Posts Tagged by Whole Foods

HEY friends!! Thanks for the good luck messages and advice about my race! It was SO GREAT!!

 

I started my morning with my usual pre-run fuel:

Banana oatmeal with chopped dates.

 

I then got dressed in my race stuff and ready to go! My race didn’t actually start until 1.20pm but the other age groups started from 11am so we went to cheer them on, and we needed to walk the course beforehand anyway. Race outfit:

 

My running team provided the top and shorts. These were the shortest shorts I have ever worn in my life!! Comfy yes,  but too short for my liking!!

AND they rode up when I was running! Running buns are not my friend. Yet.

 

I also broke every rule in the book by wearing all NEW clothes. New team vest, new buns, and new shoes! I knew it wouldn’t matter much though for a short race, so I just rolled with it.

Asics Hyper-Rocketgirl XC spikes. I originally bought Nike Waffles (purely because of the name ) but they were too wide for my feet. Don’t tell anyone but I wore my spikes a bit around the house and made one huge scratch in the laminate flooring…oops!

 

It was the PERFECT running conditions, and a beautiful course!

 

I walked the course twice before the start to make sure I knew the route:

It was two laps of the course (the red loop), plus a bit extra on the second lap (the blue wooded loop on the left hand side), and I decided I officially hate two lap courses! Going past the finish line knowing you’re less than halfway is tough!!

 

So I had two hours to kill before my race started, which I used to munch on my pre-race snack…

 

…and to cheer on the other age groups. I caught our youngest age group going off:

Our team did did AMAZING in this age group, finishing 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 7th!! Now that is TEAM running!!

 

Aaaand then my camera died. Guess which idiot left the spare batteries at home? So instead of a photo of me finishing (definitely a good thing- I looked like I was dying), here is a visual representation:

I can see I have a future in graphic design for sure That person apparently squat-jogging up the hill is yours truly, closing down on a rival who I had been shadowing the whole race. I was closing the gap in the last 200m up that hill mountain and I could feel myself pulling a Mo Farah face with the effort:

 

And I BEAT HER by an inch!! I then almost passed out and had to be held up by the race marshals- trust me to be the drama queen! I recovered quickly (I had just pushed myself too hard-nothing major!) and did a little cooldown jog and stretching.

 

I didn’t wear my Garmin in the race (decided just to run by feel, which I later regretted!) and there was no race clock annoyingly, so I had no idea of my time until I saw the results come up on the website later! I came 12th out of the 98 runners in my age group with a time of 14.59 for approx 3600m (which I am very happy with considering the hills and that it’s the first race of the season!). I also broke my team’s record for the highest placing debut runner in this race! WIN!

 

When I got back, I had a hot/ice cold shower and downed a recovery smoothie:

1 frozen banana, 1 scoop vanilla protein powder, 3/4 cup vanilla soy milk, 3 dates.

 

I did some ‘active recovery’ later with a Whole Foods trip because I was dying for some canned pumpkin. All that walking up and down the aisles did me a lot of good, as did the taster table:

I think you can guess where I stood munching away for 5 minutes

 

Some of the highlights of my haul:

An new-to-me crunchy PB, refried black beans (which were buy one, get one free and they are TOTALLY addictive!), canned pumpkin x 10000 cans, my fave granola, a spicy pinto bean dip, and some vegan sea salt dark chocolate! I cried when I found out my fave chocolate- Lindt Sea Salt- wasn’t vegan, so I was unbelievably happy when I found this!!

 

The very best thing though was the slice of Peanut Butter cream tart I bought!

The photo does it no justice. It was beyond words. I am DEFINITELY going to recreate this!!

 

And today, despite the race, I had NO aches or pains, which was a first! Shows what good recovery (i.e. stretching, hot/cold showers, post-race nutrition, shopping, and cream tarts) can do for you!

 

This post is long enough already, so my Sunday shenanigans (we’re talking PANCAKES here obviously) are coming at you tomorrow!

 

What was the toughest race you’ve ever run? This one was tough- I think I’m more suited to slightly longer distances! And cross country was a bit of a shock since it is SO much tougher than running on roads!! But much more fun

 

Are you a pumpkin fan? I LOVE IT!! Major obsession!!

 

What is your opinion on shorts length? Do you mind short shorts or not? I’ll get used to them I guess!! According to my coach, our race outfit for track season is crop tops and bikini-bottom style buns. I’m not sure if he was joking seeing my reaction to these shorts but I think he was serious…!

Hope you’ve all had a great weekend! <3