Monday, August 30, 2010

ECC Week 8 Canada....and race results

Well I did it. Yep, me, number 199. Ran in my first EVER 5K this past Saturday. It was AWESOME. The atmosphere was SO friendly. It was a 10K and 5K race. The 10K folks lined up ahead of us little 5K peons. We all had ankle chips so we could find our EXACT time after the race.
I felt so 'official' with my 199 bib safety pinned on to my shirt. Lots of butterflies floating around my tummy pre-race!
I made the first timers mistake of not pacing myself and ended up going a little too hard in my first 1/2 which means I was running on LESS than fumes at the end (werent purty).
BUT I did finished in under my goal (goal: 34 minutes....actual time 32:19). AND I placed 13 out of 21 in my age division.
Anyway, I have officially been bitten by the racing bug and cant wait to sign up for another one. I think I am going to have to start donating plasma or renting out my children to pay for all the races =)

On another fun note, I got a bike this weekend!! Ok, you might be saying to yourself, 'Doesnt Anna HAVE a bike? Didnt she post a couple few times ABOUT her bike HERE or HERE?' Well, yes, yes I did. BUT after riding it only a few times, I just knew it wasnt right for me.
THANKFULLY Walmart took it back and I PATIENTLY waited until hubby and I could so some serious bike shopping.

We did just that this past Saturday. We went to 3 or 6 bikes stores. Some were good, some not so good. One place we walked around for TEN minutes and not one sales person approached us. At another, they did not have even ONE bike in my size....So we saved the best for last. The little hole in the wall place that looks SO run down from the front. This is where we got our bikes from 12 years ago and is the only place in town that carries Raleigh's (which is what we had 12 years ago and I just a little bit loved)....
The guy worked with me for TWO hours. Let me test ride numerous bikes and fined tuned all the gadets, adjusted all the adjustments and tweaked all tweakments....ya know, just generally made me feel pretty stinkin' special =)
I didnt take a pic of my sweet ride as I put in the garage and dont feel like traipsin' down there right now, but here is the sales stub. Hey, I had to take a picture of SOMETHING! =)


Anyway, lets talk a little bit 'o school...

For science today, we read about plants and did the 'celery' experiment. We (tried) to remove all the xylem from the brocolli on the right and left the xylem intact in the celery on the left. By tomorrow we should notice wilting in the celery on the right and should notice the leaves on the left getting purple-showing us that the xylem takes the water up to the leaves. Now I didnt have any food coloring (except green and yellow which would have defeated the purpose) so I used grape kool-aid. I hope it doesnt mess up the experiment. Hope the celery has a sweet tooth as its VERY concentrated!

We read about Greenland in Window on the World and learned that the language there is...Greenlandic! The girls have so much fun saying that.

Learned about Industry and Nature in our Illustrated World Atlas, which for some reason prompted my 8yr old to draw a blue print for her zoo/animal exhibit....


The animals in her sisters animal/zoo exhibit prompted my ALMOST 10 yr old (12 days!) to draw a picture of the animals (real live breathing animals) that she would like for her birthday.
Not gonna happen sister. Sorry.
Its suppose to rain over night, but I am HOPING it will stop by 630 and be dry enough for me to take Mr. Raleigh out for a ride tomorrow. I ran 2.5mi this moring and was TEMPTED when I got home, to grab the bike for a quick spin but I was already pretty pooped (SUPER humid here today) so I decided against it. I broke him in last night, but cant wait for our next time together....*swoon* =)




2 comments:

  1. Congratulations on running your 1st 5 K! You seem so pumped about running. Tell me. How would "someone" say who is VERY out of shape begin running? I would love to start -- esp. since the weather is starting to get cooler and goodness knows I NEED IT! But am afraid I'd hyperventillate after about 2 minutes into it.

    We started the celery experiment today too. I had a booger of a time getting those xylem out though! The underneath parts of my thumb nails are so sore lol!

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  2. Just go slow Miranda =) I was 100% out of shape too (now I'm only like, 90% out of shape) =)
    Start by walking briskly for 30min every other day for a week, the following week, do it every day (5x a week)...the following week, on M, W, and F, jog for 1min in the middle of your walk (so your still doing 30min total)...then the next week, add another minute. Or if you feel up to it, you can even do 5min M,W,F that first week, whatever you feel you are up to, just remember to take it slow...I never started out walking (my bad)...I dont think I really NEEDED to walk, but I think I went to hard in the beginning....ANYWAY, 'nuff about that! =) Email if you have any questions about running...
    Oh and I hear you on the xylem, I STILL dont think I got it all out!

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