The Color Run 2012

Who ran the WHOLE Happiest 5K on the planet?

I DID!

Sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

much fun!

I'd have to say this was one of the coolest things I have ever done. 

Hands down.

It was worth the 3:30am wake up call and 1 1/2 drive to NYC. Especially this sunrise:)

 

Everyone was so helpful, encouraging, colorful, and HAPPY!

I hope you can attend a color run at least once in your lifetime.

Did I mention how much fun it was? 

Just don't get a mouth full of that colored dust. 

It doesn't taste the greatest. 

But it does come out of your hair and off your skin pretty easy!

 I kinda wanted to leave some color on :) 

My teammates were so awesome!

They kept me going until I crossed that finish line! 

Almost there this awesome girl said "Hey! Remember that time you ran the whole 5K?"

That's exactly what I needed to cross the finish line :)

Words can't explain how accomplished I felt. I could have cried! 

I want to say thanks to everyone of my teammates for sticking with this slow-paced beginner runner

That meant so much to me :)

Amazing day with some amazing people.

Let's do it again next year!!

I want to get colored again!

Last minute...

What do I do on a Saturday morning when I have nothing planned?

If you guessed sleep.

EH WRONG!

I'll be running another 5K of course! :)

Bring on The Color Run in NYC!

Yep you heard it right. This country gal is going to the Big Apple (Brooklyn to be exact!)

I'm not particularly fond of the city.

Too busy

But...this is a great opportunity! Someone couldn't make it at last minute so I'm jumping in!

SOOO EXCITED!

 

 I'll be running with these two awesome ladies and a couple of girls (and a guy) at work!

I seriously love  the girls I work with!

They have offered me so much advice and support about my new love of running :)

If I had a bad run, they'll know about it, but just tell me to brush it off and tomorrow is a start of a new day! Even the best have bad runs sometimes!

Have I mentioned I was excited about running this 5K?!

Cause I totally am :)

  I made up my mind yesterday at work.

Then I realized.

Crap.

I didn't run on Monday OR Tuesday!

So I got my butt out and ran last night. 2.15 in 27 minutes (With a cool down!) 

Not bad. Not bad. 

Freaking hills are a killer. But I will conquer them one day!

 Different subject.

Hubbers got new glasses! Buttttt I forgot to take a good picture of him :-p

I got to make fun of his old glasses :)

 I was getting strange looks from Andrew's phone afterwards...

I see what you did there

Also, My hubbers is so awesome, he made me dinner! I didn't get to take a pic before I smashed it with some gravy, BUT The Pastie was awesome!

Pastie? I hope most of you know what it is. I find myself explaining what it is A LOT!

A Pastie= Kind of like a meat pie. Beef, potatoes, sometimes onions in a pie like crust!

It's delicious. That's all you have to know :)

Andrew and I get into an argument about the best condiment to put on a pastie. 

He likes ketchup.

I love gravy. The meat kind! 

Not the "gravy" that Italians call their tomato sauce :-p

That was a BIG surprise when I first met Andrew's Italian side of the fam! Haha.

"Gravy on Spaghetti?!"

Any hooters,

Hoping to get some awesome pics this weekend to share with you!

What kind of spontaneous things do you like to do?

The "A Bacon C's"

My husband and I are...

well, perfectly weird together :)

This is what we came up with together at dinner...

Complete Randomness.

The D'Alessio's present:

 

The "A Bacon C's"

A:  Applewood smoked Bacon

B: BACON!

C: Canadian Bacon

D: Damn good Bacon

E: Excellent Bacon

F: FREEKIN' BACON!

G: Good Ass Bacon

H: Hallelujah! It's Bacon!

I: I Love Bacon

J: Just Kidding...Bacon!

K: Kick Ass Bacon

L: Luxurious Bacon

M: Mmmmmmmmm Bacon

N: Naked Bacon

O: Overcooked Bacon

P: Perfect Bacon

Q: Question...What's your favorite condiment? BACON!

R: REAL Bacon

S: Smoked Bacon

T: Tasty Bacon

U: Uber Bacon

V: Feminine Bacon

W: Where's the Bacon?!

X: X-treme Bacon!

Y: Yummy Bacon

Z: Zomg Bacon!

The funniest part?

We didn't even have bacon for dinner!

:)

Running, Family & Friends, and Pumpkin Cookies!

