Twelve Years of Rust: 1st 5K

Quite late in posting about this, but it's been a busy month, so sue me. Or don't, I don't have the money to deal with that.

So, 11/5/11. My 1st 5K. First, I want to state again how humbled and gracious I am for the outpouring of donations we got for the race. My original team goal was to raise $1000. We finished at a bit over $3000! We were officially the 2nd place team for fundraising at the time of the race, but another team got some post-race donations, putting them in 2nd place. Whatever, I'm just glad we were able to smash through my original goal. And the donations came from all corners...Coworkers, FB friends, Shannon's friends, family, family, family, people from my Ravens board. There were quite a few people who donated who have never seen either one of us in person. That is touching.

I saw a text before the race from Shannon which indicated there was a chance she would get released from the hospital that day, and that definitley helped give me some extra strength for this. It was FRIGID. No other way to describe it, it was just absolutely freezing when we got there at 7am. It warmed up a little bit after the race started, but by then, I had already clipped my race bib onto my jacket, so I ran the race in the following gear:

Winter hat (Plain, removed about halfway through the race)

Gloves (Water wicking, removed about halfway through the race)

Track Jacket (Unzipped 1/3 of the way through the race)

White Undershirt (Worn on top of long sleeve shirt and water wicking shirt)

Longsleeve T-Shirt (Plain)

Running Shirt

Track Pants

Underwear worn under pants

Undy Boxers worn over pants

Batman underwear worn over Undy boxers

Socks and shoes

Within the first mile, we'd seperated into a few packs. Bill and two of my co-workers ran with me, letting me set the pace. A few minutes behind us were two of my other co-workers who have had knee injuries (In his defense, Chuck was coming off a knee injury in the last month and ran in the 1st group), and then Andy was a few minutes behind them. About halfway into the race, I made up my mind that I was going to run the whole thing. I had only run for 20 minutes one time before, but I felt like I was doing good enough halfway through, it'd just be the right thing to do, running the whole thing. It wasn't really a problem until I decided I wanted to sprint at the end. I first caught sight of the finish line at roughly 1/4 mile to go. I started to sprint, then realized I'd never make it before I'd have to walk it. So I waited until I was literally within throwing distance of the finish line. And then I just went all out. The picture that was taken of me finishing looks quite ridiculous, as my coat is flailing around me and my face looks just...weird.

My finish time was 32:30, from start line to finish line. Not a great time for my age group, but I wasn't dead last or even close to it. I finished just behind the "middle of the pack", roughly top 60%. My pace was better than all my previous runs too. So, I'll take those results, just need to keep improving. And I'm proud/thankful to my fellow runners. Bill, Chuck, and Jay finished just after me, Dan and Slava finished a few minutes later, and Andy powered through about 8 minutes after I had, give or take a bit. We all finished in sub-42 minute time, so I feel very proud of our group.

And bonus, Shannon did come home that day. This should be just the first of many goals I'm going to set for myself, fitness wise. Already tenatively doing the Tough Mudder DC in May. I keep flip flopping on that though. Just seems like such a huge leap to go from a 5K race to a 10-13 mile endurance challenge, involving feats of strength. I just worry that Warrior Dash will be a bit of a letdown in terms of pushing my limits.

I'm Not a Gourmet Cook, But I Try...: Pork Stew

Have I mentioned how much I love crock pot meals? Granted, about half the ones I've tried have kind've come out flat, but the ones that taste good, I love making again and again. The only problem is that you have to remember to prepare the night before. Pork stew is probably the most complicated crockpot meal I make. Beef Stew, Pot Roast...just dump a bunch of veggies in, put your meat on top, add seasoning, go. Chili....ok, chili is probably the most complicated to PREPARE. But chili is an experience with me. Pork Stew is probably easy enough to prepare, but there's noodles that have to be cooked seperate, gravy that has to be thickened. But it does taste real yummy. And I was suprised to see it wasn't all that bad in terms of calories and fat.

Pork Stew with Egg Noodles

1.5 pounds Boneless Center Cut Pork Chops
3 cans pork gravy
12 oz baby carrots
1 large white onion
8 oz mushrooms
3 tbsp corn starch
1/3 cup water
1 bag egg noodles

1. Trim any fat from the pork chops and then chop into bite size cubes
2. Add pork, baby carrots, and mushrooms to crock pot
3. Chop onion into small wedges and add to crock pot
4. Pour all 3 cans of pork gravy into the crock pot
5. Cook on high for 4 hours or low for 8 hours
6. Boil a large pot of water (Dutch Oven size), then add egg noodles and cook until they are nice and soft
7. Once the crock pot is done, use a collander in a large bowl to separate the gravy from the pork and vegetables
8. In a separate bowl, stir the corn starch and water until they are a smooth mixture
9. Pour the gravy into a saucepan and bring to a boil
10. Add the starch mixture in slowly, stirring as it's added. You are finished when the sauce is thickened throughout
11. Pour the thickened gravy back into the crock pot

Per 2 ladles of stew and 1 cup egg noodles

430 calories
10 grams fat
48 carbs
36 grams protein

Notes:

• Hard to gauge the serving size on this. Originally thought it made 8 servings, but 2.5 of us ran through that stew pretty well in one sitting with no seconds
  


• I'm sure you could reduce the numbers with a different pasta