Healthy U Challenge

I work at Penn State University. During the Spring Semester, employees were able to sign up for a "friendly" Challenge to encourage Healthy and Active lifestyles. Some of my fellow co-workers and I decided to take on the challenge so we formed our group-- the Pollock Peanuts. Pollock was the name of the unit we worked in and peanuts was added because we are all a little "nutty" at times.... 

The challenge was over the course of 8 weeks and based on a point system. The goal was to get the most possible points by eating the right servings of fruit and veggies, drinking the right amount of water, engage in physical activity, no use of alcohol or tobacco products, and also random bonus categories. (like for one week, no sugar, or eat as a vegetarian at least 5 days of the week, or keep a food journal for a week) You could do the challenge as a Novice, Intermediate, or Advanced level.

Everyone did their part, motivating each other throughout the workday to eat your veggies and skip dessert! We all had matching water bottles to help track our ounces of water. My team kicked butt and we won the Challenge! Here we are in the Newsletter:

http://www.abservices.psu.edu/abservices/newsandevents/May-2011-eNewsletter.cfm

Go Peanuts!

Helping Friends (and Feet!)

My good friend, Jessica, an avid runner with a low-arched foot or two, asked me the other day if I had any suggestions for running shoes. I shared with her this helpful link on Nike's website: : http://nikerunning.nike.com/nikeos/p/nikeplus/en_US/footwear_finder. Just type in your "foot" info and they give you suggestions for appropriate running shoes. You can get help by going to specialty running stores, also, where they will watch how you run, the shape of your feet, and suggest certain things to help your stride.

I have certainly tried on a lot of different shoe styles and brands. It's fun to try new things, but I typically end up with the same, reliable and dependable style that works for me. The most important thing is honestly the comfort level. If your feet are not happy, they won't work hard for you. I would suggest to make sure you are talking to a knowledgable sales person, first. I would also try on the shoes and go for a little jog around the store. You never know exactly how the shoe fits until your running in it. When you get home, you should wear the shoes around the house to see how they feel for a while. You will be able to tell if they are right for you or not.

For me, its comfort, stability, resiliance, light-weight.

Finding the "perfect" shoe might be tough, which is why I am glad I can keep coming back to my Nike Pegasus.

Style Award

At the finish line of the Marathon and Half Marathon, every finisher receives a medal. They have booths set up where you can get your medal engraved with your name and time when you exit the finish line area. My Aunt Carol was nice enough to offer to get mine engraved for me! I was pretty excited about it ( I didn't engrave mine last year). 

Of course I had to have my signature nail art for the Marathon. The lightning bolt is my good luck charm. I wore it last year for the Half, and I have a lighning bolt necklace I wear on occasions if I need some extra "luck."

And my outfit choice was a major hit! I got a lot of compliments before, during, and after the race! Spectators liked my color choices and fellow runners complimented my custom shoes! I was definitly the "brightest" runner on the road-- and my family didn't have too hard of a time spotting me on the course!

The Medal completes my ensemble.. don't ya think??!! :)

Thanks for viewing my post on my 2nd Half Marathon Experience! I hope you enjoyed reading about it as much as I did RUNNING in it!

Thank you fellow runners for staying motivated--- know that you are inspiring SOMEBODY out there. 

A Family Affair..... More on the Marathon!

This is me waiting in my corral at the starting line! My twin sister, Samantha, was with me for the start of the race. She was so great! She helped me so much it was like having my very own personal assistant-- starting with driving us to Pittsburgh from State College the night before, taking me to the race that morning and finding me the shortest line for the bathrooms! Haha. She's awesome. My whole family is so supportive and I love sharing this experience with them. My Mom, Dad, brother, sister, Aunt and Brother-in-Law were all there cheering me on! My older sister couldnt be there this year but she was the first to call and hear the results! It's a blessing to have a great support system throughout training as well-- having people checking in on you to see how your doing, making sure you are feeling okay, its what family is all about!  

At the finish line festival showing off my medal! Yay! I never would have expected to place 2nd in my age group. It was a great accomplishment and one of my proudest moments. I truely felt that I can do anything if I put my mind to it. It was AMAZING and it's no wonder I'm hooked on these Half Marathons! I love everything about them-- the training, the pushing your body to new limits, the challenge of new goals, the competition with other runners, THE CITY OF PITTSBURGH! Does it get any better??!!

