Races Archives -

May 14, 2016

My 2nd Disney Princess Half-Marathon

Alrighty… so full discretion, I have deleted and re-written the beginning of this post 3 times now. I have no idea how to start it off. Let’s try this again: The past year or two, I’ve been blogging from a desktop computer. That doesn’t bode well for a busy body like myself so I haven’t made much of an appearance around these parts lately, but my blogging bug has been biting for quite some time. I decided that it was time to switch the desktop for a laptop so I could be more full functioning in the blog world and with my Arbonne business. So here I am, yay! I’m excited to use my time more efficiently by popping into a coffee shop in between work and an evening event or during lunch to get some work done, blogging or otherwise.

Now the question is… what post should I start with?! How about something fun? Yes. Something Fun. And not just a little fun, but a lot of fun!

Let’s chat about my recent Disney Princess Half-Marathon today!!

In true Nick & Heather fashion, we left Jackson right after I got off work Thursday and decided to drive through the night. We arrived to Orlando Friday morning. It’s been a little while since we took this trip and I’m not putting all the pieces together, so this may be a hodge podge of events throughout our trip. I know that we hung out around the parks on Friday, but I don’t recall which ones because apparently I didn’t take pictures. On Saturday though, we hit up Magic Kingdom! I needed a nice carb-loaded breakfast to prepare myself for race day so we tried something new, Belgium waffles from Sleepy Hollow. Let me tell you, we were extremely pleased.

I went with the nutella waffle that came with deliciously fresh bananas and strawberries. It was a great serving size for the price and I’ll definitely be getting this again! Nick got the Waffle with Strawberries & Whip Cream. He really enjoyed his too. The strawberries on his were more of a syrup-like blend of strawberries, which I’m not a huge fan of, so I’m really glad I went with the nutella option.

Later that day, Kathryn & her friends finally got to Orlando and we went to the Expo to pick up our packets. At this point, Nick and I split up. Nick met up with Trey & Cade for dinner and quality time while I went off with the girls. Kathryn sent me the most adorable picture of Cade & Nick walking together. They’re relationship is absolutely precious! Cade looks up to his Uncle Nick so much and is obsessed with saying his name. The girls went on a short jog to warm up our legs before race day and then soaked our feet in the hot tub. We decided on a relaxed dinner at the pool before heading upstairs to get ready for a very early morning.

The alarm went off at 3:30am (if I remember correctly) and we got ready for race day! The hotel we stayed at was incredible. They had the biggest send off party. The staff had signs and were taking pictures for us and cheering us on as we walked down the hallways. They provided a free breakfast spread full of fruit, granola bars, bagels, coffee, and water bottles. Kathryn and Kelly got on the first send-off bus, but Laura and I missed it so we grabbed the second bus. It actually worked out in our favor though because the first bus got lost and we arrived before they did! They made it in plenty of time though and we headed towards the starting line.

This race turned out to be a lot better than I expected if we’re being honest here. I did a really good job pacing myself and was able to run about 5 miles without any trouble. I started noticing slight knee resistance, so I started stopping at character pictures to give me time for stretching in between running. I kept up with that for another 5 miles. I noticed that I was slowing down a lot more towards the end, which was to be expected. Luckily, right around this time, I got an extra burst of motivation when I ran into Meg from My Borrowed Heaven. We ran off and on together for a few miles until I had to actually stop and stretch really good because my thighs were seizing up.

Once I got my thighs all stretched out, I finished the race strong! Overall, I was very pleased. It wasn’t my best time, but with all the knee issues I’ve been having the past few years and with how awful my Disney Wine & Dine Half was, I was thrilled with how I felt overall. I also had the best cheer squad ever!

After the race, we went and relaxed at the hotel room for a bit, then headed off to Epcot for a celebratory dinner at Tokyo Dining in Japan. Nick and I stuck around Disney for another day before heading back to Jackson. It was a short, but super sweet trip. We had a blast, I had another successful half marathon, and we got to spend some quality time with our favorites. Of course, every time I go to Disney, I never want to go back home. I’m looking forward to our next visit, even though we’re not really sure when that will be at this point.

I’ll call this a successful post back to blogging – I could talk Disney all day & all night.

Did you do the Disney Half Marathon?
What’s the best race you’ve ever participated in?

May 18, 2015

Which Wich

Good Morning! I can’t believe it’s already Monday. Why have we not invented a 5 day weekend and a 2 day work week yet? That just makes a lot more sense in my opinion.

