MyFood4Life: Races, Caffeine & Piercings

James and me in Phoenix. Near finish line.

I left you with a post on my first Marathon experience that took place in Phoenix, Jan. 18th.

The next Saturday I attended my Race Walking weekly club meeting, a club I've been a part of for the last 10 years. The President of the club told me about a race on Sunday (the next day) in the Caves here in Kansas City. His words to me were, "you're in marathon shape, you should go sign up."

I was still so pumped from the marathon that I immediately agreed to do it. I arrived at Gary Gribble's Sports on Ward Parkway and wasn't sure if I was going to do the 5K or the 10K. The girl there was explaining the prices to me and she said the magic words..."if you sign up for the 10K you'll get a medal at the finish." SOLD - 10K IT IS! I'm liking my shiny medals. I have quite a few already, one from a 5K and a few from 1/2 Marathons.

A few of my medals are in shadow boxes. Here on the wall
and on my new Walker display is my first 5K race medal along with my
Rock 'N' Roll Phoenix and Groundhog Race medals. I also decided to hang
up my credentials from the 3-Day walk I did in 2006.

Race Day was cold. My hubby drove us and I took a shuttle to the race from the Casino near the caves.

The race course was flat and fast. Some parts of the cave were a bit humid, but some nice cool breezes came my way as well. It was a well organized race with water stations and potty stops.

My official race time for the 10K is 1:20:55.

Groundhog Run, Kansas City Jan. 2015

After the race, the lines were incredibly long for the shuttles back to the parking lot which was about a mile away. I didn't have my cell so I asked a lovely lady if I could use hers. She was kind enough to let me call my hubby who was waiting in the car for me and I let him know I'd be walking back. He offered to pick me up but I wanted to walk. Well, by the time I walked a little over a mile in my shorts and very thin jacket, I was frozen. It's a wonder I didn't end up sick.

I will have a busy spring, starting up my new business and participating in several upcoming races.

February and March will be all about training for the Ultra coming up in April. Although I may not be able to do the one at the end of April for sure, I want to be in Ultra Marathon shape so I can do one pretty close to that date even if I have to travel to another state to complete one.

I've started up strength training again and will walk 18 miles this coming weekend. I am also purchasing a Bike Trainer this month, about which I'm pretty excited. Soon I'll be getting a punching bag so I can take up kickboxing again as well.

In April I have a Half Marathon here in KC and the day after that I am participating in the Brew to Brew with the Heartland Racewalkers. The following weekend another 1/2 marathon....leading up to the 50K during the last weekend of April.

Finally, the last 1/2 Marathon is in May. The three Half's I'm doing are in the Heartland 39.3 Series. At the end of the Ultra and 1/2 marathons, I will be rewarding myself by doing something I've wanted to do for years! I'm finally going to get my navel pierced. I've worked hard and it's now or never! I'm also toying with the idea of getting an Anti eyebrow piercing.

We are still reeling from our Arizona trip. Someday we may call it home. We can't wait to go back. I wish our daughter could've joined us, but she didn't want to miss school. I gotta respect that.

She did tell me that during a class at school a couple of her friends brought up her being a Vegetarian. They told her she could not live without eating meat. To which her response was "Tell that to my mom who is a Vegan Athlete." Yep, that's my girl!

Finally, here's an update on my BMI.

In 2011 my BMI was 29.3%, in 2013 it was down to a healthy 23.6%.

As of this morning (2/3/15) I am down to 19.6%.

I'd like to touch on the subject of Caffeine. I have been drinking coffee since age 15...maybe I was younger. Years ago when I started race walking, I decided to not drink caffeine every day. I let myself have 2 cups every other day instead. That seemed to work out well.

I'd like to try to do that again. Currently I drink 2 cups every morning and 1-2 cups at night. I still only do Starbucks once a week.

So....I may be a bit cranky in the weeks to come.