Getting ready for the 5K

My last weekend before the Crawfish 5K next Saturday included running up this hill 3 times (I have to say this picture does not do this hill justice as how steep it is to run up) as well as a mile run to and from it yesterday morning:

And today, I ran the 5K course:

On the plus side, it looks like a possibility that I'll beat my previous 5K time of 33:29 (given that I ran .20 miles more than the 5K).  Unfortunately, it doesn't look like I'll meet my secondary goal of doing better than a 10 mile pace.  Guess that will have to wait until the next one.

I decided to give these compression socks a try today:

I heard that they were good for holding everything together as you run and would help prevent shin splints and improve performance.  And goodness knows, I'm down with trying any kind of voodoo to help with my running.  Overall, they were comfortable and it definitely felt like it was holding my legs together but it didn't make me faster.  That said, I'll probably wear them on race day--it certainly didn't hurt to use them.

So I got my runner friends to approve that this would be my last "long" run before Saturday since I'm traveling Wed-Friday.  So glad to get the long run over with (which is probably not a great sign about my running ability.)

Can't believe I found this street here in Columbia

Countdown to the race begins--less than a week to go!

Sending Lauren Off

Today was Lauren's last day at Kore and we had a farewell brunch for her, where, as usual, I brought the elegance:

She is heading off to the Marines in their Officer Training program.  We're excited for her, but we'll miss her.

Of course, we are wishing her the best. Our loss, the Marines' gain.

Birthday dinner!

With a generous gift, I was able to go to the fabulous @116 Espresso and Wine Bar cafe.  I had come here once with a friend and I loved the wine selection and food and dreamed of coming here again. This is one of the sure bets of a great dining experience and was so psyched to come here for my birthday:

Started out with a sweet, crisp Prosecco and their Hibiscus Highball (which was potent!):

Paul and I shared the Cheese Plate appetizer:

As well as their Deviled Eggs with Seared Tuna:

I had the Rainbow Trout with Blue Crab and Hollandaise:

Paul had the Cuban pizza:

For dessert, we split their version of Strawberry Shortcake:

and Key Lime Pie:

Such a great birthday dinner--everything was awesome and I left with a happy full belly!

Indie Grits and Family Hip Hop Day

Finally went to an Indie Grits film here in Columbia last night!

Went to see "Female Pervert", which follows a female who is somewhat a sociopath and her attempts at dating and interacting with other people.  The film was shot in Atlanta and was intrigued by the Asian-American lead and director--though it had no bearing in the storyline: 

It was offbeat and humorous and it was great to see an indie film in a film fest.  It even had a Q&A with the director, which I loved:

This afternoon, checked out the Hip Hop Family day in downtown Columbia:

Glad I got to meet up with Veronica--

This was one of those events that was a lot more fun nodding my head with someone rather than standing by myself. I used to not care about that when I was young and was fine going to events, shows, and bands by myself. Now, if I don't meet up with someone, I'm like, eh, skip it. Yeesh, is this a thing about getting older?

Haircut--color hair?

As you can see, my hair was really getting long for my face, specifically the hair around my face--heading into my famous "Yoko Ono, circa the Bed-In" stage:

Before

Unfortunately, I don't foresee going to SoCal to see Christina anytime soon so I bit the bullet and went local.  Christina was kind enough to give me notes/instruction but I was still cautious.  The after doesn't seem like a big change but it did feel lighter:

After

She did make the gentle suggestion about doing a semi-permanent color to cover the grays. She was really tactful--I vaguely remember her saying something like, it's a shame to have these grays when you look so young. Hee! 

But for what it's worth, it's a comment every stylist has said to me in the last 10 years.  I used to be very "no way, keeping it au natural" as a stand against beauty and youth expectations for women.    But frankly it doesn't seem such a big deal about coloring hair when women of all ages color their hair in different colors--it's more fashion than about looking young, so that's not really my reason anymore.  I think a larger part is that I'm so lazy about maintenance and I dread having to maintain hair color.  But apparently this semi-permanent option makes the maintenance a lot less of an issue because it eventually washes out--no worry about seeing gray roots all of sudden.  Sooooo...is it time for me to start coloring my hair?

Tax Time!

Yes, I know it's less than 3 days before these are due but I finally got our taxes done. The catch? Turbotax is apparently suffering technical difficulties, and can't process the e-filing fee.  I'll have to wait until the phone lines are open and hopefully can pay by phone tomorrow morning and get this thing done!

Fingers crossed.

SC Mud Run 2015!

I joined my friends' mud run team a few weeks ago.  Though I wish I had trained a few more weeks, I couldn't have asked for a more supportive and gracious team to join:

Hopefully lucky bib 49!  Our main goal was to complete without injuries:

And we did it and in pretty good time: 1 hour 38 minutes!  Not bad for a 10K with 36 obstacles.  Where's the mud?  Why, completely in my running tights!

Unfortunately I didn't make my standing goal of getting across the rope transfers but these margaritas soothed any shortcomings:

So did these chips and tacos!

Overall, glad I did it and setting my sights on another goal to train for...maybe a 5K?