I am a Beast

For the number 12 race in the 2012 Challenge, I accidentally competed in the Spartan race in Sacramento. Okay, it wasn't an accident. However, I was always one of those people who kind of poo-poohed obstacle races, mud races and the like. But when my friend said that we could get a group rate of 13 dollars each (rather than the $150 they were going for), I signed up. I figured that if I didn't go, it was only $13 dollars.

The day before, it started pouring. Severe wind warnings were in effect. The girls I was going with were shooting emails and texts back and forth: should we cancel? It was supposed to rain all day. And be cold. Plus we had to drive to a place near Sacramento, which was about 2 hours away. Our race started at 8:30. Maybe we should just cancel.

It's funny how much less you care about a race when you pay $13 instead of $150.

However, I told them that I was still in if they were still in. I am a Beast. A little rain cannot get me down. The next morning we left at 5:30 in the morning. It was raining. One girl dropped out. Typical girls, we stopped to pee, and to get coffee, and to get gas. But we made it. It was raining. We stripped down to barely anything and got our numbers and peed again and got into the crowd at the start. Did I mention it was raining?

Then we were off! This was not supposed to be a mud run; it was supposed to be an obstacle run. But due to the heavy rains the night before, it was a muddy, wet mess. Even if this race were only to complete a half marathon through a muddy field, it would have been tiring. Add 2 obstacles per mile (or something like that) and a lot of burpees and you end up one tired pup.

The easiest obstacles for me were the balancing ones. The hardest was the 8 foot wall. The worst was crawling under barbed wire on your elbows and knees through rocky poop filled mud.

The first obstacle was a series of three water pits, ensuring that even if it weren't raining, you would be wet the entire time. The last was a rope climb, fire and gladiator combo that I barely remember because I was SO DARN HUNGRY.

The race took us 3 hours and 25 minutes. This was #1 out of 169 in my age, #11 out of 812 for gender and #220 out of 2967 overall (this means there were over three times as many men as women). The fastest person finished in 1:38. That is 7:33 pace WITH obstacles!

Afterward, we got naked in the parking lot (literally) and tried unsuccessfully to get most of the mud off of us and then went and ate a huge burrito and had a nice cold beer.

Because I am a beast. And beasts like burritos.

Have you ever completed an obstacle race? If not, would you? Do you still do things even when weather gets in the way? 

Don't forget to stop by Jills for Fitness Friday!

Randoms

The holidays were good, there was running to be had, and plenty of stuffing. I am not going to go on about it. Instead, here are a few other random things that have been happening around these parts.

- I found all the seasons of Greys Anatomy on the DVR. The past weekend was full of McDreamy, Christmas card making and pajama wearing. Life is good.

- I finally did that thing I have been putting off forever, calling the DMV. Did you know they have a thing where instead of sitting on hold, they will call you back? So I put myself in line and carried my phone around in my pocket so I wouldn't miss their call. Somehow I missed it. Two of them. So now it is STILL on my To Do list. Drat.

- My blogger is telling me that I can't post any more photos until I pay a monthly fee for more space. Has anyone else ever had this problem? What do I do? I don't want to pay for space, but I do like posting photos. Poop.

- I can't stop eating. This is a bad problem to have during the holidays when the food is plentiful and full of sugar and starch! But it is so, so good. What kind of cookies should I make next? What about these?

Source: browniesfordinner.com via Kyria on Pinterest

- Karen, who is a Grammy, Emmy, Oscar loving fool, is having a 2012 Blog Award. Go over and check out the nominees, find some new fun blogs, and vote for your favorite! (also, I notice some familiar faces on the list: Laura, Jess, Nilsa and more!)

I hope everyone is getting back into the swing of things after the holidays!

What is your favorite cookie? Do you know the fix to the photo storage issue?

10 Days of Thanksgiving: Days 9 & 10

Happy Thanksgiving Eve! Today I will be working and then joining the masses in the great Thanksgiving migration. I hope everyone has a great day today and tomorrow and that you eat lots of great food and have a great day with your friends and family. Here are my last two of ten things that I am thankful of this year!

9. My Feet 

 
“Running isn't a sport for pretty boys...It's about the sweat in your hair and the blisters on your feet." -- Paul Maurer. My feet have taken me many miles. I have been lucky. I have friends who cannot run due to injuries or pain. Not only that, but they have taken me hiking up high mountains and through cities. I do run a lot but I also love to walk. Lately I have been taking walk breaks in San Francisco for a half an hour here and a half an hour there. I play a game where when I get tot he corner I go whatever way is green. I am having a lot of fun seeing little things that I never noticed before.