Welp. We did it again! Another 5k done!
My work sissy and I finished the 1st Annual Palmer 5K :) 

And we kicked butt! Both of us beat our last 5K times :)
Last time- 43:30
This time- 35:13!!
Eff yeahhhhh buddy!
AND I felt like complete death great afterwards! My feet were screaming at me...but that's because I hardly walked :)

Today is a different story though haha! My recovery run later on will be interesting...to say the least!

After our awesome finish, sissy got me DD! Ahhhhh so amazing!

Idk if I told you...but...since I bought those compression socks for myself...and hubby doesn't understand why I spent that much money on them....I agreed to push a DD strike on myself for 2 weeks. Oh. Em. Gee. This is the hardest thing I've done alllll year long! Especially since I stop for coffee almost every morning. Aye yai yai. However, the clause doesn't say anything about other people buying it for me!!! Tehehehe :) 

Then to continue with the GLORIOUS weather, I went to my family picnic to chow down on some hert dergs and hermbergers! Ermergerd! We had a birthday cake for my Mimi and one of my other kinda related relatives! Haha.

I left the picnic to get ready for the perfect night for a fire with some of mah bestest friends! 

(Saturday was jammed PACKED with fun!)

I made some beer bread, spinach and artichoke dip, smore's stuff, and........

I got to make my FAVORITE cookies of ALL TIME yesterday! 

PUMPKIN CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES!

If you haven't tried them

I feel sorry for you MAKE THEM NOW!

CAUTION: These cookies may cause extreme "yummy in my tummy" syndrome and not enough over eating may occur followed by sugar rush/crash. :)

Here's the recipe:

 Ingredients:

1 package of spice cake mix

1 15oz can of pumpkin

1 bag o choc chips (your choice)

Preheat your heating device (oven) to 350 degrees.

Mix the can o' pumpkin and spice cake mix in a large bowl.

Add choc. chips.

Place spoonfuls of the batter on a greased cookie sheet.

Bake for 18-20 minutes.

And Voila!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies!

These are "cakey cookies" and are moist and delicious!

I hope you enjoy!

I know we did :) It really was the perfect night for a fire, complete with plenty of fall beers, laughs, and great friends!

Cheers!

P.S. Do you like the new color scheme on the blog?
Let me know!

Fantastic weekend!

I enjoy...

70-80 degree weather,

A cool breeze,

Cuddling with my husband,

Sunday breakfast/lunch brunch with family,

Nights out with friends,

Nighttime swimming,

Running,

and

Being a lazy butt

Free weekends :)

All of which I got to enjoy this weekend!

Words canNOT express how happy I was to have a weekend where there was NOTHING on my schedule! 

You need these every once in a while. You time. Not worrying what others want you to do. Do whatever you feel like doing. 

Let me tell you...

It felt glorious! ;)

I enjoy running?

Woah. 

Yes I do!!

This weekend was amazing weather wise :) I'm glad to say I took full advantage of it too!

Look what the mailman delivered on Friday!

Those are my brand new compression socks from procompression.com! Neon yellow FTW.

Naturally I had to run on Friday night so I could try these suckers on.

Question.

How come no one told me how STINKIN' HARD it is to put these damn things on!?!?!?

Geez Louise!

I got a workout just putting them on my chunky legs!

But I can tell you that I'm in love with them!

I have a huge problem with shin splints. Ouch. 

And not to mention my retarded ankle.

But my legs felt fantastic on Saturday/Sunday :)

Saturday was a day of recovering from a hangover relaxation day ;)

Relaxed with a nice hot cup-o-joe and toast with apple butter..mmmmmmm.

(I forgot to take a pic of the toast before I ate it teheh)

Got to eat lunch with my Mimi and Mom at Panera.

I freaking love Panera!

If Panera was a person I'd totally marry him/her.

(Sorry Andrew :-p)

Got Ditto some new toys too! (obv. not at Panera)

 

I also cleaned the apartment.

Something I haven't had the energy for in a looooong time!

It smells sooo good in here now :)

Later on Hubbers and I went out for ice cream with mah sis and her newwwww boyfriend :) (oo-la la!)

He likes video games and Potter Puppet Pals.

We have a winner!

Sunday I kicked myself in the butt for not getting up early for a run. What a gorgeous morning! 

In my defense...Mom gave us a memory foam mattress topper thingamajigger to try out.

I was NOT getting out of bed.

Too darn comfy! 

However. I did run 2.15 miles after church/brunch/food coma. 

And it was a darn good run too!

Ran 10:40 mile (one of my fastest hahahah)

But I felt good with it! 

Before you know it I'll be able to do 3 miles...then 4...5..6! 

Haha.

