Securian 5K

So now while in Day 4 of our strict diet, Mark and I were off to run our first "race" of the season. The Securian 5k. This was more of a "get the body back to moving" race, just for fun and to get the cool swag.

A big ol' mug and they had cool shirts this year but they cost us extra.

We started out by watching the half marathoners take off and wish good luck to Steve in a Speedo, who in this picture is taking a picture of the crowd lined up.

Here's me trying to stop shivering long enough for a quick picture

Anyway, I was feeling quite hungry at the start of the race but was hoping the bagel I had for breakfast would carry me through. It was quite a chilly start, a little windy and a little drizzly. Since we had to keep track of our own time, we just started at the back as to not get forced into a too fast pace or get trampled.

The first mile I felt pretty good. Didn't feel like I was moving very fast but not making any big push to go fast either. Second mile I started to feel the weakness in my legs. Crap....fuel tank was starting to be obviously low. Somewhere around here we ran past the caterpillar of runners from a local run group so I gave them a high five.

Mile 3....somebody drag me! I could tell I had no fuel anywhere in my immediate digestive system and I was running on mental energy alone. That carried me through (barely) and a drug myself up the final hill to the finish. Ugh.....  You can see the "2" behind my head.  Clocked showed 29:52 when we crossed.  So minus the 35 seconds before we crossed the start line, our final time was 29:17.

What did I learn?? There is a VERY good reason to fill the tank before every race. I felt like crap for the rest of the afternoon. Tired, week, cramped stomach. Luckily (or unluckily for my diet) we were having dinner at my parent's house so I got in a good re-fueling. We went a little over in our calorie count for the day but oh well.

29:17 was our final time. Check our Mark's blog write up too if you get a chance. Faster than I thought it would be. Avg hr - 173

Here are a few other pictures from after the race.   Of course we went straight for Caribou Coffee to warm up and had a quick chat with Dave Ryan, local radio talent. 

And on the way back to the car we saw the mascot for the race and grabbed a quick pic with him as well.

Then, since we were in downtown St. Paul, we buzzed by where the ice sculptures were being displayed for the Winter Carnival.   While I was freezing, it was just around freezing air temperature so many of the sculptures were dripping a bit but still very detailed and very cool!

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I've been doing very well keeping to my calories of this diet but have been feeling "bleh" more often than not. Especially when we exercise. It often feels like I'm going against everything I've been taught. You must feed your system in order to have energy to workout properly. I know it's just about losing the fat right now and needs to be about cardio workouts and calorie burning but it makes me frustrated that I feel weak and light-headed from time to time and can't keep up with the group. I want to be getting faster and stronger this year. How can I do that while feeling hungry and weak? Sigh..... The first few weeks are going to be rough but then we up the calorie intake a little for Month #2 to properly accomodate our workout schedule. Hopefully then I can feel like I'm making progress on both the front of weight loss AND speed/strength training. For now, I just have to keep muddling through and know the end result will be worth it.
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Next weekend Mark and I are headed out to Milwaukee for a Multisport Expo. Reason #1 to go and check out what's up and what's new and #2 to network and hopefully make some connections for work. There will be a lot of race directors at this conference and I hope to get to know a few of them enough that they will at minimum return my emails :)

And PS - I can't even begin to tell you how disappointing the Vikings loss to New Orleans was on Sunday.   I'm going to be distraught about that one for a few days.   Many mistakes lead to them losing that game and....I thought I would never say this but.... I actually feel bad for Brett Favre.