10. Family

Each year the definition of family gets broader and broader.  The people you see every day at work, the friends who you can pick back up with after months of separation, the blood relatives and their relatives and their friends. This year I am spending Thanksgiving with my brother and his lady and her family. It will be a different day than normal, but regardless, it will be spent with family.

Where is the best place your feet have taken you? Who are you spending Thanksgiving with?

10 Days of Thanksgiving: Day 6, 7 & 8

There are only two more days until Thanksgiving! And so many more than two more things to be thankful for! Here are a few more things that I am happy about this year!

 

6. Employment

We tend to take this for granted, but after having several months off, I don't sneer at a steady income. Of course, I am still keeping an eye out for the perfect traveling, photography, writing job with good pay, so if you know of an opportunity for that, let me know.

7. Having a 401k

When I was 18 and I was getting my first corporate job, an older friend of the family told me to put at least as much money into my 401k every month as the company would match. He suggested putting more if I could, but that I should at least put in the company match, since if I didn't I would be essentially throwing away free money. He was right, and now I am giving the same advice to people just starting out in their first big job.

8. Travel

Clearly these all go hand in hand. Whatever money I am gaining from employment and not putting into my 401k is going toward as much travel as I can do! Some years it's more than others and this year has been a bit slower than normal, but I have been lucky to both do some traveling around my home state as well as doing  some visiting with friends and family around the country. I hope I will continue to make time for travel, as it is something I really love! 

Kansas City

Washington DC

Oregon

Yosemite

Do you have a 401k? Did you do any fun traveling this year?

Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice

Many people get stressed out with all the extra work that the holidays bring. Not only do you have to do your regular day to day things, but throw in grocery shopping, having a kitchen or house full of people and having to get up early and plan and cook everything so that it hopefully comes out of the oven all at the same time, and you can easily have a meltdown on your hands.

Personally, I love to cook and like we have talked about in some of the previous What’s For Dinner posts, planning ahead is key. It’s hard when you only have four burners and one tiny oven, but it can be done, and it can be fun.

For several years, I was a vegetarian, so I left the cooking of the turkey up to the carnivores. My favorite thing was the sides. Now, I love cooking and eating turkey, but my favorites remain the same. I could eat side dishes all day. Oh wait, I DO eat side dishes all day. However, this can be traumatic on my waistline! So there are a couple of things that I do in order to not feel the post dinner food coma and accompanying guilt.

First, I sign up for a Turkey Trot! I know, it’s sometimes hard to fit in in, but you can put the turkey in the oven and then go off and run. It takes less than an hour for most and you end up feeling invigorated afterward! The other thing I do is that I try to cut down on my butter and sugar intake by doing a few subs to my favorite recipes.

One of my favorite side dishes is sweet potatoes! However, the general recipe is loaded with butter and sugar. Personally I like the taste of the potato and don’t need to cover it up with sugar, so I just go Au natural. Also, I love the flavors of fall, so why not work with what’s available?

Cinnamon Apple Sweet Potatoes

3 Large Sweet Potatoes (or Yams)

1-2 Large Apples

1 cup pecans

4 Tbsp Brummel and Brown spread

2 Tbsp cinnamon

½ -1 cup Craisins

1 tsp salt (or more to taste)

Dice up the apples and sweet potatoes and put them in a large bowl. Add remaining ingredients and toss together thoroughly. Put mixture in 9 x 13 baking dish or on a cookie sheet. Bake at 400 degrees for about an hour, stirring occasionally (3 – 4 times). Remove and enjoy! The apples give it a bit of sweetness without the added sugar.

__________

Another dish I love to make is dessert. One of my favorite recipes is for these pumpkin spice muffins. If you sub part of the sugar with splenda and use Brummel and Brown rather than butter, you have a muffin you can sink your teeth into without feeling the Turkey Day bloat. 

Pumpkin Spice Muffins

1 cup Flour

¼ cup Splenda

¼ cup Sugar (or you can use ½ cup sugar only)

2 tsp Baking Powder

2 tsp Cinnamon

½  tsp Nutmeg

½  tsp Salt

4 Tbsp Brummel and Brown spread, cut into pieces

1 -1 ¼ cup Pumpkin Puree

½  cup Evaporated Milk

1 Egg

2 tsp Vanilla

½  cup craisins (or raisins)

2 Tbsp Sugar

1 tsp Cinnamon

¼  tsp Nutmeg

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease 12 muffin tins.

