Water stops and birthdays

Last week I worked the water stop at a local 5k with my run club friends. The beauty about this volunteering job is afterwards we get free mimosas at the after party.  That's the kind of volunteering I can get behind!  And just so we are clear we all had multiple mimosas!  What a great race!

Today is my 40th birthday!  And as a birthday present we had a snow day!  I love snow days, but birthday snow days are the best!  Yesterday I had lunch with friends in anticipation of the snow coming and it's just fun to have lunch with cool people!  We headed for some Mexican food and birthday margaritas.  

Now the snow was not supposed to start until the evening. Unfortunately it started earlier than anticipated. I headed home in snow. It usually takes me 40 minutes to get home. It took me 2 hours to travel home. Once I finally got home I was greeted by neighbor Nick who was shoveling my parking spot for my birthday. 

I also found out there would be no school. Looks like 40 could be a good year!  

This morning I woke up and did some birthday shoveling. Then I made a birthday breakfast of a chocolate croissant.  Later I had some ice cream cake and then neighbor Nick came over with some birthday beer. 

My plan is to celebrate my new age group all year.  I have a good feeling about 40. 

Another go at 18 miles a.k.a why did I sign up for a marathon again?

I took a week off hoping the rest would help my itband. Last weekend I met up with Jen and Sandi to run 18 miles. Sandi had 13 miles on her training schedule,so she was only running the first 6 miles with us.  Then she was heading back on her own.  It's always better to get a run in with friends. Sometimes the conversation can distract you from how you don't want to run.  The temps were high 30's low 40's. So not too bad for a long run. 

We were running an out and back on a bike path. Not too hard. At mile 6 we said goodbye to Sandi and continued onward. Around mile 7 it happened, I put my foot down and pow! The knee felt like it was going to give and a lovely pain shot up my leg. Thank you itband!  We continued on to mile 8 and turned it around. 

From mile 8-16 it was a shuffle at best. We took some walk breaks. The down hills were the worst. I love running down hill!  But not that day I didn't. We got in 16...not bad considering. The good thing about out and back is the fact you have no option once you are out there. You have to make it back so you are going to get the miles in. Now we did cut off two miles but not sure I would have gotten the miles in if I had the option of quitting. 

 Still smiling as I head home to a warm shower. 

I also made a new friend. 

Riley is not impressed with my friend the foam roller. Ugh I hate stretching but looks like if I want to run I'm going to start to love stretching. 

Trying to run 16.

Two weeks ago...or maybe it was three weeks ago...yikes! Jen and I headed out to run 16 miles. It was the perfect winter day. The temps were supposed to reach into the high 40's. You can not stay in on a day like that!  So we headed out for our run. I had on capris and a short sleeved shirt in January!  The plan was to run to the mall, run around the Lincoln memorial and the WWII memorial. 

We were doing fine. I wasn't enjoying the run like I was hoping I would but we were out there. Then as we were headed across the bridge towards the mall, my knee started to hurt. Around mile 7 I was hoping I could finish the run. We started the run walk system near the WWII memorial. At mile 8 I was thinking of jumping on the metro at Arlington cemetery, I figured I should be able to finish so we kept going. The downhill was the worst.  I was hating life. I was regretting my decision to keep running. Instead of heading back to Jen's we took a detour to crystal city to get a donut and hot chocolate. The walking was making me cold.  A hot chocolate sounded yummy!

 I'll take one of each!

I ended up with a chocolate cream filled and a hot chocolate. We then hopped on the metro back to Jen's place. We got in 12 miles. Not the 16 that I was hoping for. Of course the first thing I did when I got home was look up itbs.   I was thinking my itband was tight. After consulting the Internet doctor I self diagnosed itbs. Ugh.  

I took a week off of running to see if that is going to help my itband.