They're Mine! All Mine!

Well...the shoes are mine. I can't return them anymore. But it is ok, because I took them for a "spin" yesterday afternoon and they were great on my feet. On previous runs in my old shoes, I would come back with a desperate need to throw the shoes as far away from my body as possible, and would spend the rest of the evening with relatively sore feet. Not this time! This time I felt like my feet were well cushioned and my feet were not even remotely sore. I wanted to run for about an hour, but only managed about 25 minutes (actually, 26.42 minutes to be exact). But, for the first time, it was not the run itself that tired me out due to poor running shoes. It was the heat. It was 92 degrees outside with the heat index even higher than that. I know hardcore runners would be pushing through it anyway. It just does not bode well for me if I do that. So I cut my run short and headed back home. Only went 1.92 miles, which is a 13:53mpm pace. It's not my best pace, but I have to remind myself that the heat slows me down. And then I am forever grateful that this race was pushed back to November and is at night. Cooler temps! The race was originally supposed to be this coming weekend, but that is now the Tower of Terror 10 Miler.

Right after my run...nature gifted me with stickers on top of my shoe

As this race approaches, I find myself increasingly nervous about being swept. For those of you not familiar with what that means, allow me to explain. Most races usually have a time limit. It may be that the limit is based on the total time on the course (for example, you must finish within x amount of hours), or it may be that you must maintain a certain pace for each mile. Disney operates on the latter. Their races have a limit of 16 minutes per mile (mpm). If you do not keep up with that pace, you are in risk of being "swept." That means a bus will come and pick you up and transport you to the end of the race. My pace with each run is always under 16mpm, and 16mpm is pretty generous as it is. But for someone like me, who is not some sort of amazing runner, I worry I will not be able to maintain a good pace through the entire course. I must think positive thoughts.

About an hour after running, it was dinner time!

I made pasta and was tempted to add sauce to it. But store bought sauce tends to be high in sugar, which makes it high in carbs. Yes, pasta = carbs. So I don't need to add carbs on top of carbs. I have a recipe for homemade slow cooker marinara sauce, so I need to buy some canning jars to make that. In the meantime, I added just a dab of butter to my one cup of pasta, along with a teaspoon or so of shredded parmesan/asiago/romano, and a sprinkling of dried basil. Delicious!

43 days until I leave for Disney...45 until race day!