I was pretty exhausted from the week, so I had really been looking forward to the weekend! Between blogging, work, Girls on the Run, and Arbonne, I stayed on the go Monday thru Friday! When 4:30pm on Friday hit, I was out of there and was so thankful for the weekend. Friday night was pretty low-key for us, we went to Whole Foods for dinner because we were both craving something healthy. I got the four for four, which I didn’t realize was still an option until the other day. You get four Health Starts Here approved options for four dollars. It’s such a great deal in my opinion. We then went to Walmart to pick up snacks for Saturday. Ice cream wasn’t on our list, but it made it’s way in the buggy, so we enjoyed Bunny Tracks before I headed home for the evening to get some much needed rest.

Saturday morning, we were up bright and early for the Dragon Boat Regatta. My office had a team of rowers and the event turned out to be a whole lot of fun! We rowed twice and were scheduled to row a third time, but the weather went from amazing to awful in a flat two seconds! They called off the rest of the event due to the weather. Luckily everyone made it back in safely, but there was a race going on right as the winds hit.

We came in third for the first race, but first on the second race. Our friends Danny & Shaina came out to help us row, although Danny has pretty much promised he’ll never come again haha. It’s a lot of hard work and a super early morning, that’s for sure! I think deep down he enjoyed being there though. Shaina left early because we didn’t need her to row and she offered to have dinner ready for us after the races. She made a delicious Tomato Pie, which I’m sure sounds as crazy to you as it does to me! She subbed in Greek Yogurt for part of the mayo it calls for to make it a little healthier. It’s basically pie crust with half mayo, half greek yogurt, sliced tomatoes, spices, and cheese on top. I was a little skeptical, but it turned out delicious! She had a side of guac just in case we didn’t like the tomato pie. We spent the rest of the evening watching tv and relaxing. I was craving some cookies, so Danny made a famous batch of his delicious cookies – seriously, these things are amazing! I don’t even want to guess how many cookies I ate, because it’d be embarrassing.

Sunday turned out to be another relaxing day, thank goodness. Nick and I did some stuff at his house, I got some work done, we went to Whole Foods again for lunch and looked at DSW because I have a coupon I can use right now. I found some cute sandals that I’m going back for later today. I do believe the highlight of our day was finding the most amazing place to eat – Which Wich. Have you ever eaten here?! As a vegetarian, finding a sandwich shop that doesn’t just put a few pathetic veggies on a slice of bread with a piece of cheese is quite difficult. I would have never in my life thought about it if I wasn’t a vegetarian. I was a little nervous giving it a try, but Nick and I have both suggested it at one point or another and just never went. I figured I’d get the tuna. I still eat fish on occasion and when we go to places like Subway, that’s what I’m basically required to get because there is no way I’m spending $5 on the ridiculous thing they call a veggie sandwich. We walked in and they have a place for you to create your own order, I wish I had taken a picture of it, but there is a menu on the wall and numbered sandwich bags depending on which section you’re ordering from. I looked at the vegetarian section and there were FIVE options, one of which was a BLACK BEAN PATTY!!! Seriously, I was ecstatic. You then select all the toppings and cheese you want. I went with a black bean patty on wheat, with pepper jack cheese, buffalo sauce, ranch sauce, crunchy onion straws, lettuce, tomato, pickle, salt, and pepper.

Before we even got our food, we were already raving about the place, but then we thought… maybe we should actually get our food and taste it before speaking too soon. Then I saw a sign with the owner quoting that if you’re not 100% satisfied with your sandwich, they’ll either make a new one, refund you, or both! So I knew at that moment, it just has to be good! Sure enough, we were not disappointed. Nick also got the black bean burger because he likes having a healthy option and knows my struggle with sandwich places. He got a whole lot more toppings on his.

I finished off the entire sandwich with no trouble at all. We decided that it’s not even worth eating at other places in the Dogwood Shopping area when we can get a wide variety here and we can choose to be healthy. I could have gone full blown vegan or even Engine 2/Health Starts Here approved! It’s nice to know that I have those options when I’m eating out and I’m doing one of those challenges. You can choose to do a lettuce wrap and even a bowl, so the healthy options are there! We continued to rave about our dinner to each other the rest of the night because we were so pleasantly surprised.

Now I’m off to work for another week. I’m getting brackets put on this morning, so I’m a little nervous, but the process of braces is officially underway! Yippee! Hope you have a wonderful week!

Have you ever eaten Which Wich?
What’s your favorite sandwich from there?
Have you ever done a Dragon Boat race?
Did you have a good weekend? What did you do?

February 23, 2015

Nick’s first Marathon!

Good afternoon friends! I’ve been MIA for a few days, but I’m about to catch you up!

I’ve been gone all weekend and I was excited to get back home to this sweet little nugget, plus I made it home a little early from work today since we had potential for freezing rain around here. This Mississippi weather is absurd! Luckily in 4 days, I’ll be flying to sunny and beautiful Jamaica.

