More Running!

I just turned 50 at the beginning of July! 

This has given me cause to reexamine my "bucket list".  One of the things on it was to do the Chilli Challenge in upper Pennsylvania.  For anyone who hasn't heard of it, the Chilli Challenge is a triathlon.  You bike for 20 miles, paddle around the lake for 2 miles, and run 5 miles.  

Let's face it:  I'm now 50--time to be realistic.  So, I have been training really, really hard in an effort to do the next best thing, and as a result, I haven't posted for a very long time....

The next best thing to the Chilli Challenge, for me, was the Down and Dirty Mud Run in Philadelphia.  I ran it this past weekend on July 27.  It was hot and humid, but I finished all the obstacles--without assistance, mind you!-- in 52 minutes, 15 seconds.  

Below are some of the highlighted pictures from the day!

Pre-mud:

Some orange people that showed up:

Me at the start (beside the flag):

One of the obstacles "off course" for practice.  There was one on the course too:

Another obstacle (not me) -- the "Slippery Mountain"  and boy, was it ever slippery!!  

The "water crossing"--another term for an additional mud pit:

Coming up out of the last mud pit:

This picture needs no explanation:

Glad it's over with!

The team that "adopted" me and let me run with them:

Overall it was a great experience.  The group would like to do this again next year; we'll see!

Judo.  Either ju do, or ju don't!

Sorry -- bad pun.  But, judo has been a weird blend of therapy, anguish, joy, and confusion for me.  I truly do enjoy the sport though!

I started my love affair with judo back in 1993 when my little girl was 2.  I was taking nursing classes (go figure, right?) and had to take a 1-credit physical education class.  The aerobics sounded interesting--right until I found out that I had to write a thesis, track everything I ate for 3 months, and give 4 speeches.  Uh huh....  I dropped the class and decided to check the course catalog for something else.  Self-abuse, er, I mean, self-defense class looked interesting. My brother had taken Tae Kwon Do in high school and seemed to enjoy it.

So, off I go to the class.  About 3 classes in, I was asked if I wanted to stay after for a "judo clinic."  Aside from the Flintstones (below), I had never heard of judo.

Okay.  So I figured why not?  I eventually bought myself a gi (a judo uniform) and enjoyed it.  For a while, it was like wrestling with my little brother and I discovered I wasn't too bad!  Fast forward a couple of years (and quite a few bruises later) and I am still enjoying myself and getting a great workout.

I am quite older now, and my judo club is quite younger, faster, stronger, and for the most part, smarter than I am.  However I do what I can!  Here are 2 videos of my last competition.  This one was taken about 30 seconds into the competition.  (I am the one with the blue belt.)

This was is the second--it didn't go as well.... (also with the blue belt)

At almost 50 years old, I still enjoy judo even though I don't really "win" very much.  I hope someday to get my black belt!

Candy making.

Easter is a fun time of year!  But most importantly, it's the celebration of the resurrection of our Lord and Savior and His triumph over death and sin.

I won't get into the mythology behind rabbits and the fertility rituals of egg but for the purposes of this post, our church is making eggs to sell and raise money for the annual Havasupai mission trip.  Every year, a small group travel from our church travel to the Grand Canyon in Arizona and assist the Native Americans with various projects and minister to the spiritual and physical needs of the church at the bottom of the canyon. Here is a short video that shows the beauty of the tribal area:

But, I digress.  Back to candymaking!  We are making 3 different kinds of eggs:  peanut butter, coconut cream, and "3M".  The 3M is a knock off of the 3 Musketeers candy bar.  It's actually a nougat candy coated with milk chocolate.  

It's a simple 4-step process:  mixing the ingredients, weighing and forming the eggs, dipping them into chocolate, and packaging.

Mixing the ingredients is always fun, but messy.

  

Weighing and forming the eggs is a tedious but important part of the process.

 After the eggs are formed, the are dipped into the chocolate.

Then, off to packaging!

Although we did not meet our goal of 1,000 eggs today, we made just shy of 700 for the couple of hours we worked.  With the eggs made in the prior season, we came even closer for a grand total of 880 eggs made!  And, since we started late in the year, we will probably have another session of egg-making to extend the "egg" season past Easter.

A very sincere thanks to everyone who participated as well as bought or sold eggs for us!!

Running. 

When I first started to try to lose weight (oh too many years ago), I tried dieting and exercise.  Aerobics, yoga, weight lifting:  been there, done that.  I occasionally walked on the treadmill, and saw all of the other people in the gym clicking off the calories, sometimes as much as 500 calories in a half hour.  And, they all seemed to be thin.

How does one get to that point?

After a lot of frustration, I did a few Internet searches.  Could there possibly be some type of running program out there for me--someone who could barely lift a 20 pound dumbbell?  And then, a miracle happened.  I found a program called "Couch to 5K."  Yep.  Sounds like a perfect fit for me!

Then, fast forward about 20 years to now.  I'm now working on my bucket list, one item which is to do the Chilli Challenge.  Well, I doubt that will happen, but I could at least put forth an effort.  After all, Rome wasn't built in a day!

So this morning, I did my first 5K, not counting the 5K that I walked several years ago.  After months of training on the treadmill, I ran in the St. Margaret Mary School 5K race.  Up hill, down hill, slight inclines, slight declines, and plenty of level running.  My time (what I recorded), was 37 minutes and 20 seconds.  And, I finished a 154th place!! 

I didn't win a medal, but I feel pretty good that I finished ahead of a hundred other people.  Yay!!