Thanksgiving Break in Pics

 Picture post for your enjoyment...or just mine when I look back years from now :).

 Drinks with old friends and family in Eastern Washington!

My contribution to Thanksgiving dinner - Daily Garnish Cranberry Orange Brussel Sprouts

Stacey at her lookout spot at my parents

Sonia visits Seattle!

Christmas at the market

Reignwolf concert - most talented guitar player I've ever seen!

A little Seattle Marathon spectating

Brave Horse Brunch and beer

My first roasted chicken! 

I had so much fun I got a fun cold as a gift...it was worth it!

Question: What is your favorite memory from Thanksgiving this year?

Race Recap: 2012 Mustache Dashe 5K

Man this race was fun and mostly because I got to walk to the start line from my house and see all my favorite blogger friends!

Becky and I woke up pretty early on Saturday morning considering the race didn't start until 10. But we filled the morning with tea and breakfast and of course getting our mustaches on!  My pink fuzzy stache wouldn't stay on so I had to steal a stickier one from Nicole at the race.

The Mustache Dashe folks really put on a good show! They had tents galore with free stuff, an espresso cart, food trucks, a stage with music, a mechanical bull and beer.

Luckily, my weather nerd co-workers forecast was right and it didn't rain while we ran at all!  A bunch of us ladies gathered pre-race and discussed the ridiculousness of mustaches and how it was impossible to smile with them on.

Before dashing! Pic from Sarah

The race started right on time at 10:00 and Nicole, Lindsay and I started towards the front of the pack and off we went.  It was so entertaining watching all the people in costume including one guy in just a speedo, two guys in blow up sumo suits and oh so many mustaches! We wound our way through Magnuson Park just chatting with each other but keeping a sub 9:00 pace the whole time. When we were coming around the final straight away Nicole told me I had 45 seconds to get in under 27:00 so I sprinted off to a new 5K PR of literally just under 27:00 at 26:54 and a pace of 8:41.

Me, Nicole and Lindsay right after finishing (courtesy of Sarah)

We hung around for a little time after waiting for some others to finish and of course getting a photo with the GIANT STACHE!

Photo from Sarah, she is such a good blogger with photo taking!

Such a fun morning!! What race are we doing next ladies?  I could probably work on my 10K PR next ;).

Question: Do you like the 5K distance? I really have no idea what I'm doing in terms of speed for these races since I'm so used to running longer but I figure if I just push myself more than normal I'm doing something right!

Are You Racing With a Stache on Saturday?

Hey, remember that little 5k I mentioned a while ago!  Well the Mustache Dash has tuned into quite the blogger extravaganza and I'm pretty sure I don't know anyone who ISN'T running it which means it is going to be awesome.

You can still sign up to run or volunteer, so do it!

Since I happen to live directly across the street from the race course I took it upon myself to run the course a week ago just to make sure everything was in good order...kidding! I actually run that route almost weekly but I did go the extra mile (or rather 1/2 mile) to make sure I got the 5K distance.  You all should know that this course is pretty easy and very scenic.  There is one HILL and I bet if you challenged yourself to sprint it up it you wouldn't even notice it...it's teeny tiny!

Becky and I are having a slumber party the night before and are going to soak in the fact that we can cross the street to the start line by sleeping in and having a leisurely breakfast.  While I would love to have ALL of you over before the race I'm pretty sure my condo would explode so sorry...no pre-race mimosas at my place :(.

Now the most important question! What will I be wearing?  I'm not usually one to dress up for races, certainly not like the fabulous Stacie, but I did think about my outfit a little more than usual.

Of course the mustache...

Courtesy of Becky, I'll be sporting a hot pink stache...whose jealous?

To return the favor of the pink stache, I bought us matching pink stache knee high socks, who on earth thought of putting little black mustaches on pink socks I don't know, but thank you for the opportunity to wear these once in my life!

Oh and about a time goal?  Nah, I'm just going to run run run for fun fun fun!  I'm a lot speedier than I was even a year ago so I imagine I'll get a PR anyways...woohoo!

SO...blogger/nonblogger ladies...who is signed up for this race?  Comment please!  There aren't any plans for an official meetup but I'm guessing this race won't be too large so see you in the beer garden post race, maybe we can all challenge each other to see who can stay on the mechanical bull the longest ;).

I HEART Blog Friends

No exciting content today...I'm honestly insanely busy in other parts of my life right now but just wanted to shout out to all the lovely ladies that ran with me past weekend!  Lindsay organized a group run followed by coffee and I left the morning feeling so happy to have stumbled into this blog world and made some amazing new friends to go along with it all!

If you don't already you should be following every single one of these Pacific Northwest Runners/Bloggers/Awesome Ladies!

Alma
Nicole
Megan
Becky
Zoe
Julie
Rebecca
Sarah
Lindsay
Andrea
Meghan

That is all for now! I hope every single one of my readers in Seattle signed up for the Mustache Dash on November 17 in Magnuson Park!  I'm pretty certain every single one of those ladies above plus a ton more will be there...see you there!

FlybyNight + Flywheel Deal for You!

Stolen from Flywheel Seattle Facebook page

Well I didn't dress up for Halloween, I didn't go to any parties and I didn't hand out any candy...well except to day care kids at work.  I guess I wasn't in the "spirit" this year but I did do one Halloweeny thing that let me indulge in my newest fitness obsession...FLYWHEEL!

And put a Halloween scarf on my dog :)

The night before Halloween, Flywheel Seattle had a Flybynight ride with two instructors.  I tried my hardest to get every single one of my twitter followers to come but alas I had to settle for Lena, Sarah, Stacie and my non-blogger friend Rachel.  J/K girls, there was no settling...you are all my main flygirls!

Rachel, Lena, myself, Sarah and Stacie (stolen from Sarah's instagram)

They had the studio all decked out with strobe lights, blacked out windows and halloween music.  The instructors Aina and Kristin were in costume and both deserve a million points for keeping those super sweaty costumes on for the whole ride.

Like always the ride was ridiculously sweaty and I swear every time I go it's harder than the last time.  I have never sweat and got my heart rate as high as in this class and I would challenge any other activity to try and do the same thing that Flywheel does!

Have you ever rode that many miles or burned that many calories in 45 MINUTES?

After spinning for 45 minutes to Halloween tunes that ended with stretching to the True Blood theme song we took our sweaty stinky selves to Veggie Grill which is quickly becoming a post Flywheel/Flybarre tradition.  It is my duty to try everything on the menu and I would say I'm doing pretty good so far...meal number 6 I believe:

Al Hale Kale Salad with Tempeh!

If I haven't tempted you to try Flywheel left I'm not sure what to do but if I indeed have convinced you that you MUST try it you can...for really really cheap!! There is an Amazon Local deal right now that gives you 6 rides for $58 bucks (1st ride is free when you create an account plus the deal which give you a 5 pack of rides).  GO GET IT NOW!  It works at both Bellevue and Seattle.

QUESTION: Did you dress up for Halloween?  Hand out candy to kids? What is your favorite Halloween candy?