Spokane or Bust!

This weekend is the Spokane Bloomsday 12k! For those who are not from the area, it is an annual race held in Spokane, Washington. The website says it is in it's 35th year. It is currently averaging 50,000 runners a year. Last year, my first time running it, there over 55,000 people signed up, with just over 50k finishing. Seattle Rock and Roll limits their registration right now to about 30,000 people. The population of Spokane, Wa is estimated at only 205 thousand people. That is a lot of runners. You also have to finish the race to get your race shirt, which is a little different. Needless to say, I am really excited! It is hard not to when you see how much the whole town gets into this race. Last year my time was 1:19:36. I expect to be much slower than that this year. I think I am going to go for around 1:30 for a goal.

After passing so many people during my last race I felt inspired to purchase this shirt from Zazzle.com. On the front it reads "running for two" and on the back it says "you just got passed by a pregnant runner". I am excited to wear it and to see what kind of response I get during the race, although I don't think I will be passing a lot of people. I do not look pregnant either, so we will see if anyone really notices.

I was actually able to run four miles yesterday! That is the first time I have been able to since March 6th. It was hard and slow. My average pace was close to twelve minute miles and I have to stop to walk on hills because my heart rate gets too high (which makes me feel nauseous and dizzy). My average heart rate was still 150 with a max at 178. I feel pretty comfortable with that. I need to watch those 170s though.

H and I had an attempt on making onion soup out of my Best of Clean Eating Cook Book (my Amazon Associates Account isn't linking properly. I'll fix it later. Grrr). It did not turn out good at all. If we try to make it again we will skip adding the vanilla to it. When we were done it tasted a lot like water with onions floating in it. We ate the cheese croutons as a snack and ordered pizza. Better luck next time.