Mid-November running & food report

This weekend I ran my first timed, registered 5K since I ran the Freihofer's race in June.  I have been running pretty regularly, working out a lot, and just last week had one of the best runs I'd done in a while of 4.5 miles.  That was the most I had ever done for just a "leisurely" run.

As I may or may not have mentioned before on the blog, since January I have been a part of Weight Watchers At Work.  I attend Weight Watchers meetings and get weighed in every Wednesday and have been doing so since January 19th.  I've had a lot of success with the program and as of my last weigh in, I was at a total of 49 lbs lost!

It has been fun for me to become lighter on my feet and enjoy physical activities such as running, soccer, biking and hiking more  This past year has also changed what I do with friends and loved ones for "fun."  In the past, fun activities when visiting friends often included eating, getting a drink out, staying out late, etc.  Whereas now, they involve cooking meals together, taking a yoga class, and running a 5K.  Which brings me to this past weekend...

I was in Boston visiting friends and we signed up for and ran a 5K together on Saturday morning.

My time for the Boston Colon Cancer "Get Your Rear in Gear" race was an official time of 30:56 at a pace of 9:59 min/mile. Yes you read that right, 30:56!!  That is a full 4 minutes and 28 seconds faster than my PR in June of 35:24.  Can you believe it?  I actually couldn't at first.  I was scared to say my time out loud and get excited because I thought maybe I had made a mistake... maybe I had read the time wrong or read the race registration wrong... was this race actually shorter than a 5K?  Well, no, it was not, I just ran it a lot faster than my previous race-- likely attributed to the fact that I am around 20 lbs lighter than when I ran my last race!!

Besides being proud of myself and my time, this race was special as we chose this race to run in support of a friend of a friend whose father is battling Colon Cancer.  To see her, her family and her friends all coming together to support this cause was really meaningful and gave me a little extra burst of energy.

The race course was around Castle Island in Boston, right along the water.  It was a beautiful day and a beautiful run along the waterfront.  I am looking forward to my next 5K where I can try to push myself more.  I never imagined I'd be saying this, but my running goal now is to break 30 minutes in a 5K.  As for Weight Watchers, I still have ~15 lbs to lose before I am even in the healthy BMI range.  However, I've got some fun goals ahead of me... like breaking into the next number range and reaching 50 lbs!!

Here is to setting and achieving your goals.  And believing in yourself. Cheers.