Hope you had a Merry Christmas!

We had a wonderful time. The kids had a blast and it was fun to just watch them.

I decided to enjoy my holiday, treats and all, so I did. My band really helped me not eat a whole lot. It was a little frustrating not being able to eat my favorite Cardamom Bread, and getting full on the pork roast so fast, but all in all it was great. I was grateful to have the band to keep me reigned in a bit.

I've done great on my exercise. Today was particularly interesting. It was actually very invigorating. It was about 60 degrees today, so I ran outside. The exciting part is that there were 30 mph winds. It was crazy. I was aware that it was windy before I left, but it wasn't too bad the first half of the run--until I turned around, that is. The wind was coming from the side, but also from behind me a little so that when I turned around it was coming from the side, but also the front a little. I felt like I had someone tugging me backwards while I was running forwards. There were times I was almost running in place against the wind. It was hard, but awesome. I ran a total of 3.48 miles and walked another half with my warm-up and cool-down. I don't think I've run that far yet, so that's pretty great.

I think I may do a long walk tomorrow. I miss walking. It's totally different to me than running and I really enjoy it. We'll see what tomorrow brings. A cold front, supposedly, so I won't be outside most likely.

Major Milestone!

As of this morning I have lost 100 pounds! I'm so excited. 203, baby. If I follow normal patterns, my weight will go back up a couple pounds for a few days and then in another week or two I'll be back down to where I am now. But whatever. I'm at 203! I skipped 204. What an amazing day.

Yesterday we were cleaning out our closet and I started trying on some more clothes. I'm in a size L or 14 on top and still a 16 on the bottom. I also am able to fit into the dress my mom wore to my wedding and I'm wearing it to church today. It's a beautiful burgundy dress. It will fit me better in a few pounds, but I'm wearing it today anyway. It is a size 14.

I'm almost to my 11-months-from-surgery mark. I can't believe it's been that long. February 8th was my surgery date. So much has happened this year and I'm so grateful.

Yesterday I went to the GAC again and figured out that the treadmill I've been using defaults on an incline of 2. That's why it's been harder for me to run on it and why I haven't been running as fast as I'd like. I'm used to running with no incline. I'll have to see how I do next time with it on 0 incline. Maybe I'm stronger than I realize.

GAC

The GAC is the Goodland Activities Center. It's like a local YMCA but very small. We're now members, so I can use the facilities to run. I have to time my workouts right, though because early mornings and evenings are apparently very busy. I went running on Tuesday and the place was full by the time I left.

My weight is creeping down again. It's been bouncing around so much with traveling and stuff, but I'm at a new low of 205 today. :) 98 pounds lost. I'm getting so close to that 100-lbs-lost mark as well as the Under-200 mark.

Good for you, Jogger!

When we were kids, we used to laugh at joggers, mocking them. My mom got us to change that into yelling out the window, "Good for you, Jogger!" I remembered this story as I was doing my run today and could totally picture my mom, looking down from heaven and cheering me on, "Good for you, Jogger!"

Today was the first time I ran outside since the Turkey Trot. I love running outside. I love the fresh air and the wind to cool my sweat. Just love it. However, my time isn't as fast outside as it is on the treadmill.

Speaking of treadmills, I've begun to wonder if different treadmills are calibrated differently. When I run on one I can run at setting 5.5 mph, then a few days later I run on a different one and I can only handle about a 4.5. I know that my body has fluctuations in strength and endurance, but when I'm on various machines, it almost seems that it is a difference in the machine. Who knows. Bottom line is that I'm still doing it. The race came and went and I'm still running. That is amazing and awesome.

I've also had really tight muscles on the backs of my legs, (sorry, not looking up which muscles those are) to the point that when I do my after-running stretch I can't straighten them like I was able to a little while ago. I haven't been doing T-tapp as much as I used to, I think that might be part of it. I'm back on track with T-tapp right now, so I think it'll help. Plus, I'm increasing stretching after my run.

The rest of my trip

We went to St. Louis, well St. Charles, for our Thanksgiving. We made a good long trip out of it and stayed with my sister for 9 days. It was wonderful and went way too quickly.

Cyndi (my sister) and I did a pretty good job of keeping up our workouts while we were there. We ran together one day before the race, then we did the race, we also did a Work out after you Pig Out at the YMCA. That was 2 1/2 hours of aerobics/weights/etc. It was awesome and I was amazed that I could keep up for the most part. I have a hard time on the floor workouts, but overall I was happy with my performance. We also did another aerobic workout at a class at the Y and ran 5k a couple more times while we were there. I also did my t-tapp video a couple of times.

