good wife, bad cook

The Iron Girl 5K in Clearwater this morning was a blast! I had been looking forward to this race for a while because a lot of my family, friends, and coworkers were running as well. Initially, I had planned on running the half, but when I found out the race was for women only (not like “iron girl” gave that away at all) I quickly changed my mind. The last half I did was with Leon and he was such a huge motivator for me, that I was a little apprehensive to do the race on my own. I chickened out. Maybe one day I will run a half on my own, but right now I am enjoying running those with my main squeeze.

Anyway, on Friday I headed over to Fit2Run to pick up the race bib, goodie bag, and t-shirt.

Check out the goods!

The t-shirts were super cute and I was pretty excited to see the Sunbutter packet in there since I had been wanting to try it out! I was also excited about the Sports Authority coupon for $25 off…I am now trying to brainstorm how I can convince Leon that I need a road bike. I mean, I have a coupon now, and we can save money…?? (I’ll let you know how that goes over )

The morning of the race, I woke up around 5:00am, got dressed, and ate a piece of toast with some PB2. That is pretty much my tried and true pre-race fuel and I don’t plan on trying anything different in the near future. You gotta go with what works. Leon’s parents picked us up around 5:30 to head to the race. We ended up making great timing and got over there pretty early. The parking wasn’t that bad near Coachman Park and we quickly found a spot and made our way down to the start line.

I was pretty excited to see my close friend & coworker Liz right when we arrived!

We ended up catching the half marathon start, so we watched the front runners take off. Those gals were pretty speedy! I would love to be able to run like them one day…right now, I’m working on more attainable goals.

We only had about 20 minutes to spare, so we stretched, chatted, and took our places in the lineup. We ended up meeting up with even more family!

Running with such awesome people really made this race so much fun!

Today I decided to go without the IPod for 2 reasons: it was strongly discouraged to use one and I really wanted to take in all the sights and sounds of this race. If I was doing the half, I definitely would have needed the music, but I didn’t even realize it was missing during this race.

Before I knew it, the race had started and we were being pushed to the start line. Mentally, I really didn’t have a plan for this race. I wasn’t sure if I was going to run with the group or try to set a PR. The last 5k I did (which was also my first) I finished in like 31 minutes. In the back of my head, I knew I wanted to beat that time, but I figured I would see what happened at the start. Everything ended up working out, because after we crossed the start line everyone split up and ran at their own pace. That’s when I decided I was going to push myself and see what time I could finish in.

After the first mile, I looked down at my Garmin and I was running an 8:55 mile. The fastest mile I had ever run. In my mind I started to calculate my possible finishing times. If I kept that pace I could probably finish in about 27 minutes.

The course was pretty easy except for a large, steep bridge we had to cross. Looking at it from the start line, I was a little nervous to cross it and I wasn’t sure how difficult it would be. But once I was running, it actually didn’t seem that bad. It was probably the adrenaline.

After the bridge, the course veered to the left and I thought I saw the finish in the corner of my eye. I ended up sprinting a little too early and lost a lot of steam the last .1 mile. However, I was pretty excited that I finished in 27:37!! I even came in 13th in my age division.

I’m not going to lie…seeing those results definitely makes me want to step up my game for the next race. I’m working on putting together a speed training plan now to take a few minutes off my time.

Once I crossed the finish, I was given a medal, a bottle of water and escorted to an area where they removed the time chip from my shoe.

I then met up with these awesome ladies!! Everyone did great! Leon’s cousin, Taylor, ended up finishing 2nd in her age division!!

This was also my mother in law’s first 5K and she did amazing!!

After the race, we checked out the food area. They gave out little boxes filled with goodies (granola bar, hummus, edamame, chocolate, dried fruit, etc.) which were super convenient. Unfortunately, the weather started to get pretty bad so we high-tailed it to the trolley station and headed back to the car.

Overall, it was a wonderful day and I will definitely be participating in Iron Girl again next year. The race was really organized and so much fun!

Congrats to all the Iron Girl’s out there!

Good Morning!

I was pretty excited to make breakfast today for two reasons: Leon was actually home (usually he is super busy all the time) and I was dying to try a recipe from Pinterest.

I ended up not really following the recipe…I just used it for inspiration.

I was supposed to core an apple, but when you don’t have the proper coring tools, this is what happens…

I didn’t let the mess of apples slow me down, I just rolled with it.

Next, I whipped up some pancake batter. 1 cup of light & fluffy pancake mix, 3/4 cup of Almond Milk, a dash of cinnamon, and about 1 tsp. of vanilla extract.

I dipped the apple slices into the batter and then placed them on the skillet. I then added another small spoonful of the mixture on top.

These cooked for about 1 minute on each side. The mixture made about 6 apple pancakes.

They smelled absolutely delicious…but they tasted even better!

The apples really sweetened up the pancakes and the taste was comparable to an apple pie. The real maple syrup on top really took these to a whole other level. Leon LOVED them! What a sweet and delicious way to start a Saturday.

Enjoy the weekend!