An ode to the many bridges we ran over! When we took this photo, a few people around saw and thought the location was great! They wanted to do the same thing-- we started a little photo-op trend! It is a pretty cool spot. Check out that sky in the background-- doesn't look too friendly, but honestly the weather was PERFECT for the race. It was warm with a light sprinkling rain to keep you cool.

Told ya--- SMILES! Haha I really enjoyed myself during the race. Haha I am such a nerd.

Pittsburgh Half Marathon May 15th, 2011

Hello Everyone! I am very pleased to let you all see my final time for my second Half Marathon in Pittsburgh, PA! (Forgive me, I am a little excited!)

Here is the full list of results! Congrats to everyone.

The Runners, Volunteers, and Spectators were all AMAZING!

2011 Results

I never expected to get 2nd in my age group and to shave 9 minutes off my time from last year! Excited, Proud, feeling like I can do anything-- it's hard to top that but I can't wait until next year(is it bad to already be anticipating my next Half?).. haha :)

This year's Marathon was better than ever! (well, at least comparing to last year!) I can't tell you how amazing it is to run through the city of Pittsburgh! The feeling is unlike anything else. I truely was smiling from ear to ear for the majority of the race. The few times I may not have been smililg was probably at mile 5 when I got a cramp in my side for a brief moment (thank goodness for a quick sip at a water station!-- thanks Volunteers!) or when another female runner passed me up right when I went by my family. Haha but definitly all SMILES for the end of the race.  

These photos below are from a photographer who took some awesome pictures of just about everyone in the race! Nick Hodnick Photography: Check them out!   http://www.hodnick.net/Sports/2011-Pittsburgh-Marathon/17105751_DmwPsx#1296199185_s4kvKSx

See below-- girl on my left about to pass me for a moment, YOU GO, GIRL! But... I did catch up and finish before her in the end :) It's GREAT to find other runners on the course that make you push yourself to go faster and she was definitly one of them. THANKS!

People have been telling me that I seem so calm in my running photos. Well, all I can say is that I am  focusing on just that--- STAYING CALM. Letting myself just breathe naturally and let my body do the work I KNOW it can do. That is why you put in the training, so you can feel more at ease while you are runnning the race. But my body definitly wasn't working alone! My MIND was on point and I truely believe that it took over somewhere around mile 7 to keep me going.

It was at the moment when I saw my 10k time on the time clock--- under 42 minutes. That's when I realized I have been running under a 7 minute mile pace until that point. I thought "there is no way I can finish at this pace-- I have never done a training run this long at a sub 7 minute mile pace." Well, that thought was cut short when a very tall man  ran up behind me and said "are you going to keep this pace? If you are, I want to stay with you-- I am at a 6:55 pace right now." When I heard him say outloud the sub 7 min pace, I got SO INCREDIBLY MOTIVATED! I knew that I would finish the race going at that speed. So we certainly did stay together and pushed eachother from mile 8 until the end. Having another runner want to stick with me gave me motivation to push him as well as myself. I was totally relaxed and able to carry on brief conversation during mile 8 to 11. After those miles, we picked up our pace and the talking was cut down to "we got this! " and "you can do it!" 

We finished the race a step apart from each other. Check out these pictures of me and my tall counterpart. Our strides were even in- sync for most of the race! Pretty crazy considering the length of his legs compared to mine!

I submitted this series of pictures to The Pittsburgh Marathon Photo Contest. http://www.pittsburghmarathon.com/Left_Nav/Race_Weekend_Activities/Photo_Contest.htm

I called it "opposite in size, alike in strides."  

POP of color

Deciding what to wear for my race is always fun. I like to coordinate my running ensemble a little bit more than my every day run. I mean hey, thousands of people watching you run doesnt happen too often for me so why not!?! Since I will be rocking my awesome custom sneaks, I used them as my starting point to get an idea for what I wanted to wear-- starting from the ground up I guess you could say!


Over the years, I have adopted Blue as my unofficial uniform color. Don't ask why-- it just is what it is! So here I have a few items that coordinate with my shoes.

                 (above) Turquoise Compression Shorts
                               Nike.com $22
                           
          (right) Dedication Long-vent training top
                               Nike.com $42

(below) Yellow Racerback Tank

Black Stretch Shorts

Forever 21 $12.80 & $8.80

The colors are all right, but which combo is best? Stay Tuned to see what I end up with!