A bib by any other name

To personalize or not, that is the question. Well, in regards to my marathon bib number that is 😀

I had fully intended on registering for the Portland Marathon today, and I was halfway through when I got to the empty box that didn’t have a red star next to it: “Personalize?” Uh, what? I didn’t know what to do. Do I personalize or do I leave it blank? And let me just say, Google did NOT help. Some on the forums were for it. Some were against it. My running girls, they were for it.

But here’s the dilemma: I’ve only got 8 characters to work with, and it just so happens that “Princess” is exactly 8 letters, but Princess of Pavement, way too long. Or do I go with my birth name? Some on the Google forums said it was cool to run past people, who don’t know you from the next person, but they’re all rooting for you by name. Or do I do a combo of both: KatiePOP = exactly 8 characters. Thoughts?

For someone (that would be me) who was seriously considering bailing on tonight’s run , due to the mondo amounts of stiffness my body was suffering last night, I had a pretty great run. I made a deal with myself last night that if I was still aching by this afternoon, I would bail … don’t want to go unnecessarily injuring myself early on, right. But when I got up this morning, the stiffness had somewhat dissipated, and continued to do so throughout the day. By about 4, I just had a bit of butt tightness going on, so I figured I’d give it a go – and I’m glad I did. For about the first 3 km, my calves were feeling majorly constricted, but as we progressed along, the burning sensation somewhat subsided, and it was nowhere near the inferno I was feeling on yesterday run. But other than that, I felt at ease, I had energy, I had form, I had oomph, and it was awesome! However, in about the last 1 1/2 km of the run I felt a small twinge of oddness going on in my knee. Me and the foam roller, we got reacquainted tonight!

Funny, between the five of us girls, none of our Garmin’s were synched with pace, we seemed to be all over the map, and yet, when we reached 10k, our average pace across the board was 6:30 – go figure!

TONIGHT’S RUN:

• 6:15 p.m. BG before: 9.6 (temporary basal -50 per cent)
• Distance: 10 km (tempo)
• Average pace: 6:30
• Time: 1:05
  
• 8 p.m. BG after: 5.1

I tried out my newest running outfit tonight, and I absolutely loved it!

I decided I needed to buy another running outfit, as the laundry tends to build up when you’re running five days a week and doing cross training for the other two days (well, cross training for the most part … when I remember, that is ;)) and sometimes I’m really finding it hard to keep up with it.

So, I figured it was time for another pair of shorts (three solid pairs just isn’t enough, a fourth was needed) and I figured, since I was buying shorts I might as well buy a new top and some extra running socks too.

I loved the look of the Running Room shirt (it magically hides my belly softness and the turquoise colour is just sweet) but I was a little worried that it might get too hot when the temperatures start getting warmer as it’s a bit heavier of a technical material. It seemed to do alright tonight, and I think it’ll be great for race day … hmm … possibly a race day outfit contender???

When I first tried on the Brooks shorts, I was a bit shy in them, as they show a lot of leg, but they look awesome when I’m running (can’t say that about all my running shorts) and because the waist band is a bit thicker, my insulin pump doesn’t move an inch when I’m running, which is perfect. Shorts success!

The only concern I really had with the new outfit was the Asics socks, which heated my feet up a bit. I usually where fun socks, otherwise known as Defeet socks, which are really lightweight. The Asics socks are all fancy and have extra toe supports and compression and the works, and they seemed lightweight when I got them, but not while I was running. Hopefully the next time I give them a go, I’ll have better luck!

Happy Canada Day tomorrow – do you have plans?