My April Whole30: Day 5

Breakfast:

 

 

Lunch:

Snack:

Dinner:

Dessert:

Sleep (Last Night): 7.5 hours

Workout:  15 minute hike with Puddin'

Thoughts:  Free hoagies, potato salad, and cookies at work today.  Someone also brought in coconut cream Hershey kisses.  "Oh just have one, it's just one bite."  Come on people!

Did you notice my snack?  It was a spin off of this recipe, but I made mine whole30 compliant by using prosciutto instead of bacon (great sub!) and ghee instead of butter.  My version looks a little sad compared to the link because I tried to make it as quickly as possible with some help from the microwave.  I probably could've used some more prosciutto as well... next time!  My neighbor made the original recipe for us a few months ago and it's become one of our favorite snacks!  If you like avocado (and I know everybody likes bacon) you have to try it!

Dinner came out great!  I was so busy serving the meal and so excited to eat that I completely forgot to snap a shot!  The picture above is of our leftovers.  Having Shayna and Kyle over for dinner was wonderful and they were so kinda as to abstain from alcohol for the night and bring fruit salad for dessert!  I topped mine with some coconut for a little extra something something and it hit the spot.

5 down, 25 to go!

How do you handle temptation when your surroundings keep pushing it in your face?

Going to the Chapel

When two of my best friends asked me to be in their weddings and I found out that they were back to back weekends, I wasn't so sure about all of it.  The expenses, scheduling the events on top of my already crazy schedule, and working with a ton of other bridesmaids... I knew it was going to be a bit overwhelming.  The bridal showers and bachelorettes both ended up back to back as well and there were certainly times when I thought, what have I gotten myself into?!  But in the end, it was all worth it.  Both weddings were so different from each other, but each was so special and moving and I was so glad to be a part of both.

Although I had a chance to post some of the pictures from Heather's wedding, I never got around to sharing Shayna's special day.  Better late than never, right?!

 

 

Yup, I caught the bouquet!  That lady isn't protecting herself from me jumping at her or anything...  Four weddings down, one to go!

Do you love weddings?  What's your favorite part?
I love busting a move, but the first kiss always gives me the chills!

ODDyssey Half Marathon Race Recap

I know I keep saying it, but it still seems surreal, I can't believe I ran a half marathon!

We got up at 5 am, left the hotel around 5:55, parked, walked over, and arrived just before 6:30.

We immediately got into the long porta potty lines and shortly after my family arrived!

Next thing I knew it was only a few minutes before the race was starting and we were lined up in our corral.

7 am... after walking for about 2 minutes up to the corral (as opposed to almost 40 at Broad Street), we were off!  It was pretty crowded at the beginning, but nothing like Broad Street, we weren't almost tripping over people.  We passed my family and Dave right in the beginning!  Tom was cheering SO loud.

The first few miles were a big loop around the start, which was nice because we got to see my fam multiple times.  It was super cloudy, which was amazing because you could feel the humidity right from the beginning.  I was feeling pretty good and these miles were fairly uneventful other than checking out all the funny costumes people were wearing, not to mention this guy who juggled the entire 13.1 miles!

Then we headed down a big hill around mile 4 and I got a mini side stitch.  I think it was from running too fast down the hill, but it subsided pretty quickly once we started our out and back.  I didn't enjoy the beginning of this part because the road was super slanted.  But soon we had some beautiful scenery with the river and the art museum approaching.  And then we started seeing the leaders come back which was inspiring and provided some eye candy, hello shirtless Mr. America hehe.

Next thing we knew we were at the Art Museum turning around.  Passing all the runners behind us was kind of fun, I felt fast and we were cheering on all the people towards the end that looked like they needed some inspiration!  Shayna had her ipod on her arm, so we decided some tunes would help pump us up.  Next thing I know we were headed into the next out and back for miles 8-12 and the sun started to come out but a lot of this part was shaded by trees, thank goodness!  Around mile 9 there was a band along the course, they weren't playing and we were kind of bummed, until we realized there was a girl passed out next to them.  Thankfully she had some medics with her, but it definitely gave me the chills to see her laying there.

