Running in 23 degrees...

Yep, it was pretty darn cold running the St Jude 5k this year. I love doing it for the cause, the crowd, the excitement and well because its one of the only ones Tony will do with me. The morning started out crazy with my windshield being frozen and it taking us forever to get the ice off and running late to get there and park. But we made it in time and had a good race. We even made it over to the Peabody to check out the decorations, tree and gingerbread houses. 

Jazzercise Race for the Cure pictures...yes I ran with a camera..

With Belinda before the race and Belinda with her daughter Catherine. We are all ready to run with a record 16,000 people!!!

After the race I posed with the Wizard of Oz crew from the Memphis Ballet. They had the greatest costumes, I wish I woulda gone and seen it!! We looked everywhere for the rest of the Jazzercise group with no luck!

Women's Run Program

This was a couple of weeks ago, but I still wanted to post about an excellent program that the Memphis Runners do for women in Memphis. I am a very casual runner, I actually don't like doing it, it is VERY rare that I go out on my own and just run. The only time this happens is when I am really desperate to lose a couple of pounds and I'm sure it will be happening all the time next spring and summer before the wedding! But the program that Memphis Runners puts on is excellent. It starts in the summer and goes for 8 weeks, commencing with a 5k. Several of the women are beginners and have never walked or ran a 5k. I always improve my time a little from what I had been running, only to slack a little in the winter, nonetheless, it gets my butt out there to run on Mondays in the hot Memphis heat!  I think it is wonderful to promote exercise and Belinda and I completed the run, that is us above and when I got home I got the best welcome from my boys!! 

Friday Before the 4th

I was really bummed. We didn't have any 4th of July plans. I wanted to go to the beach with our friends Melvin and Leslie, but all the rooms we found in Destin were 2 bedrooms and no one would go with us. It would have been silly to pay for a 2 bedroom, and Tony was being the adult and convincing me that we needed to save up for the 5 trips we already have planned this fall. So..I agreed to hang out here and just do some fun things. Friday we hung out at the CAC pool for a couple hours, Tony found him a nice big umbrella to hang out under. After about 2 hours of sun, he decided to get some Taco Bell and for some reason I ordered a Taco, but still got a Vivanno at Starbucks. We were to run the Firecracker 5k and both of us were kinda hurting from the night before (NKOTB and his night with the guys) and now we were really hurting with this Taco randomness. We got to the race and didn't think we would make it, but we did. I actually ran in under 32 minutes, which is better than my past 3 5k's. Of course they clocked me over 33 minutes, so much for those timing chips that ARE NOT accurate. 

After running we went and picked up Andrea and Shannon and watched the fireworks in their neighborhood, The Lakes of Cordova. Pretty good show considering it was just for the Cordova area in a neighborhood. I have a good 'fireworks' setting on my camera and that is what I used..

After the fireworks we went to TJ Mulligan's and had some good convo on the patio. 

Gibson 5k and Alexis Grace Mini Concert with Elmo and the Shades

Saturday was the 13th annual Gibson Guitar 5k. It is always a huge race, and this year there were over 1500 people that participated. I had a crazy morning, did two Jazzercise classes and slammed my left hand in my car door, I don't know if those account for not a good run, but let's blame it on that and the extreme heat anyway.  Tony came up for support and to be the photographer. The race was packed and at one point I got choked when a runner behind be grabbed (I hope accidentally) my iPod headphones and almost pulled me down. I have such the luck. The highlight Saturday night was the Mini Concert by Alexis Grace of American Idol fame. I even paid the donation to get my picture with her. I look enormous next to her petite frame. She said she would check out my blog, so here's a shout out to her if she actually does! :) Hey if anyone can give me tips on how to turn the video over so Alexis is not singing on her side, PLEASE leave me a comment and let me know. I still feel new at this! :)

Move It Memphis-Some Bad 5k Pictures

So last Saturday, not this past SickSaturday, I ran the Inaugural Move It Memphis 5k. I had to miss the inaugural Fight for Life 5k this past Saturday :( The Move It Memphis 5k was  a lot of fun, very cold, but fun and a nice new course. I found these pictures online, thank goodness I cant get them to go any bigger bc I look terrible. I mean I usually take good pictures, but I wasnt posing in these :) The first one is funny bc Julie is zooming pasting me! My finish line one is funny bc I look exhausted, which is accurate! 

A Cold Run, but for a good cause...

I finally got Tony to run another 5k since the Firecracker on July 3rd. He isn't much into running at a slow pace for three miles, he would rather run and stop for awhile, and that's what he did for this run. He said he was waiting on me so we could finish together, which he did. Belinda, Loren and Julie and Greg ran too. I always like running this race bc it is for such a good cause. Last year a group of us ran the half marathon and I was a little sentimental THINKING, just thinking about doing it again, but it is just so physically hard to do! I don't think my lungs are cut out for that much running at one time. This year,  I wanted to make sure we got some good pictures after the race, so I ran with my camera in the back pocket of my pants. NOT a good idea, bc the weight of the camera was slowing draggin my pants down, thank goodness I had on a pair of tights underneath.  So I had to get my drawstring tied and after that I was good, but not an easy task in gloves. After we ran we thawed out in the Peabody lobby and took some "Christmas Card" photos by the tree.  

Walk. Run. FightAIDS 5k, Andrea gets 2nd place I got 4th!

Was that misleading!? I found pics of us on their website! And Andrea got 2nd place in our age group, I got 4th and am happy with that ;)  Poor Belinda got caught in the rain! 

No More Caspian for now..

Had a fun weekend!! Friday night Tony and I had the Oprah/Trump (Mar-a-Lago) burger over at Randy and Diane's. They were yummy, couldnt stay up too late, bc Andrea, Kelly, Belinda and I ran a 5k to benefit Friends for Life early the next morning. I had done a Hula for their Volunteer night and they seemed to be a great organization. It was a fun 5k, sorry no pictures, it poured rain right as we crossed the finish line and caught our breath. I did have one of my best times in the 31:5oish range. Andrea still beat me, but atleast I have someone to chase! We are doing one, maybe two this weekend and I'll try to take pics then. Saturday night we went to a fun shower for Katie and Michael. They have a lot of fun people in their wedding party that threw them a super-fun shower! I will add pictures later, because I do have some funny ones from that night.  Sunday we finally went and saw Batman. It was good, but not worth all the hype in my opinion. Maybe that's just not my genre of movie or something. Heath Ledger was AMAZING as the Joker and does deserve some sort of award, not sure an Oscar, but maybe a nomination, its still early...  Later that night we ate at Osaka, my favorite sushi spot in Memphis, with Julie and Greg.  Julie is starting a cake making company called Cake Couture, be on the lookout for that, when I get more info, I"ll blog about it. Today, Winter and I had lunch at Caspian Restaurant for the last time. They are closing down in hopes of reopening as a hookah lounge in the next month or so, keep your fingers crossed bc I don't know what I'd do if I couldn't eat koobideh or boneless chicken anymore in Memphis!!!!! We were the last ones in there...ever..well until they open back up as a Hookah Bar...