Happy WIAW friends!! I decided to combine WIAW with a tiny weekend recap, including my first ever 5k!! Yes, that’s right – I reached my goal of running a 5k and partaking in an actual race. I was pleasantly suprised with my results!!
Prior to the race, I painted my nails pink to get in the spirit of Breast Cancer Awareness Month!Â
I’m already starting to see why races are so addicting. So much free stuff!!! The day before the race was the expo – there were tons of local vendors there.
Top left: Cotton Candy frozen yogurt in the cutest little ice cream cone ever!!
Top right: Breast cancer candies from Cedar Crest College
Bottom left & right: Air Products, one of the main sponsors, had a table at which they made homemade ice cream using liquid nitrogen – I got heath bar flavored! SO yummy!
We picked up our bags, bibs, shirts, and I got a survivor gift – a really nice knit scarf!! 🙂
My throat was already hurting so much from radiation and it was so hard for me to eat breakfast that morning – but I knew that I wouldn’t be able to do well if I didn’t finish all my oatmeal! It felt like being a kid again when your parents forced you to eat your vegetables.
I’m so glad that my mom signed up for this race with me. She did the competitive walk – I’m so proud of her for already having come so far from where she was a few months ago!
We parked, and from where we were, we could see pink everywhere.
Left: Rocking my #SweatPink shoelaces and my Shubeez won from Mindy’s Fitness Journey
Right: A breast cancer survivor, Linda, who works at Penn State Lehigh Valley and helped me out a lot when I was there. Her and my mom are also friends because my brother and her son are in kung fu together! (small world!)
When I was still on chemo, Linda was able to understand me and my frustrations in a way that most people couldn’t, because she knew exactly what I was feeling. It was extremely comforting to know that I was not alone. Prior to the race, there was a Survivor Photo followed by a survivor parade in which all of the cancer survivors walked through the crowd of people. There must have been several thousand people there!
My mom managed to snap a picture of me waiting for the survivor photo to be taken!
Linda and I walked through the survivor parade together, arm in arm. You could just feel the emotion of the people in the parade as well as the people watching it. I saw people dabbing their eyes with tissues and everybody was cheering. While I’m not a breast cancer survivor, I’m still a survivor and I still had to fight, and I continue to fight every day. It’s easy to feel alone and become pessimistic in a battle against cancer, but staying positive and realizing that you are not alone is key.
When it was almost race time, Kayla and I headed over to the start line. We did a quick dynamic warm up with some jump lunges and toe touches. The countdown seemed to go quicker than what the announcer was actually saying. At the start of the race, my little water bottle fanny pack was not working out, so I literally just took it off and threw it to the side of the road. There were 2 or 3 hills in the race. The first one felt pretty easy for me, but the second and third ones were killer. I wanted to stop so bad – but reminding myself why I’m running this race – why everyone around me was running this race – that’s what kept me going. Fighting for a cure, fighting for our health, and bringing people together.
Top left: Just so ya’ll can see how cute I am when I run.
Top right: Kayla and I post-race!
And for the results of the race….
- I finished right at 30 minutes
- I came in 27th out of 91 for my age group
- I came in 8th out of all the survivors in the race, so I won a $50 gift certificate to European Body Concepts and a comemorative mug!! WOO!Â
After the race, they gave us mini Luna bars, Power bars, pretzels, water bottles, and samples of Asian pears. I also obviously had to buy a fleece pullover and a magnet!
I headed off to work, and after work, went to Grim’s with Kayla. Grim’s is a local pumpkin patch/farmer’s market/corn maze in our area.
I fed a goat! We gave up on the corn maze and cut out early like the group of people ahead of us. It was dinner time! haha
These are just a few of the things they had at the farmer’s market – along with massive heads of broccoli and cauliflower, tons of apples, corn, etc. Photo cred: Blondes Have More Run
So that’s my little weekend recap! Now for WIAW…
This WIAW will consist mostly of meals I’ve had over the past 1-2 weeks since I haven’t had time to post on wednesdays lately! One of the side effects of radiation is a sore throat..and it literally feels like I’m swallowing a boulder anytime I swallow in general, let alone trying to swallow solid food. I posted from the Run 2 Your Own Beat facebook page asking for smoothie recipe ideas and got a few responses!
PB & J smoothie:
Frozen strawberries
Peanut butter
Protein powder
Milk
Billberry spread
1/2 crumbled fig newton
Greek yogurt
drizzle of honey
Ice cubes
Green smothie (recipe from Shelbie)
Banana
Apple or pear
Kale
drizzle of honey
vanilla protein powder
Almond milk
Mmm Green!
Smokey turkey, mozzarella, & tomato quesadilla on a Tumaro’s wrap
Blueberry harvest steel cut oats and Tulsi Holy Basil green tea – courtesy of Kayla!
Chicken, tomato sauce, & parmesean on a low-carb pita bread!
Boy do I love wegmans. Asparagus, Spaghetti squash, roasted vegetables, and chicken and some mixed fruit for dessert!
Chicken on a tumaro’s wrap with Oikos cucumber & dill greek yogurt dip
My cousin just opened a diner near my school called the Hanover Eatery. One sunday, Kayla and I took our moms to spin class with us and then went out for breakfast. We’re definitely going to make that a monthly thing – great way to get some mother daughter time in 🙂 Here we have a southwest omlet and wheat toast
Alright, this one was one of my cheats. I had a chicken gyro with homemade tzetziki sauce from my cousin’s restaurant. My uncle is from greece and he makes the sauce himself..it’s obviously delicious!!
That’s all for WIAW! Questions for you:
Do you have any races coming up?
What tips/advice would you give to a newbie runner like myself?
Run 2 Your Own Beat 