Check information

A few days ago i was on my way
to signing up for two races, one virtual and one close to home.The first being bgr walk before you run. The information wasnt wrong but i hadnt a clue when i bookmarked it that it was near full.  I checked the next day on registration and it was sold out. Today the other race announced it was sold out too.
The lesson I m learning about running is you have to plan your life around events. I didn't realize if you see a race you really want to do then pay up fast or your out of luck. So now the scamble is on for me to find events that arent full and are affordable. Im not able to get to some of the more interesting runs but i have the advantage of living in Florida. Surely there are treasures i have not heard about here waiting for me to walk/run  them.

Sweet Relief

I was imprisoned by this heat over the weekend. Yesterday 97, today local forecast called for the same with an index over one hundred again. I guess groundhog day is true lol.
Sunday the frustrationing wait to step out and pound the pavement finally drove me to consider checking elsewhere to run. So i scanned the web looking for some 5ks that might be fun.The results have not been great so far but it's summer in Florida when the weather cools i should have better luck. The sunshine state has its best events in the winter. At this time of the year local 5ks abound
most are over priced fundraisers benefitting everything from aunt frans bingo club to local charity. I have grown to love my walks but i will only enter an event i believe in.
Finding some of my favorite causes that are close to home and thus wont break my bank is not proving easy.
Since I have been watching the women of blackgirlsrun develop i  peeked at their site to find something.
I don't know if it's me but that has got to be one of the best money making machines in the business right now. Come on out and get fit at our event $$$$. Buy our clothing $$$$ and run our race $$$$. Im not hating,  most running events are organized for profit and not charity on the series circuit. The few  exceptions  being the large societies that hold events nation wide for causes like cancer etc. Not sure if bgr is a nonprofit but I am glad they are around. Looking at the lives the movements has transformed coast to coast brings joy to me.
However Im not a fanatic and cant spend thousands on races that are not a necessity. I can do the miles at home. There's no need for me to pay someone else to run. Yet my truth is,  I know i want to hold myself accountable and am bored doing it alone. Just knowing that i can accomplish something that seemed so far out of reach a few months ago and share it with others would be victory to me. So i have decided to give Bgr my good money and take their virtual walk to run challenge. I will consider it a donation to them, that way the twenty six bucks out my pocket won't bother me as much lol.
I was so happy with my decision i looked at the 7am temperature and decided seventy nine was doable. I put on my new walking outfit and grabbed a bottle of gatorade.There was plenty of shade from the trees on the block as the sun was rising. Great,  i thought what a blessing to be able to walk. Then my lower back started hurting and my foot had an ache. I wasn't turning back though, i called on the lord because negative energy doesn't rule me. In the middle of the block it all got better every pain left me. Guess  i just needed to warm up.
Then a thought came to me,  run. No joke, i have been walking all this time and often jogged to a stop sign but run never entered my mind. I went with it, what i ended  up doing was somewhere between a jog and run but i was moving. I managed about ten minutes of the motion out of the thirty i did. It felt great, how surprising that just the act of signing up for an event gaves my body incentive to move.
I didn't push myself or over heat i just went with what felt right. Im so excited instead of imagining myself a runner I'm doing it. Okay you may say that was one day and a few blocks. For me it was a major leap forward.