Mix flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and salt. Cut in spread with two knives or your fingers until it is fully incorporated. In a separate bowl, mix together pumpkin, evaporated milk, egg, and vanilla. Pour pumpkin mixture into the flour mixture. Add raisins. Fold gently until mixture is just combined.

Use a ¼ cup measure to fill 12 muffin tins with batter. Sprinkle with remaining cinnamon-sugar-nutmeg mixture over the top of each unbaked muffin. Bake for 25 minutes. Take out of the oven and leave to cool for about 10 minutes before taking out of the tin. If you are like me, you will not listen to this advice and you will take one “ugly” one out for a sample right away. Somebody has to do it. 

Thank you to Good to Know & Unilever Spreads for being a sponsor. I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls Collective. All opinions expressed here are my own.

Who is the Thanksgiving chef in your family? What is your favorite dish to eat? What is your favorite Thanksgiving recipe?

10 Days of Thanksgiving: Day 4 & 5

I will be foregoing my weekly Fitness Friday post today for a continuation of the 10 days of Thanksgiving. Today we have number 4 and number 5 of the 10 things I am thankful for this year.

4. Where my Parents Live

I have posted about this a million times before, but the place I grew up is so beautiful. It is pine trees and clean air and swimming in the cold river on a hot summer day. It is the sound of birds in the morning and the smell of pine and the wandering up and down through the mountains. It is a great place to go home to. I can't wait to go home for Christmas and play in the snow and bake cookies and play a few rounds of Rummikub and read my book near the fire. For some reason it's that much sweeter at Mom and Dad's house.

Hiking with Dad

Lovely snowy day

5. Public Transportation

One of the best things about living where I do is the fact that I don't need a car. I could probably write a whole post about this too. I have talked a little bit about the Casual Carpool, which is how I get to work, and it only takes about 20 minutes. Going home, I take the bus, which also only takes about 25 minutes. There is also the option of taking the train or a boat. I also walk a lot, and it is nice to have the option to do so. Other than that, there are options for bike shares, car shares, rent by the hour and more. One thing I recently found out about is Get Around, where you can rent out your own car if you don't need it, or you can rent a car by the hour if you do. I love that my monthly transportation cost is roughly 150 dollars and that's including all transportation and gas!

My favorite - the F train

Do you enjoy going back to the area you grew up in? How much do you spend a month on transportation?

10 Days of Thanksgiving: Day 1, 2 & 3

Lately, I have so many things going around in my head that I cannot make them settle coherently. This is good timing though, since last year I joined up with Lisa to do the 10 Days of Thanksgiving and it's about that time again! Like last year, I will not necessarily do one a day, but there WILL be 10 things! You can see the ones I did last year here. Also like last year, I am a little late to the party. That's the way it goes in November, I guess. The first three are kind of a theme... Here they are: Things I am thankful for this year, number 1, 2 and 3!

1. Where I Live

The neighborhood

This year I am lucky to be in the Bay Area, where the weather is perfect running weather all year round. No matter what you like to do, it is here. Within walking distance, there are restaurants, grocery stores, running trails, art, wine and easy biking paths. It is all here! There is something for everyone and the everyones are varied. I like having varied everyones around me.

2. Great Food 

Pancakes at La Note

Ethiopian? Vietnamese? Nepalese? Burmese? YES PLEASE! I love all the great ethnic food near me and let me tell you, I MISS that when I am working around the country. I get so tired of fried food and meat with gravy. I want a nice, steaming hot bowl of Pho! So that's great. My other favorite thing to do is Brunch. I have a list of places To Try that I am working on, albeit slowly! Some of my local favorites? Brown Sugar and Sams Log Cabin. This is up for change though! Any suggestions?

3. Places to Run 

Huckleberry Preserve

This deserves a post all on it's own, but it is so nice to not only have a great neighborhood to run in, but also several paths nearby. Best of all, there are several parks with many, MANY different trails to run on. As you know, trail running is my favorite thing to do and I also think running hilly routes is better for you, is less monotonous and makes you stronger overall. So having these so near to me is pure BLISS. I don't ever want to live anywhere where I don't have trail access ever again!

What are you thankful for this year? What is your favorite thing about the area you live in?