Now let’s recap some weekend events – me and my sweet co-worker Bethany drove up to Starkville on Friday after work. Her boyfriend also lives in Starkville, so we decided to start riding up together! She’s such a great car ride buddy and we had good conversation throughout the whole trip. We had a fun double-date that night at Old Venice Pizza when we got to town. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a picture of our pizza, but I’ll say that it was extremely cheesy – way too cheesy for my preference. I’ll have to keep that in mind next time so I can order light cheese.

Saturday morning, we headed out to Birmingham to get ready for Nick’s race. We obviously stopped at Starbucks first to quench my undying love for the stuff. Although, I’ve decided that I really need to cut back on my Starbucks addiction to save money.

Say hello to my delicious Cinnamon Dulce Latte w/ Coconut Milk.

We didn’t really eat anything before heading out, so we stopped in Tuscaloosa and found a cute Mediterranean place called Taziki’s. I got a veggie gyro and it was wonderful. The roasted potatoes were a little too lemony and I would have preferred fries, but I’m glad they included some chips with it for that saltiness.

On the way there, we discussed Nick’s game plan for the race and what he planned on wearing and how the weather would be. I feel like Nick had a pretty good idea of how to handle his first marathon, he was a lot more calm than I would have been! haha We arrived to Birmingham and headed straight to the expo where I picked up the packet. We looked around and saw some good deals, but didn’t end up buying anything. Of course, the very next day, Nick wished we had purchased a hand held foam roller for after he finished the race because his front calf was so extremely sore. We did get some free slap bracelet’s that are reflective which will be great for some night runs.

After picking up the race packet, we headed out to the mall so I could do some swim suit shopping for my upcoming trip and I found 2 bathing suits, one red & one blue. I also got a cover up, but I think I’ll be returning it – I didn’t like it so much when I put it on. We were going to split a pretzel (my favorite snack ever!), but the line was long both times we passed by so we opted out. After shopping, we met up with Nick’s dad, his girlfriend, and her grandson for dinner at Landry’s Seafood. Nick got some seafood pasta to carb load.

The next morning we were up at the race early and Nick was ready to go!

The race started at 7:03am and we were ready to spectate! Nick started out wearing shorts, a short sleeve shirt, a long sleeve shirt, and a poncho. After mile 1, he threw his poncho and long sleeve shirt to me on the sideline. Luckily I brought a bag with me to carry all of our essentials for the day. The route was a half marathon looping twice around for the full marathon so once I figured out where we needed be on the first half, I just followed the route again to catch Nick on the second lap of the race. It honestly worked out so perfect and I’m so glad I was able to walk to various points along the route so I could cheer him on!

Here were some fun signs during the race:

Chafing the dream! – probably one of my favorites. haha
Runner’s High (Legal in all 50 states)
Hey Girl. Your pace or mine?
This seems like a lot of work for a banana.

Nick finished out his marathon in 5 hours and 24 minutes!! Holy cow, I was so impressed! He literally didn’t train for this race. He did one 15 mile run 2 weekends ago, but that’s pretty much it. He has been eating really well since he started the Engine 2 challenge at the beginning of the year, so I’m sure that helped a lot! I would have literally died or quit if I tried to run a marathon with the amount of preparation he had.

Nick got to ring the PR! bell, yay!

I love the energy that a race brings – Kathryn and I are doing the Disney Princess half-marathon next year and we’ve both been to a race over the past 2 weekends. We completely agree that it’s pumped us up for our race! This will be Kathryn’s first half-marathon and I can’t wait to run it along side her and experience all the Disney magic & characters! One day I’ll make it to my marathon, but at this point, with my knee, a half marathon will be perfectly fine with me right now!

After the race we headed back to Starkville and Nick passed out on the way there. He was absolutely exhausted and admitted that doing the marathon was a lot harder than he expected it to be. He felt really accomplished afterwards though, as he should. The rest of the evening I helped him get adjusted back home before heading back to Jackson.

I have to say, it’s seriously lame, but when I woke up this morning, I had NOT completed a marathon, but my body sure did ache and I was completely exhausted. I just kept reminding myself that Nick was the one who earned the right to complain about his aches and pains ha. I did total up my walking distance though and I’d estimate that I walked at least 7 miles, probably more throughout the entire day. Nick’s dad, his girlfriend, and her grandson joined me on the first half of the marathon, but I was a lone wolf on the second half. They decided to head back to the car and relax for a bit. I’m so glad I was able to be there to support him throughout the race and I was so proud as I watched him cross the finish line.

One day I’ll check Marathoner off my list, but that day was not yesterday.

I’m so proud of you Nick!

My 2nd Disney Princess Half-Marathon

Which Wich

Nick’s first Marathon!

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