Family, Fitness, Food, and Football

It was a great day Saturday because it included a bunch of things I love: Family, Fitness, Food, and Football. I was running the Chandler Family Fitness 5k and that didn't start until 9:15 so I got to do something I normally don't do: sit in bed and drink coffee. We slept in until 4:30 and had some nice relaxing time before the kids woke up at 6. The extra coffee time was great since it was so cold (no heater allowed in our house). We are having one of  the coldest few days ever here with temperatures in the 20s.  We thought about bringing the kids out to the race but it was just too cold so Allison's mom came over to watch them and Allison came to the race with her Dad.  My parents came out too so it was great to have support out there. We both ran this race last year and we were impressed with how organized and efficient it was for a small race.

My coach John and my friend Jeff were running the race also so we warmed up together and all planned to be about the same speed. I have only done a couple of speed workouts since the marathon so I wasn't super confident but I figured I would be somewhere between 5:10 and 5:20. I was very cold during the warm up and like most Arizonians am not used to the 20 degree temperatures. When the horn went off I stayed behind Jeff and John and I felt very comfortable with a 5:16 first mile so I took the lead. I really felt strong and pushed the second mile or so I thought.  I didn't look at my watch and I was expecting to see a 5:05-5:10 but it was 5:13 and after that second mile I was tired. I held it together the best I could during the third mile and ran a very painful 5:20. Before I had left my daughter had told me not to get second place because I always get second. I actually thought of that and it helped me as I was getting tired toward the end. I was able to kick it in a little with a 4:56 pace for the last .11 and get the win. Whew, that one hurt though. My official time was 16:23. This gives me a valid starting to point to work from and I'm glad I got the first one out of the way. It's always nice to win a race and I hope this starts off a great year of racing. Thanks to all the race staff and volunteers who braved the cold temps and helped make it a successful race again. Now it's time to get back in the full swing and go after some of my big goals for the year.

My favorite racing shoes: Saucony A5

Painful last mile

Coming down the stretch

Crossing the line

We all cooled down on the course and must have run this path 5 times for the day.

Now to the food and football:
We found a good looking sweet potato and black bean enchilada recipe and we invited my parents over to try it out with us. With football on it made for a perfect afternoon. Although a little spicy, the enchiladas were great and we had a nice afternoon visiting with my parents. When life is busy you sometimes skip on things like these family dinners so were really happy to get together. My parents who aren't health nuts even tried a green kale/pear smoothie that we made for them in our new blender. I could probably do a whole post on the blender but we've been trying a bunch of healthy smoothies with some success and a couple fails. It's nice when the kids will actually eat something that's green and natural.

The sweet potatoes

The beans and onions

Mixed all together

We used whole wheat tortillas and topped them with a mild green sauce. Very good. Here is the recipe.

Throw a bunch of good stuff in the blender and you get ...

Tasty green goodness. Shh, don't tell the kids it's good for you.