I have good news and a late 5k recap

I have good news for you.

Well not yet, but almost. The exciting sentiment is there so you get what I'm saying.

Let’s start with the amazing and always-necessary pictures of what I ate today.

Deliciousness all over the place.

 I’m sorry. I have an oversharing problem. It’s a syndrome. Like turrets, but with iphone pictures. I’ve tried getting help but my insurance doesn’t cover ridiculousness.

Confession: I’ve only run twice this week. Usually I like to run 3 times during the week and once on the weekend. That seems to be the perfect amount for me, but this week has been chaotic and just rough in general so I gave myself a pass. Anyway, tonight’s run was a good 5 miles on the treadmill. I decided to fight boredom by playing with the speed. That was fun. Well, as fun as running fast can be. So medium amounts of fun. I don't know why I'm still typing really.

Confession part 2: I am secretly in love with Avril Lavigne's new song.(Well I guess it's not a secret anymore. Please don't judge me. I'm the only one allowed to do the judging around here kay?) 

But also can we please just talk about this cover?

Avril it's been TEN YEARS! COOL IT ON THE SMOKY EYE!

Even though she is a massive Canadian B, I have this song on constant repeat. 

Avril-1, Natalie-0. That's embarrassing.

With all the craziness of Monday I forgot to do a little mini recap of the Victory Over Violence 5k this past weekend. I know you've been sitting around biting your nails just waiting for me to remember so I won't make you wait any longer. I'm sweet like that. 

Friday night Taylor and I had a really exciting drive through date and then just hung out at his house on the couch and went to bed early A) because I was tired and B) because I was forcing him to wake up at 6:30 and drive me to the 5k.

Saturday morning we headed out bright and early and arrived at the 5k right around 7:45 for the 8:30 start. I waited in line for the porta potty for about 35 minutes and then headed to the start line.

Okay. So. This race took place in the same location as the 10k I ran in December. It's a relatively small area, so I was expecting a similar turnout, just a couple hundred people. UM, NO. There were SO MANY PEOPLE. People everywhere. About ten minutes before start, they vaguely announced over the loud speaker how they wanted people to line up, your basic "if you are fast go to the front if you are slow or walking go to the back." Except for NO ONE LISTENED. Which made the first mile less of a race and more of an freakin' obstacle course. 

I told Taylor he was on photog duty. He did a really fantastic job of getting the guy who came in first with a time of 15:56...

And a really terrible job of capturing me, his girlfriend. 

Oh hi there I am walking after I've already crossed the finish line. Definitely frameworthy. NOT.

Anyways, Taylor is officially fired from picture duty because he's just not very good at it.

I mentioned last week that I'd kindove forgotten about this race so I hadn't given much thought to my "strategy" and decided I'd probably just run as fast as I could for as long as I could and call it a day. Which is precisely what I did. Finish time: 24:23, average pace of 7:51. My MapMyRun app showed my splits as 8:21, 7:32, and 7:19. Overall, I'm really happy with that! It would've been nice to see what my time would've been if I hadn't spent the entire first mile dodging in and out of the woggers, but oh well. 

The other piece of good news is that this race did an AWESOME job of post-race festivities. There was SO much food. You would've thought we'd just finished a marathon. 

26.2? 3.1? Safe diff. Hey- I don't argue with free food. 

Restaurants that had a tent at this race were L'Madeleine, Corner Bakery, Mrs. Bairds, and about a million more I can't remember. So freaking happy.

After the race Taylor and I headed about a half a mile down the street to Luke's Locker where I picked up a new pair of shiny and beautiful Mizunos. 

I'm sooooo excited to have a new pair of shoes. I haven't run in them yet, but I'm thinking I'll bust them out for a run probably next week. I just wanted to be sure and get a new pair before I started training for the Jalapeno Half in June. Mission accomplished. 

Weekend I am ready for you!

(Serious side note: This has been a rough week. First Boston, and now the devastating explosion in West. I’m feel totally helpless and at a loss for words. So let’s all just do what we can. If you can give blood, give it. If you can donate money, donate. If you can pray, then pray hard.)

LOVE&HUGS,

Nat