Exercise

Bridge Run = Success!

/ Claire / 11 Comments

Well, guess what happened: despite all my initial fears, we ran the whole stinking thing.

I am in as much disbelief as you are, I am sure. But with Coach Sadie leading the way, Anne and I were both able to cross that Bridge and run the majority of the 6.2 miles – a personal accomplishment for both Anne and myself.

I don’t think I could have done it without Sadie. That crazy girl pushed us up the hill with her words of encouragement, down the bridge, and through to the finish line. (Even though we lost her while we tried to get bagels and fruit, we found her smiling halfway across Marion Square 20 minutes later. Sorry, Sadie!)

I now have no excuses and can’t wait to get going with the rest of my running career. This counts as a start, correct?

Here are a few pictures capturing our experience (starting with the 5:30 a.m. wake-up in our pre-race pageantry at my house):

Sadie and me at 5:30 a.m., pre-race and ready to roll

Continue reading →

Crossing that Bridge

/ Claire / 4 Comments

At some point in the past couple months, I decided to become a runner.

This has now resulted in me signing up for two races this month, one of them this coming Saturday and the other in a few more weeks.

Now, my dear friend Sadie is coming into Charleston and staying the weekend to run this race. The Cooper River Bridge Run is a big enough deal that people come in from all over the world to run it.

Needless to say, I am slightly panicking.

Not only is the race a 10k, but there are a lot of people who run it. Granted, I have done the Peachtree Road Race (another 10k) in the past, but I didn’t know where I was going and basically asked my mom to stop and walk every 3/4 mile. It was an “Are we there yet?” scenario, but I did make it to the end in one whole piece without completely collapsing.

I think the reason I am panicking this time is because I think I am in way worse shape. Although, I have been able to run several miles lately without needing to fall down and collapse on the sidewalk after, so maybe I’m not too bad? Either way, I just know that I am going to be swarmed in the mass of this:

I’ll be there…in that mass of people…heavily breathing…

And this:

This look fun yet?

The claustrophobia aspect of it also freaks me out: I can barely handle being on a machine directly next to someone at the gym.

I’d also like to add that unlike other 10k’s, this one requires me to cross a bridge with quite an intense incline over a wide body of water: Continue reading →

New Year’s Resolution

/ Jamey / 5 Comments

Claire and I made a New Year’s resolution: We would walk to the grocery store.

We live at "A"

But yesterday it was cold.

And my car was parked over on Chalmers St. and I wanted to move it.

And it was cold.

And we wanted to get groceries for the week.

So we drove.

I’d like to say that we lasted a full 9 days of walking to the grocery store, but we didn’t. I just stopped by the store next to the office on the way home. So we never went to that one by foot…

The issue arose when we got to the store and remembered that I’d be out of town all week. So we really didn’t need to get a lot of groceries at all… So we bought a lot of wine!

Namely this crazy Japanese plum wine stuff. It smells terrible and antiseptic, but tastes pretty good. I’m not sure about drinking it straight, but I think it’ll make a fun mixer.

I’m inclined to attempt to form some kind of moral or lesson that I’ve learned here, but I can’t be bothered.