that if I run faster, then all hell will break loose. A 7:47 pace for a .1 mile sprint at the end of a 5-K is not my norm.

I finished in 22:47, 78th overall and 6th in my age group (4th if you take out the 2 elite ladies who finished 1st and 2nd overall).

This is obviously not the time I was shooting for.  But, whatever.  The new “take a chill pill” Amy is ok with this finish time.  (This is such a lie…I’m seriously saying WHAT THE F******CK but with a lot less asterisk).

Loren ran with me for the first 2.75 miles, and then sprinted ahead to finish about 17 seconds before me.  Go, Loren! Go!

And yes, he was wearing the Vibrams.

Such an attractive photo.

My sister ran the entire time without stopping! As soon as she heard me cheering for her at the end (i.e. saying GO FASTER), she totally sprinted toward that finish line!

{My sister and I  post race}

Afterwards we went to the post race party hosted by my friend (and Loren’s girlfriend) Kay’s non-profit.  We got bubbles and yummy food.

{My mom and sister, and Giuseppe sniffing out the pole}

And the boys did their manly exercises on park equipment.

I also made my race t-shirt based on something I found on pinterest! I took a $16 t-shirt from the Nike Factory outlet and made a racerback! You can find the instructions HERE.

You can see the racer back part in this picture.

I hope your 4th was wonderful! We grilled and had our own little fireworks show.  And….today feels like a Monday, but only 2 days left till the weekend!

Happy 4th of July!

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And the rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.

All historical inaccuracies aside, this painting by Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze (I totally had to wikipedia that) is one of my favorites because it shows a triumphant spirit and invokes a sense of patriotism and pride!

I had an extraordinary 3rd grade teacher who taught us the words to the National Anthem, and has us sing it (with our hands across our hearts) every week.  Every single time I hear the National Anthem, I get goosebumps.  I know we have our problems, but I feel so blessed to be an American.  And thank you to everyone sacrificing (and who has sacrificed) their lives for our magnificent country!

I hope everyone has a WONDERFUL and safe 4th of July holiday!

Running Gear Update

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Happy Day Before a Day Off! (unless you’re in Scotland or South Africa, or Canada, or anywhere not in the US).  I feel like days like today are pointless at work because all anyone wants to do is be on vacation.

It RAINED in Albuquerque last night.  Like, truly, ground soakingly rained.  This is such a rare occurrence, and it felt amazing and fresh as I did my tempo run this morning. There is talk of rain all week, and my poor little plants are doing dances in celebration!

You may remember a couple of weeks ago when we got into a whole shoe and compression socks discussion.  I thought I’d do a little update since I have gone ahead and made my purchases.

1) Brooks Adrenaline:  I bought these from Holabird Sports (my best running shoe secret if you don’t mind clearance shoes).  I did 6 miles in them on Sunday, and they seem to work great.  They do run a bit small, so I should have gone a half size up from my normal shoe size. As soon as I completely break them in, these will become my long run shoe.  So far, I’d say they are pretty comparable to the Mizuno Wave Inspires.

Also, how cools is the box design? I could look at all of the little details for hours!

2) Compression Socks: I had it in my head that I was going to go down to our local sports store (Sports Systems) and get my socks, and no way was I coming home without some.  So I went, and the nice boy was super helpful and knowledgeable! They only carried 3 brands, and as it turns out, my calves are abnormally skinny.  Little person, little calves I guess? So, this limited me to one brand, and I’m not going to lie, I was more partial to them because they had pink socks! So, I went with CEP Compression.  They seem to work well. They are still a bit long for my short legs, but my calves have felt sufficiently more recovered since I started wearing them!

Other brands that you all recommended were:

2XU (Aaron wears these)

PRO Compression (you can almost always find a coupon code)

Zensah (by far the most popular recommendation!)

Adidas

CW-X

3) New Running Jumper: last Friday we got our end of the (fiscal) year bonuses, and I immediately headed over to Lulu (because spending money on non-running related items is just crazy).  I had seen the Run: For Your Money jumper on the website and thought it looked cute ON THE MODEL, but figured that no one else could possibly look good in a jumper aside from a 2 year old.  Then, on my 13 miler on Saturday, I passed a normal looking person wearing it, and she looked fantastic!

{The official Lulu model…definitely not me!}

I splurged and bought the jumper.  I LOVE it! The shorts stay fantastically in place, and it is light and airy.  I will say that I wore it during my tempo this morning, and I felt a little self conscious that people might be judging me for being too Olsen Twin style fashion forward of a runner (if jumpers are in fact fashion forward?), but it is cute, and I will wear it proudly.

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Is anyone doing a 4th of July race tomorrow? My sister and I are running a 5-K that benefits my friend Kay’s non-profit.  I’ve been promised baked goods and bubbles!

Good luck if you are! 

Wine, History, Friends, Family and No Fireworks Whatsoever

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Northern New Mexico Landscape

Well, the glorious 3-day weekend is officially over and dead,  and (thankfully) the work week is already half way done, but I’m just now downloading pictures and sitting down at the computer to think about it.   Because we were off in Jamaica for Memorial Day weekend, this is really the first 3 days that we’ve had at home since February, so we had a nice relaxing weekend.

We started off on Saturday by heading up to Santa Fe.  Because our puppy is still too little to be left alone for long periods of time, we left Giuseppe with his new friend Romeo (and I use the term “friend” rather loosely since apparently they had half an hour of friend time and about 5 of unfriend time).  Romeo is the new dog recently adopted by my parents and sisters.  He is a Peka-tzu  and he isn’t used to such white furball bundles of energy.  I think Giuseppe’s playful attitude may have been too much for poor Romeo to handle as evidenced by his mid-play asthma attack.  Giuseppe is having another Romeo playdate tomorrow which will hopefully go better.

While Giuseppe was hanging out with my family, Aaron and I drove up to the Santa Fe Wine Festival.  We almost always go to the Labor Day New Mexico Wine Festival but we don’t usually make it out to this one because it is smaller and in a big dirt area, not to mention that Santa Fe wine people tend to be a bit pretentious (think Fraiser, but more hippy).   

Aaron purchasing a bottle that will soon break through the bottom of the bag and shatter...

Aaron and I take our wine festivals pretty seriously. We normally take notes and hold up the tasting line to talk to the staff about their selections, and then we buy a lot of bottles.

 

The festival was held at Ranchos de las Golandrinas which is a “living history” museum showcasing everyday life on the 1800’s New Mexican frontier. American Girl Josephina’s world is actually based on this museum. Neither Aaron nor I have been since elementary school, so we took a walk around. The docents weren’t out, so we didn’t really learn anything, but the old buildings are always fun to look at.

 

Of course 4th of July was on Monday. Because fireworks and extreme drought conditions don’t mix and similarly because fireworks and timid baby puppies don’t mix, we didn’t partake in the usually festivities, but we did take a cue from our Jamaican vacation and drink some “American flag” drinks (equal parts daiquiri and pina colada mix, dark rum to top it off, and a splash of blue Curacao).

 

As is the case after any 3 day weekend, returning back to work yesterday was slightly painful, especially because I will be going crazy until next Thursday when the job fair I am organizing is over. But, I did get one last “weekend moment” last night when I got to hang out with friend Ariela and her husband James. Ariela and I were friends in high school, but she has since moved to Portland and only comes back home on occasion. Always nice to see old friends and to see that they are happy and doing well.