I wasn't as great with my eating during the trip and was overall disappointed in myself on that front. It's just so much fun to enjoy great food when with my family that it's hard to break that habit. All in good time, I suppose.

We had a get-together with a lot of good friends that we knew while we lived there in St. Louis. It was so fun to see people and reconnect. I had a lot of really positive feedback about my weight loss. That was fun. At church, one friend didn't even recognize me. I said hello to her and gave her a hug and another friend leaned over and said, "It's Melissa!" She was flabbergasted. She said I looked familiar but she honestly didn't know who I was. I have certainly changed.

One great highlight was clothes shopping. We went into Dress Barn and were looking around on the racks. We started to wander over to the plus size department when the sales woman told us in almost a warning voice, "That's the plus size." as if we didn't belong there.

Then, when we were in Fashion Bug, the saleslady asked if we were looking for anything specific. I told her dresses, and she said, "Okay, you'll be over here in the Misses department." I've never had that happen before! Made my day.

I really enjoyed the trip and all the fun and new things that I experienced with my new size. I swelled up in my feet and legs quite a bit, so I'm waiting until that subsides to determine how my weight loss/gain ended up from the trip. I don't think I fared too bad. I'll let you know.

More on the Amazing Race

My friend told me at church today that she's been waiting for updates on my blog, so I guess I'd better get down to business and write about my wonderful trip and how things went. I'll dedicate this entry to the race.

We got to the YMCA and picked up our numbers and shirts. The numbers have a tracking chip in them so they can accurately tell when you start and stop the race. The longer we were there, the more nervous I got because it looked like I was way out of my league! There were a lot of serious runners there. There were a lot of people in the race in general and I felt like someone was going to start singing, "Which one of these things is not like the other?" I was intimidated. I told my sister that had I been able to see that moment, I wouldn't have entered the race.

We milled around a bit and started moving toward the starting line. Well, really we just started following the crowd, assuming it would get us to where we needed to be. Here is the crowd we waited with, all of them in the race.



Brad, who had all three of our kids plus my nephew, had gone to park the car and we didn't have much hope of finding him. I just hoped he'd find me at the finish line. As we started off, we saw him off to the side and he got a couple of pictures.

Here's the starting line from Brad's perspective. The serious runners are up front.



And off we went. It was probably 5 or 10 minutes later that we passed Brad. That's me and my sister in the crowd.



You can see us better in this cropped shot:




We started off uphill. Cyndi, who is a faster runner immediately surged ahead. I found my comfortable pace and just got in my own little groove. As we started, the faster runners went on ahead and what was left behind were people more in my league. I felt better at that point.

A few minutes into the race I saw people running on what looked like a different track of a different race. I quickly realized that those were the front runners in our race, coming back around after doing a turnaround. Wow, just wow. Some people are really fast.

I ran the entire way. I was surprised how many people walked parts or all of it. Several people had their dog with them. I saw one girl in a wheelchair being pushed and wheeling herself. There were several children running with parents. There were some strollers.

I realized as we pulled in for the race that I had forgotten my music. I always feel like I need my music to run, so I was really bummed. But as we ran, I was glad to be able to listen to those around me and just take in the whole experience.

Toward the end of the race I surprised myself with a burst of speed up a hill as I passed a whole bunch of people. They passed me again a short time later on our downhill, but still, it was a fun moment.

I saw my sister who had already finished cheering me on right before I crossed the finish line. Brad and the kids were there waiting for me. Here's a picture of me just after I was done running.



They gave us water to drink. Here we are just after I finished.


It was a really cold morning. The poor kids were freezing and the babies, specifically mine, were fussing pretty good. We went to find out our results and get the food they provided, bagels and cream cheese and Sunny D to drink. Here's the result page with my result on it:



You should be able to click on it to get it to open larger. It says I placed 1905th, that my age is 36, that my chip time was 39:05 which is the time registered from the chip in my number. It also shows that my pace was 12:36 per mile. Pretty cool stuff.

I'm really glad I did the race. It wasn't all that hard in the actual doing of the running. It was just amazing to be part of it I didn't even really focus on the hills we were doing or the distance, I just did it.

Thanks, Cyndi, for doing it with me. I wouldn't have done it without you. Thanks Brad for supporting me and cheering me on. I love you guys.