Yesterday was the Clarendon 5K & 10 K race. It was a lot of fun! 😆 We were a group of 7 people, 4 of us did 10 K and 3 others did 5K for the first time, including Star. I had the target to break 50 min to improve from my last 10K. It did not happen and I had hard time to even finish it! 👿 What happened? A combination of poor training, over confidence after the 1/2 M and the VERY HOT weather. I’m bad running under the sun and the 10K started at 9AM when the sun was furiously hot! The course wasn’t pretty either, 80% was on the highway. Every mile was hard… specially the last two. I almost wanted to stop and walk but I kept telling me: “you’re strong! It’s time to prove it AGAIN!” So I kept going but I was suffering. 😦 Star and two other friends did the 5K for the first time. Star finished in 31 min, followed by other two by 31’30” and 38 min. They did it slowly indeed, but I was really happy for them to join the “club”. We had a lot of fun chatting, cheering each other. 😀 Although this time I didn’t enjoy the run so much and I didn’t reach my target, it was okay. Not every run needs to be fun nor easy. It’s part of the journey. It just makes things more exciting and challenging 🙂
I got some fun packages last friday.
Iphone 4 😆
a sample package of all-bran
Skin MD Natural for review
and books: some leisure reading and some to help dissertation writting
and some random eats that I’ve been enjoying last week.
half warm salad made with stir-fry for greens, chopped tomatoes and plain tofu (yes, you read it right, plain tofu! 😯 I must show you the packaging of this tofu… because I love its flavor!!! )
roasted squash filled with greek yogurt, figs and coconut butter
Saturday night to fuel for the race I had sweet potato gnocchi mixed with some spaghetti squash, tomato sauce and parmesan
Star had noodles with bok choy and eggs. Simple but filling 🙂
Star is catching a flight to China. He’ll be there for a week 😦 so I’m by my own today. I need to work on my presentation next week. Not fun 😦 But after that… I’m going to NYC for a concert and to play with my dearest friend. 😆
Q: How do you keep your finance? I’m a mess with $$. I don’t keep any record of how much I spend. I need tips!!!
Balance, Joy and Delicias 
yeah it was terribly hot yesterday! i did a brief run around 830 and came back a sweaty mess! as for finances i’m completely type A. i track my spending every month and check my bank account CONSTANTLY. my husband is very frugal as well and i think we’re just conservative with our $$ since we are young and don’t want to “throw it away” when we may need it at a later point. when we first got married, we made an Excel spreadsheet with guesstimates of our bills, grocery, misc spending to see how much we would need to live versus how much we were actually making. it helped out a ton!
Good job on the race! Too bad it was hot, but at least you did it 🙂 That’s so cool you got an iphone and your food looks great like usual!
That’s awesome that Star and a couple other friends started running! Cheering each other on is a huge motivator. 🙂 I would love to try that squash/fig/coconut butter combo, it looks fantastic!
I can’t believe you were running yesterday….I feel so hot even I am driving in the car!
Well even if you didn’t do as well as you hoped, I still want to congratulate you for finishing and NOT quitting! That’s great. More than I could ever do.
So, plain tofu? Yuck. No offense. It must have some amazing flavor in order to eat it plain… But the SP gnocchi sounds fabulous.
We use a Mac program to keep our finances on track. It words well, it’s called “Numbers”.
Yeah, I forgot to mention, congrats to Star!! Working out is something I’m still trying to convince Nick to do. His job is VERY active so I know he’s not really sedentary, but he still needs to do something. A 5k would be amazing. So good for Star!
I heard you had crazy hot weather out there! I never run well in warm weather, so don’t feel bad! I’m glad you had fun with your group.
I’ve heard that some people use mint.com to keep track of finances. You might want to check it out!
I always admire people who are able to run. And so many miles! :O
You food looks so good again! Love roasted squash! 😀
I hope you won’t be too lonely while Star is in China …
My finance is a mess at the moment! I need to sit down at my desk and make a list about how much I get in and how much I spend, and then cut down on unnecessary costs. That usually helps a little.
What’s your dissertation about?
Love the idea of figs and coconut butter together!
Every race is different and I’m proud of you that you hung in there and gave it your best!
I also got my boyfriend to sign up for a race with me last May and it was so great to share that experience with him.
3 Cups of Tea is a good read. A bit slow at first, but I still enjoyed it! Sorry to hear your race didn’t go so well, but good for you for finishing it anyways. That’s what matters right? 😉 Great looking eats, too!