Let's not get carried away :-p

This week I tallied up all the miles I ran (4/7 days)

7.4 miles.

Damn. I'm surprised I ran that much! (Remember I'm a beginner!)

So as a reward, Hubby and I went and got some brewskies to enjoy out at the pool!

Omg. They already have the fall beers out!

Blue moon has a new one!

Delish. Def a must try.

Autumn.

Jeans. Hoodies. Sweater klogs. Pumpkin EVERYTHING :)

Sorry. I was daydreaming!

But fall isn't here yet...so we're getting in all the pool time we can!

Even if that means swimming under the lights :)

Ohhh yeahhhhh.

:)

I wanna know...

What's your favorite season?

Glorious!

Remember when I was having trouble staying motivated?
Well lemme tell ya. I've kicked that lazy S.O.B. outta here and now Bert is shifted into full gear!

Ever since I ran the 5K last Saturday I've felt Glorious. Yes. GLORIOUS! That is my word for the week. Glorious. I wonder how many times I can say glorious in this glorious blog of mine :)

Any hooters. I'll take ya back to the weekend.
Sunday = rest day. And boy what a rest day that was! I really wanted to take a recover run before church. Yeah right. Honestly. Took a step outside to see what the weather was like...."EFF THIS! Nope. Not today." Holy cow was is muggy! Muggier than the 5k on Saturday! Went to church and slept the afternoon away. It was glorious :)

Monday= Good 2.19 mile run in the evening :) Wasn't the fastest, but still good. This was the day I discovered a pain in my ankle. I ignored it stupid me and kept running. Didn't hurt the rest of the night though!

Tuesday= Ankle was a little stiff in the morning. Tried to work it out and loosen it. Felt ok for the rest of the day. Then I hit the trails in Jacobsburg with Hubbers and our friend and his dog Yoshi (Ahh I love that name!) Only did a 1.5 mile run, but it had some hills. Phew. Good pace! The hills however aggravated my ankle a bit. But the temperature at 7pm was Glorious!

Meet Yoshi :)

 Isn't she the most adorable pup??!
Our night concluded with this beautiful sunset while eating some well deserved fro-yo! :)

Wednesday= Ok. Have to do some cross training. Not only to give my gimpy ankle a break, but I need to tone up everything else on my fat body! Swimming. Such a great way to workout! I might have read it in a blog somewhere? :) Tried to do some freestyle. Learned a very important lesson. I need a one piece swimsuit for this. HAHA! Luckily I tried this with just my hubbers around. But just doing the breaststroke I was mooning the birds up in the trees! I was able to do the fly and backstroke without any wardrobe malfunctions tehe :)

Thursday=Stormy day. Plus it was freaking hot outside! This equals sitting on my lazy ass heading to the gym! Ankle was still a bit ehhhh so I hopped on the elliptical for 35 minutes. No pain! Glorious. AND I got to watch the U.S. Women's Soccer Team beat Japan for the Gold! WOOOO! USA!!!

Today= My most favoritest day of the week :) And also my good friend's birthday! HAPPY BIRTHDAY SCOOT!! I'm almost guaranteed to have more than my share of alcoholic beverages tonight....SOOOO I'm going to leave you now and hopefully have a nice 1-2 mile run before it rains! 

P.S. I'm hoping to head to the running store tomorrow during my travels and see if they have advice for my ankle problems?! Maybe some new sneaks are in my future! 


GLORIOUS! :)

Another 5K under my belt!

Nazareth Blue Eagle Memorial 5k on a hot and sticky morning?

Done :)

Official time was 43:30....not too shabby. Slow and steady doesn't win the race, but I do feel...accomplished.

Yeah that's it. Accomplished :-)

I ran with my work Sissy Beka! She was a trooper! It was really really hot and muggy, hard to breathe, a.k.a. worst weather nightmare. But we both made it together. I wanted to finish it with her! She is one of my running supporters! So what did we do? Pushed each other to keep going. Amazing teamwork and friendship! I love us!

After we crossed the finish line we cooled down, stretched, and....

Had ICY'S!

Best idea ever to have an ICY truck at the finish! 

Did some fancy pictures while recovering from a brain freeze...

Awesome.

I can't wait to sign up for another 5K!

I know I can do even better the next time :)

After going back home to clean up, Beka and I went to a Baby Shower :)

One of our motivations to finish was our friend Nichole's fudge!

Omnomnom! And we got some at the shower! 

It was laid back, fun, and air conditioned :)

I have to say this was one of the best Saturday's I've had in a while :)

Here's to training for more 5k's!