My knees started to ache as we approached double digits, but I was still feeling pretty good and I knew we only had a few miles left.  Around mile 11 Don't Stop Me Now by Queen came on and it totally pumped us up, we were singing and loving it.  I hope the people around us liked Queen :)  I was really starting to anticipate the big hill at the end and then we started to hear the crowd cheering ahead of us...

I was like, oh somebody has some fans, those people are loud.  And then I saw my dad across the street in a tie dye shirt that he wasn't wearing at the beginning of the race.  I was like oh, hi Dad!  And then he points across the street and I realize... OMG those people cheering are MY friends!  I was blown away!

Over a dozen of my friends were screaming for us with matching tie dye shirts holding homemade signs!  I couldn't believe how awesome they were!

That gave me the perfect boost for the end of the race!  As we passed the mile 12 marker I kept thinking, omg only 1 left, I'm going to finish this thing!

And then around 12.5, the big hill came.  I knew there was a hill right at the end of this race from reading people's race recaps from last year and I knew what to expect since we ran down it in the beginning of the race... but then here it was.  My knees and hips were both in pain, but I didn't care... I was definitely ready to make that hill my bitch!  All that hill training in Valley Forge was worth it because I killed it.  So many people were walking up the hill and I felt like a champion passing everyone.  I refused to walk and soon enough, the hill was over and I could see the finish!

Passing Shayna's mom and her boyfriend gave me some energy and next thing I knew I was passing my huge fan club of friends and family all screaming my name and I sprinted to the finish!

 

 
I wanted to finish in 2:15, but I was feeling kind of disappointed when I looked up at the race clock and it said 2:16... but then I realized we didn't cross the start line until 2 minutes after the clock started!  I hit my goal and finished in 2:14:44 (chip time)!  Here are my splits!

 
Seriously, I ran the mile with the ridiculous hill at a 9:32 pace?!  Shayna finished shortly behind me with a smile on her face too!

 
Jenn came in strong a bit after us but apparently my team of photographers was a bit distracted, sorry Jenn!

After I finished, I got my metal and headed back to my fan club to give everyone sweaty hugs and get tons of congratulations!

I DID IT!  I felt amazing after finishing and having my family and all my friends there really just made it so special!  What an amazing experience!

ODDyssey Race Expo & City Eats

Let's start at the beginning...

After eating an entire box of mac & cheese out of the pot I made it in (hey, I was carb loading!), we headed down to Philly to our hotel.

Shortly after we checked in, we hopped a cab over to Boathouse Row to meet Shayna and Jenn at the race expo.

After Broad Street, this expo was a little bit on the sad side, well it was just tiny!  But we were super pumped to be there anyway.

The back of the shirt is really cool because you can fill in your finishing time using a sharpie to fill in the yellow to make the numbers!  We were mildly disappointed when we couldn't find any 13.1 car magnets, but Shayna actually found some at a running store after the race.

After parking Shayna's car and hanging in the room for a little while, we walked across the street to meet up with Michelle and Alex for some dinner at Pizza Rustica.

 

The menu was loaded with so many mouthwatering choices it was hard to pick just one, so Dave and I decided to split the pollo a la rustica pizza (roasted rosemary chicken, mushrooms, caramelized onions, roasted red peppers, tomato sauce and mozzarella) and a Philly style supreme pie both on a wheat crust.

The food was SO delicious.  Just in case we weren't full enough, we spotted a frozen yogurt place a few doors down.  I'd only been to a build your own froyo once before when I was California a few summers ago, but now I officially need to hunt one down closer to home.  I felt like a little kid building my own sundae with all the best goodies.

After we settled into our food comas, we headed straight to bed.  I was feeling a little anxious about the next day, but also excited that the big day was finally here.  I fell asleep pretty quickly, but woke up with my heart pounding when someone was knocking repeatedly at our door around 12:30.  When I finally got up and answered the door, some random kid was standing there looking really awkward when he realized he was at the wrong room.  I settled back into bed and tried to relax because I knew my 5 am alarm was looming!

To be continued...