Fast and Furriest 5K/ 1Mile Walk

Hello there little Blog!

Things have been busy! I'll skip all the little details and get right to the fun stuff!

Last weekend I participated in the Fast and Furriest 5K/ 1 Mile Walk. It's an event to support the local Humane Society. As I mentioned before, my sister is involved with doing community work through Starbucks, so she offered to give out free coffee and tea. We also volunteered to walk shelter dogs!

I however, had the grand plan of walking my own dog to the soccer fields, where the event was held, walk the one mile and either walk back or get a ride back. The soccer fields are about a mile and a half from my home, so I didn't think it would be a problem. What I didn't count on is the fact that my little dog (the one that is friendly with other people and dogs) is out of shape and a bit pudgy now!

This is Sherlock, about a mile in.

About a mile or less into the walk, Sherlock was ready to go home! He stopped a couple of times and tried to turn around even! In the picture above, I was heading the opposite direction! But we finally got to the soccer fields and my pup was happy to be around other dogs and people. Haha.

This is a super small race, with all of the timing done by hand(!), so I quickly got registered for the 1 mile walk, got my shirt, and the volunteers handed out dogs to be walked.
My niece got the sweetest dog, Babe. She was timid around other dogs, but really friendly with people and listened well.

My sister on the other hand got the exact opposite. She received a very enthusiastic pitt bull, named Pebbles.

Here they are trying to wrangle him.

Pebbles was really fun, but a lot to handle! Thankfully we had a couple of extra people with us, so they all took turns being walked By Pebbles!

Headed to the start line.

Strutting our stuff on the mile walk.

This little guy didn't quite make it the whole mile. He got plumb tuckered out ;)

Starbucks Crew making people happy with caffeine!

It was a really good time. The only problem is, people had to wait around a long time to get the results from the 5K for awards and such. If the race continues to grow (this is only the second year of having it), they will have to figure out a different method for timing.

And by the end, Sherlock was done. My sister gave us a ride back to my house. Haha.

Afterwards, we got a bite to eat and we took my niece and nephew to see How to Train Your Dragon II. It was very cute! But I must have over done it a bit, because after that I took a good two hour nap! It was probably all the pulling I had to do to get Sherlock to walk with me!

Speaking of which, I have a bigger dog, half German Shepherd, half Lab maybe, that I've been trying to take on more walks. I'm going to try to get her to be my running dog. Since I'm starting over and just have to walk right now, it's a good time to start her out slowly. Hopefully she will do well. She doesn't do well with lots of other dogs and people, but I think she will be okay with just us. As long as we keep moving that is...

I'll update more about how I'm doing in my next post, which will include my first run/walk race since March when all of my muscle issues started!

Fast and Furriest

Let's see. My life just seems busy every night. It's full of either exercise, cleaning (blah), packing for something or another, or some activity. First, since it's exercise related, I'll recount my first race ever as a spectator.

On Saturday, I joined my lovely sister, who is the community coordinator (or something like that) for the Starbucks she works at to volunteer at a local race. This was a charity 5K run./ 1 mile walk for the Raleigh County Humane Society, called the Fast and Furriest 5K. I was hoping to see lots of puppies and I was not disappointed!

This would be a roller derby team that was promoting their sport. Super cool.

Everyone getting ready for the race to start.

Obviously had to bring a Chai tea, we were representing Starbucks after all.

We had a little stand where we set up coffee and iced coffee. My sister and I agreed that next year, iced tea, coffee, and water would be a better decision. Not too many runners want coffee right before a race ;)
Then we also got to time the walkers. I was not very good at this! We were doing fine until they all came at once and I'm pretty sure I forgot to write someone's time down. Oops. This was the first year that the Humane Society put on the race. In my opinion, they did a good job. They didn't have chip timing, but the race is still small, so I don't think it will be an issue unless it grows. For the first time though the turn out was pretty good. They had over 80 to preregister and then over 40 people registered that day.

The course sounded a little goofy, but I think the runners found the way alright. Everyone said it was well marked and I saw little signs on our way out with arrows and telling runners which way to go. There was one water station, which is all you really need for a 5K, but it must have been so hot on the pavement! The one problem I had is that it started at a soccer field where another event was going on and they didn't stop traffic, so the runners were dodging cars and some people didn't slow down very much. Even at the finish line where everyone was gathered, people still went fast! Hopefully this won't be an issue next year if they have it there again.


After spending Sunday at a reception for a friend who eloped, I headed back home. Monday, instead of going to the group run I decided to run right after work. It was a humid, miserable three miles at slightly over an 11 min. pace (ugh). But soon enough it was done with and gave me time to go home, shower, and head right back out of the door to go to a bicycle maintenance class that the multisport club was sponsoring. It was a little awkward. They all knew one another and I kind of just sat there until the class started. Sometimes it sucks being the newbie. The class itself was very helpful though. I wasn't the only one who didn't know all the technical terms, I now know what a cassette and derailleur is! I learned about proper cleaning and how to change my tires (=good to know). I won't get into details since it would probably be really boring, but I would recommend it to anyone who's getting into cycling.

I still need to join either a bike ride or swim, but dammit, they all seem so professional, I know I'll be left behind and that feeling kind of sucks. One of these days though I'll find the courage.

Tuesday I hit up the 6AM Spin class at the gym. I don't even know who I am anymore! Then after work I wanted to clean my bike since I learned the proper way and ended up not only cleaning my bike but our whole back porch. It took quite a few hours and I felt like I burned a million calories in the humidity.

Today I ran 5.24 miles on the treadmill. Still experiencing some knee pain, but it didn't hurt a lot on the treadmill. I'm going to take this as a good sign, since I have a 10K this weekend! I'm excited. It's the Biggest Loser run and I hope to meet some of the old contestants! This is also the race I'm doing in Erie, PA in August, except it will be the Half Marathon!

So I have to pack tomorrow for the race and for the week long beach trip with my family! Sooo excited! This is the first vacation with the whole family in a really long time. Better get going on my laundry!

PS. If you haven't, watch Extreme Makeover: Weightloss Edition. Really inspiring and interesting!