This Week in Running – I Wanna (Sham)Rock!!!

Disclaimer: I received a free entry to the Shamrock Half Marathon as part of being a BibRave Pro. Learn more about becoming a BibRave Pro (ambassador), and check out BibRave.com to review find and write race reviews!

Susanna Hoffs was kind of my favorite.

It’s just another Manic Monday, but we’ve just about made it through. Daylight savings time can be a real beast. My kids are so confused! Charlie keeps seeing how much light there is outside and getting SO disappointed when it’s time to get ready for bed. Poor guy.

I hit 28.9 miles last week, which is the most since December. I guess I’m ramping up. I finished the week with back to back to back 6 mile runs! I really love a 6 mile run and I think I could do one everyday for the rest of my life.

My week was pretty standard at first. I ran some miles. I drank some coffee. Thursday brought basketball. Also on Thursday, I found out what the prizes were for an awesome contest that my employer had put together. The focus is to eliminate certain things from our diets for a short time and to see how our bodies react. The top 3 in weight loss (by percentage) are eligible for some nice stuff.

I had weighed in at the beginning of the year, with some holiday bulk (all lean muscle mass, of course) at a hefty 193.6 pounds. Over the course of several weeks, I naturally got back down to about 185. Thursday night, I got the crazy idea to get myself down as much as possible and figured I’d need to get to my marathon race weight of about 178. I started eating less while running the same. I didn’t drink any alcohol and I didn’t eat any snacks or sweets.

The weight fell off in a hurry and going into Sunday I was down to 179! I decided to cut back on water and eat the bare minimum. Monday morning I weighed 178, but I didn’t want to cut it too close so I hopped on the treadmill in some thick pants and a long sleeved shirt to sweat off some weight. Indeed I sweated off some weight and ended up weighing in at 175.4 pounds. I immediately drank 32oz of water and ate a bucket of tortellini for breakfast haha.

Me, right after weighing in.

I haven’t heard if I won a prize yet, and honestly I maybe don’t deserve to. I really only gave something up for a few days. I’m sure there are more deserving people. That being said, I’ll take a Garmin watch!

Crazy part of my week, Part 2: I SIGNED UP FOR THE SHAMROCK HALF! Unexpectedly, the opportunity to run this race came to my attention (thank you BibRave). I’ve always wanted to run Shamrock. I used to live in Virginia Beach, so we have history. I love St. Paddy’s Day and I love Yuengling. I’ve usually assumed that there’s no way I could run this one because it falls very near my wife and my daughter’s birthdays.

I’m THIS excited.

Things just fell into place. I have a place to stay (thanks Clark and Abby!) right near the start/finish. I’m going to head down Saturday evening and do some socializing before the big day. Sunday I’ll handle my business and enjoy the legendary post-race celebration. There will be Yuengling, oh yes, there will be. The finisher medal opens bottles too and who doesn’t like THAT? Of course, Yuenglings twist off anyway.

I really have to thank my wife who will hold things down while I’m gone. Once again, I owe her one.