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I am a teacher, fitness/yoga instructor, runner, celebrity stalker, chocolate lover, embarrassing dancer, wine guzzler, can't-live-without-my-girlfriends kind of girl. I also have a collection of high heels that strongly outweighs my collection of runners. My goal is to find balance in my life through health and exercise- and when I say balance, I mean kicking ass in the gym and enjoying food, wine, family, friends, and basking in celebrity news. Let's eat clean and do some craaahaaayzy workouts together... followed by a glass of wine.
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Wednesday, 25 May 2011

Cupcakes and Personal Bests.

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Mint Chocolate Cupcake from Life Is Sweet... I want to make out with you.
I like to attribute most of my success to chocolate. When I got an A on my report card, I got a chocolate bar. After a hockey game, I'd be allowed to have a chocolate chip cookie. When it was celebration time, I'd get a slice of chocolate cake. My brother, sister and I used to give Mars Bars to each other for our birthdays... for an embarrassing number of years. Halloween was less about the costume than it was about what was most important... free chocolate. My university roommates would send me to bed with an entire bag of chocolate cookies when I was going through a break up. And I ate every one of them. In bed.

You'd think I'd pick a career that doesn't completely juxtapose my two biggest endorphin highs, but I didn't. Instead, I've tested out a new theory. Eating a cupcake the night before race day = success.

A few weeks ago my family and I competed in a 10km run through downtown Toronto. I love this race not only because you get to window shop as you run, but because most of my family- both immediate and in-law- ran the race, too! Here is my Dad, sister, brother-in-law, husband and I before the race:

Apparently my sister and I were the only ones who heard "1,2,3... look tough!" when my Mom took the photo. Hot.
   
The run was amazing. It is mostly downhill (amen) and much to my surprise, I killed my previous personal best by over three minutes!!! You can't tell, but I'm yelping with glee as I crossed the finish line: 
F&@#! YEAH!!!!
Then I saw two people puke. Awesome.

I attributed my personal best to the cupcake amazingness that I had the night before. Chocolate and mint is my idea of heaven. And it MUST have made me run faster. So, when I was gearing up for my fourth half marathon just a few weeks later, I decided to try it again.

Alright... I didn't eat ALL of these. But I could have.
Sunday was race day and it was cold and rainy. I had my banana and half a bagel and went off to the race. Again, I was killing it. 5km, 10km, 15km down- on track to absolutely demolish my previous personal best.

Okay, so maybe I should have eaten more than one cupcake. I hit the wall hard at 17km and dragged my ass to the finish line at 21.1km. Through the proverbial wall-hitting, I still managed to best my best- by 3 minutes! I crossed the finish line, exhausted at 1:51:45, beating my previous time of 1:54:45. Next time, I'm eating two cupcakes... and I'm getting under 1:50.

Carter was there to support me and snapped this gorgeous photo of me.

WORST. PHOTO. EVER.
That's great, Carter. I'll be sure to frame that one.

I'm new to the blogging world! Here goes my first round of questions. Post your answers!

1. What is your pre-race ritual?

Mint Chocolate cupcake (yeah, that's right... it's now a ritual), getting everything ready the night before, pasta dinner, banana and bagel breakfast

2. If you could see anyone at the finish line, who would it be?

I'm always excited to see Carter... and if I could, I'd see the Easter Bunny. Then I'd tackle him.

3. What is one embarrassing song that you listen to when working out?

Not going to lie... this could go on for a while. I'll leave you with this one for today: Billy Ocean's Loverboy.



 



7 comments:

  1. That IS such a gorgeous photo of you. Holy now I remember why I am so attracted to you.

    Pre-race I have always stuck to oatmeal. Boring I know. Maybe I will try the cupcake thing next time :)

    Thinking of Dean at the finish line makes me run faster! And I would like to see the Easter Bunny too. Maybe alongside Willy Wonka and Mr. Cadbury, obviously with their pockets full of post-race treats.

    I listen to anything Britney when I run. For one race I had Miley Cyrus's "Party in the USA" on my playlist. Embarrassing, I know.

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  2. YAAAY for such an awesome race and killer time!! You can SO get sub 1.50 with two cupcakes, and hell if you eat 15 or so you can break the world record! :D

    Pre-race ritual: pasta and PB+banana sandwich. Oh, and chocolate of course- fuel of champions, right?! ;)

    P.S. Personally, I think that photo is stunning and you really SHOULD frame it:)

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  3. omg that photo caption made me spit water on my computer screen. I LOVE IT! please keep these posts coming!! xo

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  4. Hey...so i'm so excited to have found your blog! you crack me up...luv it! okay, and HELLO the freaking best part about running all those crazy miles is to then eat our weight in chocolaty goodness and other sweets!! i have a major weakness for pop-tarts and i throw them down like none other...i love how you write how this second obsession is in such stark contrast to what people often 'think' would be the case in your line of work. :)

    but onto bigger things, a huge CONGRATS on kicking butt in those races, and your times will only keep on getting faster. wiiith a little help from cupcakes i'm sure. even better you stuck it to those wimps who ended up barfing.

    wow, sorry for the epic comment but great post and looking forward to more! :) oh, questions...thankfully i'm not alone in stating that Miley Cyrus is def on my playlist. thanks Christina for keeping me company on that. lol.

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  5. Eating my weight in chocolate = amazing. Thank you everyone for not judging me... at least out loud :)
    I'm so excited to be in the blog world! Cait, you mentioned you're doing your blog as an income thing now... did you get a new gig?? Good for you!
    Btw, Miley Cyrus rocks. Pretty sure I'll have a post dedicated solely to her... and Justin Bieber. Ya, I went there.

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  6. I completely agree that chocolate is amazing fuel!!! I might have to try out a cupcake whenever I get to race!!! :D
    I have Willow Smith's Whip my Hair on my playlist....hahaha

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  7. hey Katy! sorry for any confusion, no i'm not making anything off of my blog...though that would be awesome since all this blogging madness and reading is certainly sucking up plenty of time! haha...i do freelance writing and art outside of my blog. okay, and as for Miley, you can bet that when that post drops i'll be all over it! call me what you want but i luv that girl! as for Bieber, how freaking cute are him and Selena as a couple?!?!

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