Tag Archives: turkey trot

Running is something you do when a bear is chasing you.

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In my adult life, I’ve watched several close friends of mine become runners. My own husband invested in fancy shoes and fancy stay-dry shirts, and giddily skipped out the door on balmy evenings to run around the neighborhood. My bestie Jason was the same way – he started with short sprints around his neighborhood and is now an avid 10k and 5k runner. My bloggie pal Alycia is getting ready for a half marathon (did you guys know she’s lost over 60 pounds?! AMAZING!) My other bloggie pal KJPugs is running another 5k this weekend, with a fabulous tutu to boot. (She’s also lost a crap ton of weight! You guys rock!). Two of my gal pals Shelley and Amy are also avid runners, waking up at the crack of dawn to run marathons and clock in major mileage. I admire them all.

I, however, could never fathom myself as a RUNNER. Running is something you do when a bear is chasing you. It’s something you do when there’s a fire, or a snake slithering in your backyard. It’s something you do if you’re delightfully in shape, a spring in your step and a blistered foot in your Asics. Running? Not for me.

I much prefer my torture exercise in “stay mostly in one place” cardio form, like Zumba or boxing. However, something strange has happened in the past year. Maybe it was our Thanksgiving Turkey Trot. Maybe it was the fact that despite what the scale says, I feel stronger and leaner. Maybe it’s because this looks like way too much fun to pass up!

On February 2, I’ll be participating in my first ever “official” 5k, The Color Run! I’ve done 5ks before without knowing they were 5ks, like the World Walk for Water. But this is the first 5k I’m doing consciously, as in like, wow, maybe I can even RUN part of this thing. If I can’t run it all, fine, no problem, no pressure. But once I’m back from Thailand I’m going to pick up my Couch to 5K app again, and get movin’. Wouldn’t that be an amazing thing – to actually RUN a 5k? I think I can. You guys inspire me to try.

What do you think about events like the Color Run – does it look crazy fun to you too or like too much of a mess?

April’s side dish of turkey tales

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Salutations, blog readers!   Happy END-OF-NOVEMBER!  It’s been a crazy month and I’m quite stoked to see it come to an end and make way for a brand new month – THE LAST MONTH OF THE YEAR! OH, THE EXCITEMENT! WOOOO!

The Thanksgiving holiday arrived early in my circle of friends as we all feasted on copious amounts of shared food the weekend before so by the time the actual Thanksgiving came, my stomach was prepared to just say NO!  So much in fact, that when I awoke on Thursday morning at the first light of the silver fog shining through my window, my body immediately went into food rejection action by forcing me to spend some time bonding with my toilet rather than staying in bed and irritating my sister, Alyssa.   As I sat on the edge of my bathtub, I sent out my first Thanksgiving appreciations for the day to myself for scrubbing clean  the toilet only 12 hours previously the night before.  It’s funny because every time I throw up it conveniently happens to be within a very short time span of the last time I cleaned the toilet.

I came back into the room and told Alyssa my deepest regrets for letting myself eat Burger King’s onion rings the night before.  I knew my sickness was from the onion rings because this had happened to me months ago, perhaps the last time I had eaten them.  My body has a very poor time handling high-fat foods ever since I made the change in my eating habits to consuming mostly unprocessed whole foods.  Alyssa and I were supposed to be going on our first “Turkey Trot” together and I was worried that she might not believe me as we both knew that waking up to go walking in the cold on a day off was not at the top of my “MOST EXCITING THINGS TO DO” lists.

However, the Turkey Trot was still indeed on the top of my “MUST DO” list as I didn’t want to let Alyssa, my friend Melody, or all you lovely blog readers down.  I called Melody and let her know my ailments and said I wanted to drive separate in case I started to get sick again and had to come home.   Twenty minutes later we were pulling up to the parking lot and I was already feeling much better.

Our walk was up in the same region that I’m used to hiking so I knew that I could make it.  The only trouble I ever really have is on the first majorly steep hill that Alyssa discussed but by the time we trudged our fat asses up to the very top, I knew both of us were feeling very proud of ourselves for doing it.   We both fought battles with ourselves that morning with not knowing whether or not we would be able to survive such a walk. In the end getting those six miles done became a matter of dedication and a desire to just do it no matter what our minds or bodies were telling us.  If I had been on my own though, I know I would’ve spent my morning in bed under the fluff of my comforter instead.  Having other people that I felt dedicated to is what really got me out there on that hill that day.

How about you guys, how do you stay dedicated to your work out goals?   Is it easier to stay dedicated when you have people fighting the battle with you?

Until next time,