The Proof is in the Pudding…

This Sunday, I ran in a St. Patrick’s Day 8K with some people I work with.  It was company sponsored (read: free), so definitely a good way to encourage me to get out and run without having to shell out money.  Team Excella Consulting had a scheduled rendezvous time of 8:15 AM, which you all know, it really felt like 7:15 due to the start of daylight savings time this weekend.  Talk about an early start on Sunday. 

An 8K is equivalent to 4.97 miles.  Although G$ and I have been going to CrossFit three days a week pretty regularly, with a number of 200, 400, and 800 meter runs incorporated into our WODs, I have done very little long distance running.  Last weekend, I took Kairo out for a 4 mile run and that’s pretty much where my training both started and ended for this race.  Ha!  Therefore my goal was to run a 10:00 minute mile so that’s I’d finish up the race by 10:00AM (it kicked off at 9:00). 

But… true to what our instructor on Day #1 of CrossFit said, CrossFit really does prepare you for anything.  Not only did I run at a sub-10:00 minute mile pace, but I was even at a sub-9:30 minute mile pace!  Clocking in with an official pace of 9:25, with my final chip time being 46.47!  And to get into even more statistics, I placed 352 out of the 1046 total women in my 25-29 age group, that’s hovering around the top third!  I’ll take it!

Side Note: we have some crazy-fast runner at my firm: we placed 4th out of 51 teams (only the top four runners’ times count in the team score).  The guy finished first on our team is absolutely nutso and this past fall, he qualified for the Iron Man Championship down in Kona, Hawaii next year!  Like I said, nutso.  He runs, bikes, and swims more than I think I’ll ever be able want to! 

Team Excella before the race

G$ brought the K-Man into the city to cheer me on.  The combination of being up and at ‘em earlier than normal (remember, Kairo is not a morning dog), walking around the city with lot of people, and bird stalking, really pooped him out.  He was exhausted, which was great for us since he slept while we were at brunch and then for about four hours later in the afternoon.  I’m not sure if it was the time change or my body being in shock from the run, but I took advantage of Kairo’s abnormal calmness by taking a two hour nap with him in the afternoon.  Glorious! 

In other weekend highlights, my sister-in-law Amy had her baby shower this weekend.  And I sadly forgot about my grand plan to buy a UVA onesie as one of my gifts.  Grr!  Since Amy and a number of her friends in attendance when to Tech (no, we don’t hold that against Amy…), I thought it would got a rise out of some folks when she opened it.  Oh well…  My cousin Laura, who’s a few years older than me and lives in Boston, came down for the weekend for the shower.  She stayed with G$ and I on Saturday night, so we went to dinner with my parents in DC – to Station4 in the SW Waterfront area for those in DC, which was good.  We had a somewhat early reservation 6:30 and service was a bit slow, but most people were there for dinner before a show at the Arena Stage, so I’m sure when I told him we weren’t and weren’t in a hurry, that put us lower on his priority list for the first part of the meal.  G$ was a great sport and entertained listened to Laura while walking around DC with Kairo while I was running, then we met up with my parents again for brunch at my favorite place – Liberty Tavern in Clarendon.  I looove their Sunday brunch buffet table.  Needless to say, it was a food-filled weekend and I’m still stuffed! :)

Sadly, I didn't take any pictures at the shower, so here's one of Kairo and G$ on a walk on Sunday afternoon.

Not too much going on after work this week, just planning for our road trip down to visit H, D, and G down in Georgia!  Yes, we are bringing the K-Man, so I’ll be sure to fill you all in on pictures from the weekend and how the 12 hour car ride with the pup went.  I.cannot.wait!  Plus, the weather is looking gooooood: 80s and sunny! 

<3
K$