Sunday, December 09, 2007

Trail of Lights 5K finished! Phew!!

The big Zilker tree, if you stand underneath when it's lit and look up, talk about psychedelic man!




I am in the back, to my left is James (from my Club Chronicle Challenge)in front of him, looking sideways is Christine (my non profit compadre, we're crossing our fingers). The other three ladies I know from the training but not their names except for Jeanette who's next to Christine.


Yesterday, the race was set to start at 6pm. At around 3, I was hungry for protein and made myself a broiled salmon with sauteed vegetables. I had James drop me off around 5sh and found a few people from Team Zen. It was much warmer than expected too. As last year's event was cold and people were wearing hats and mittens, this year's events the speedo 'santas' were probably the most comfortable. And you know, there were people dressed up for instance the couple dressed up as two Christmas present boxes, a guy with lights wrapped around him, the speedo santas (benefitting the non profit Out Youth, services for young gay and lesbian, bisexual and transgender and 'questioning' youths from 12-19)and naturally, the beautiful light displays in the park. HowEVER...as I was running and fighting fatigue and feeling parched (breathing through my mouth, I know, it's not good but this being my first 'RUNNING' running event, I had to figure things out..)I did not want to be bothered in reaching into my fanny pack for my camera. I was trying to make TIME!

Close to the starting line





Going through the entrance of the trail of lights, it was a long arched lit up part with all the red, green and other colours. Man it was psychedelic! There was such a throng in the beginning before we even got into the actual trail (the race starts a mile beforehand) that it was easy to run more because you couldn't even get to a faster pace. Which suited me fine because I do just a very paced jog. If you speedwalk well you could keep up with me easily! lol

James, soaked to the bone but he did it! I took this after the 3mile mark when I backed out to see where he was. He was the only one on our Club Chronicle team that had to walk it.




Anyhow, I took some pictures before the race and afterwards. Unfortunately, I did not get shots of all my team mates (was too exhausted and exhillerated after the race) and the lights on the trail but I'll try to be better next time. I'll bring my camera to the next training so you can get an idea of our Team Zen group. Erin from the Chronicle was out to cheer us on (remember the contest??)

Adam Weisberg
, owner of the Zen restaurents here in Austin is our sponsor and every Saturday morning for 8am, he gets there and provides 'Tokyo breakfast' for those who want it after the training. I never do because when I eat brown rice, I eat it with something saucy plus I'm not good with the spice that comes with it. Also, like last night when Adam sauteed Chicken teriyaki, I totally don't feel like eating after a workout. Saturday mornings, I relax and drink coffee while some of the others eat and we just chat. Last night, I had some water (there wasn't enough water for some reason) and that's it. When I got home I ate a tuna sandwhich.
Cassandra from my team with her boyfriend who supported her by coming out and joining her (and to think I told 'my' James that I didn't want him to run with me "It's my time to shine, no way!")

Another one of Cassandra in case she thinks the other picture didn't look good enough. She's pretty photogenic so she'll look good regardless!

I felt really proud of myself. I raced what I thought was a 34minute race. It was not a timed event, then I thought I did it in 37minutes, but now I figured I did it in 43 minutes and 43 seconds! Well ha! Still good!

I will definitely have to do a timed event next. No ifs and buts about that. It's good to get your first running race out of the way. What would I do different next time?

Next time, I'd rather run in the morning than in the evening. Plenty of time during the day to re-hydrate and feed your face with much needed protein! Also, training a known trail gives you a different and easier perspective on how far you've been running. They had big mile markers out during the race, but it's still difficult to pace yourself. I think you might need to acquire a built-in navigational 'feel' of sorts that you can only get through experience. Also, eating a good protein meal a few hours beforehand helps. Naturally, being the nervous nelly that I am, it 'affects' my stomach. Where other people eat, I don't. Or can't rather.

NOW I feel more committed to eat not necessarily 'right' but the right way for working out. After a long yak with my sister in law, I figured I might like to get a heart monitor. That, plus finding someone to help me with personalized cross training exercises and/or core body exercises. I'm pretty weak with all that. A light bulb went off, and I think today I finally figured out what it would take to be committed for training. Of course, Adam's offer really helped!

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6 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

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4:31 AM  
Blogger lindsaylobe said...

Hi Ingrid ~Congratulations on the run, it no doubt involved a great deal of discipline to train sufficiently to run for 43 minutes, but at the same time you seem to have has some fun with other competitors.

It’s a good idea to purchase a heart monitor, just to make sure you train at the optimum level and also don’t overexert.

I would also recommend you you keep an eye on your diet to ensure it's iron rich in vitamins.

Best wishes

9:47 PM  
Blogger The Future Was Yesterday said...

What ever the style, the speed, the fashion, one thing remains: You Did It!!!

Congratulations!

3:28 AM  
Blogger Mary said...

Yeah!!!! Ingrid!!! YOu did it!!!!

7:55 AM  
Blogger Ingrid said...

Thanks guys, I'm pretty proud of myself too! Lindsay, I was reminded of your story how you trained for some looong biking course, I should really be better at training, period! And you are so right to remind me of my body's nutritional needs, especially being over 40. I'll have to figure out exactly what and how much and how much extra I would need to consume. I'm not very good in taking vitamins I have to admit. I only douse myself (internally) with Vitamin C when I have a cold or feel something coming on. It would be great to have a sports nutritionist helping me out. I do have a juicer but it's such a work cleaning! Anyhow, as always my dear Aussie gent, you give me food for thought!
TUA..ha! You said it. I'm going to post more pictures today and you can tell that my head is beet red (and my neck milky white lol) from running. I tell you, at one point, I was just hoping for a nice cool gusty wind but it was unseasonably warm that evening to begin with, I was burning up!
Mary, I have not visited you in a while. I sure hope Michael got home already!! Thanks for the encouragement and cheers. I have felt so tired afterwards. Not zonked like I did in the beginning of the training, but my knees were definitely effected (there were some hills, not high but still) and sore for a few days. Recuperation time is quite long and as Lindsay alluded to, I probably need to think of how to eat and drink AFTERwards as well..
that's the good thing of aging; you're getting better attuned to your body since you have to!
Ingrid

9:03 AM  
Blogger Lirun said...

well done

mazal tov

wanted to say thank you for your kind words when i slouched..

12:54 AM  

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