Will it ever end

I thought after a month of eighty and ninty degree temperatures with  heat indexes in the one hundred range the misery would be over.
Nope. the temp today was eighty nine at 7:30 when i stepped out of the house. I hadn't gotten a fourth of a mile before the water started pouring off me. My mission wasn't to get in a long walk today it was just to move.
Im still recovering from that brush with near heat stroke and have been getting my exercise inside ie big box grocery stores . I even brought a jump rope and have to admit i almost grabbed a houla hoop too. There's no shame in my game these days. Im trying to stay in form but mother nature is not cooperating with me.
I made sure i was hydrated before the walk and packed two bottles of sports drinks to carry with me. I was so glad to have found one of my favorite flavors lemonade, so i stocked up. Oh the simple pleasures in life mean so much to me now. I buy a variety of flavors when the local grocery has the multi packs bogo. Im one of those mood drinkers, it all depends on  an assortment of variables as to whoch is the flavor du jour.
In the summer months i have to drink them warm on a walk. If i chill them I'll end up with stomach cramps. We all should pay attention to our bodies.
I was prepared for the  movement but not the company. I saw something black fly in the thick vines that covered some trees along the path i was takimg. Silent except for the rusting of branches i was a little taken back. In the next seconds i smelled it, the aroma of death, decaying flesh the black figure was a vulture. I made it down the street before the  party started. I will not get anywhere near those things. So i picked up my pace holding my breath as rhe smell nearly overwhelmed me. When i looked back i saw at least five in the tree i passed. They must like hiding because if i had seen them i would have crossed the street.
I continued on struggling through heat that drained my energy and forced me to call it a day. Two miles, that was it. My legs were still fresh but the heat was a deadly adversary and it won. I would've loved to walk later in the day but storms were brewing and there was a tornado watch. Rain and winds make evening treks a no go these days. I miss them and Im behind on my 5ks. I took a look at next weeks forecast, surprise more of the same. Seems like i may have to become a mall walker until we get a much needed  break in temperature. I sure hope the seniors dont lap me, some of them are power walkers!

Repost

As i read over an old post i some how reposted it. This blogger app is proving to be unreliable. Memories get in my way was posted years ago and now here it is again Ugh!
Anyway it still remains true although i gave up the vegetarian kick three years ago.

Wherever i can

Due to the excessive heat i have not been able to walk outdoors. Instead my thirty minutes of exercise has been completed in places like Sams club and Walmart.
I would try the mall again but i dont care for them and the new ones are made to imitate the look of downtown streets.
I must say the inability to complete a 5k this month has me a little down. The forecast for the rest of the week is calling for more rain and scattered thunderstorms. I dont have a problem with getting wet but being struck by lighting is not on my bucket list. Waiting it out surely isn't working for me either.
Last year i decided not to buy a treadmill because exercising at home is more of a distraction. So  the only choice i have is to walk the box stores where its nice and cool, wrong.
This past weekend every store i entered was warm to the point i thought maybe i was having hot flashes. Seriously, as much as food has gone up they could at least keep us comfortable while shopping. The only place i found that was cold turned out to be the library but not enough space to walk among the stacks there.
I look forward to mother nature providing some relief since it's not even August yet. Until then I will  keep up my routine of walking wherever i can.

Foolish Me

Well  I have been walking through some of the most horrible heat on earth. Okay maybe not the worst but Florida seems to be stuck in a wave of ninety degree days followed by down pours that do nothing to cool us off. They call it hurricane season, I'm calling it a bump in the road on the way to a better healthier me.  
Had one set back before the July 4th weekend. I call it the concrete monster. Its two miles each way including the walking path.
Woke up one morning and decided i hadn't walked it in a few years. Yep, four to be exact. I won't even say how many pounds ago.  So off i went with a bottle of water and large Gatorade. It was so hot i used an umbrella for shade.
On the way up a very large older guy who was very polite passed me, followed by some rude bicyclist. None of the bikers  called out their presence and i almost stepped  back into ones path but somehow  i made it across unscathed.
Coming back was a bit more tricky.
I stopped to drink water and realized i was overheating. A little alarm went off in my head as i wondered if i could make it back. When i finally mustered up the strength i began to pray. Lord let me make it back. A few people passed and i continued to move but i hadn't noticed that i was now talking out loud and there was someone behind me.
God does answer prayers a runner stopped to walk with me over the bridge, bless her heart. She wanted to make sure i was alright and as we conversed i didn't really notice as we finished the assent. I bid her farwell at the top so she could finish her run. Thats when i spotted another walker doing what i should have done. The smart walker only did one half of the bridge, im sure she wasnt sick like me afterwards. I was dizzy and drained physically. My brush with near heat stroke left my body unable to walk for a week. Actually it was the memory of how bad i felt that kepte home. Lesson learned i will not over estimate my limit again but this sister is still walking strong!