Birthday Review and 5K Run

Thank you all so much for the birthday wishes! I had a fabulous weekend in every respect. I spent time with good friends, had a wonderful time with my husband, got to watch my favorite city celebrate its favorite holiday, ate a ton of delicious food, dressed up in pretty clothes, did some browsing-shopping with a girlfriend, and then ran a 5K race and went home and collapsed in a heap. What more could anyone want for turning 42?

I have decided, based on all the food and drink that I freely and unapologetically enjoyed this weekend, that I am giving myself a birthday present and NOT getting on the scale until next Monday. I need a week to recover and get back into the Medifast rhythm, so that's what I am giving to myself.

Here are a few fashion-related shots of the weekend. Didn't get all the outfits documented, sorry!

Friday night: Drunken grin at Weber Grill. This was my work outfit as well: the brown-and-white Alfani dress, a pearl necklace on brown string, black cascading cardigan.


Saturday night dinner with Hubby: Black Target moto jacket, maroon scoop Loft tee-shirt, black knit Loft dress, gold locket necklace, black patterned hose, plum patent La Canadienne rainboots. Did I mention it was rainy and cloudy all day?



The amazing capper to the best meal of my life at Sepia. Hee!


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Onto the big news: my first 5K! Hubby was only there for a few minutes before he took off to go fish, so there is only one photo of me, and the rest I took while I was running. :) The theme was St. Patrick's Day, so again there were lots of people dressed up in costumes. I stuck with just a dark green top (peeking out under my running jacket).



It was really freakin' cold out. So glad I had invested in all the cold-weather gear; I wore every single thing! We also got a t-shirt for signing up, and I added that to the layers as well.

The race was at Diversey Harbor. It's too soon for any of the boats to be in yet, but it's still a pretty area. We lucked out; the rain and fog that had permeated the area broke up in time for the race, so it ended up being a really nice day!



People getting ready:




Then we were off! It was pretty muddy with lots of puddles on the path, so it was slow-going in spots as we all navigated through narrow running areas in a large group. I think next time I will try to get a spot further up in the crowd; I know I ended up running with the slower people around me, but we were very far back and it was almost all walkers behind us. That actually doesn't do well for my motivation because it makes me feel even slower than I am, if that makes any sense.

The two mile mark (the time is from when the race started, not my actual time):


I averaged just under 13 minutes per mile. Not bad, not great. It gives me lots of room to improve as I keep racing! I won't lie; I did stop and walk 3 times during the race, for short stints. I'll be looking to improve on that too.

The three mile mark. I got a good hard run in after that, with my final burst of energy:


My final time was 39:26, my pace was 12:44, and I came in 815 out of about 1800 participants. 37 out of 48 of my division (Women ages 40-44), and 457 out of 545 for my gender overall. Not that any of those stats really matter, except as a personal baseline so I can see my improvement as my 5K year progresses.

They were serving bananas and green bagels to runners afterward. Ha!



Instead, Hubby and I went out for pancakes. I love pancakes after a run; that's a tradition I think I will keep.

If you are interested in seeing what went on at the Dying of the Chicago River, check out my photography blog for the scoop.

Now it is time for reality to start up again. Back to work!