hills and rain

There are some things that make me want to not go for a run, or stop running while I'm out.  I don't necessarily like running in the dark (though I will), I'm not a fan of temps above 75, snow is pretty much a heck no from me, and temps below 25 definitely make me reconsider.  I hate running hills and despite knowing it's good for me, will usually run my routes so I can avoid them at almost all costs.  But what will certainly keep me from starting a run is rain.  I hate being unnecessarily wet (the reason I despise giving the girls baths, I always manage to get wet!).

Guess what I got for the Hospital Hill Run Saturday?  As if my post title didn't give it away, hills AND rain!  Bah.  I freaking HATE rain.  In my opinion it should only rain between the hours of 2 and 5am.  Get everything a little wet, and then get the heck out of my life.  I don't like rain.  When I checked the radar Friday morning it said there was 70% chance it would be raining at 7am.  By Friday evening that had increased to a 90% chance.  And Saturday morning I woke up to storms, rain, thunder and lightening, and a 100% chance it would be raining through 8am.  BOOOOOO.

I most certainly considered staying in bed and telling Chris to go by himself (he was working the medical tent), but that $60 entry fee was enough to push myself out the door.  I'm not one to be wasteful!  About certain things anyway... So we got ready, and I followed him in my car downtown.  It was windy, tough to see, and yeah, more lightening.  We parked and started walking towards the medical tent, it was about two blocks maybe?  By the time we made it we were absolutely soaked, even though I was wearing a trash bag and Chris was carrying an umbrella for the two of us.  My shoes and socks were completely saturated.  Nothing like starting a race with an extra pound or so of water squishing in your shoes.  Yay.

The race ended up being delayed for 30 minutes because of lightening.  The rain actually let up right around 7:10, and I really wish we could have just jumped out there and started going.  There was a little window of nothing, and then just a sprinkle, but less than two miles in to the race it was definitely raining again.  On the bright side, the miles went by faster than I thought I was running.  Even though I was only running the 10K, I stuck with the 2:05 half pacer for as long as possible before the split.  I made it through the first few hills (SERIOUS HILLS) without too much of a problem, but by the very last two I just couldn't convince myself to run up them all the way.  Thankfully the race finishes with more than a half mile of downhill, so I came in pretty strong.  The volunteers were kind enough to hand us wet towels at the finish line :o).  And I'm not knocking the volunteers, they were standing out there in the rain for us, but come on.  What's the point?

I grabbed a water, my medal and a banana and went to say goodbye to Chris.  He wrapped some dry towels in one of those solar blanket things for me, and I headed back to my car.  Naturally, while getting my key out, I dropped the towels.  #winning  When I crossed the finish line the clock was at 1:01:29, so I had my fingers crossed that my chip time was under an hour.  Got on my computer to check, and 59:19!  That puts me at a 9:33 pace for the race.  The last time I did Hospital Hill I managed to finish in under 54 minutes, but seeing as several of my runs have been averaging 10 minute miles lately, I was very very happy.

I'm still trucking along with Whole30.  The last few days I have been a little overwhelmed trying to coming up with different things to eat.  I know there are TONS of recipes out there, but I haven't yet ventured in to making my own broth or mayo or all that jazz, so that limits stuff a bit.  Not to mention we were at my parents a bit this weekend, and there was artichoke dip and chocolate chip pancakes and bacon (with added sugar in the ingredients) that I couldn't have.  That I really wanted to eat.  But I stayed strong.  On Friday I picked up some dried pineapple and plantain chips from Trader Joe's.  It is crazy how not having added sugar or really any snacks for 10 days can change your perspective.  The pineapple tasted like candy to me.  Hence the reason I probably won't be buying any more of that until after my Whole30.  I hit that bag HARD.

I haven't been taking photos of all of my meals, I figured chicken + veggie + fruit on repeat would get pretty boring.  But here are a few of my favorites lately.

Scrambled eggs with sweet potatoes and Aidells chicken apple sausage.  I love this breakfast.  Especially the sweet potato sausage part.  Very filling, I definitely don't feel the need to eat between breakfast and lunch anymore because my meals are so satisfying.  We also had Chipolte (twice now! I get tired of cooking...).  The only meat that is Whole30 compliant is the carnitas, so I got a bowl with carnitas, lettuce, fresh tomato salsa and guac.  Not too shabby of a meal.  Steer clear of the fajita vegetables even though they seem like a good idea.  They are cooked in a non-compliant oil.

And then there is the steak.  Because Chris was working the race and I was running, my parents opted to take the girls Friday and have us come to Topeka to get them Saturday.  Therefore we were left without the children overnight for the first time since Elsie was born (only the second time I've been childless overnight since Ryann was born!).  Unfortunately we spent a good chunk of the evening driving downtown to pick up my race packet, but when we got back Chris grilled up some delicious steaks.  Honestly I'm not 100% sure what was on them, but I know it included garlic and cilantro, just because we had it and why not?  I cooked the asparagus and onions in ghee, and honestly couldn't really taste the difference from butter.  It was a great meal and a very nice night.

This week I'll be on my own for dinner, but I'm still hoping to try out some actual recipes to switch things up a bit.  I know some of you are jumping on the Whole30 train, so excited to have other people on this journey with me.  Good luck!