Cornyval 5k - 6 years Later

The day after my awesome bridal shower was the Helotes Cornyval 5k. It had been nearly 6 weeks since my last race due to injury, so there wasn't a whole lot to expect. I did one workout 3 days prior to the race, which was all the aerobic work I had in my little legs going into the race.

I ran a 18:47 5k ftw, in humid/hot/hilly conditions. 6:03 average pace. Not horrible, not awesome. The course is pretty tough, and like I said, it was nasty out. I've got a long road ahead, but I know there are great things to come. I just have to keep my head up and my legs pumping away.

It was good to be back competing at the Cornyval 5k. It runs right around my high school so it brought back some great memories. The last time I did it was my senior year of high school since I was still competing in college and last year was at the Stanford meet. My whole family came out, and most of them ran the race. Jer's mom (from Houston) came out to watch us, even though she was leaving for London the very next day. And last, but not least, my MT Liz came out to watch. She was going to race, and beat the pants off me, but unfortunately she rolled her ankle just two days prior. 



Jer hanging in for a solid 2nd place finish

 

Almost to the finish line!



Brother Andy with Oakley! 23:07 with a dog the whole way!



My other brother Mikey wondering why he woke up so early : )



Sara and me helping my mom to the finish!



The gang, minus Lizzy, cause she took the picture.



When One Door Closes...Break a Window

Good Friday ended up not being too good for me, or so I thought. That is the day I found out that Trinity didn't get the NCAA Matching Grant we had applied for or the other NCAA Internship another group in athletics was working on. So it left me without a job for next year...kind of a scary place to be in.

Jer and I spent that weekend in Houston going over all of our options. Lucky for us Jer has a great job and because he works extra hard, financially we'd be pretty ok if I didn't find something right away.

I was fortunate enough to experience quite a few things during my two year internship, one of which was taking action shots during home sporting events. I really started getting into it and my photos were also improving heaps compared to when I first began. I've always enjoyed taking photos. In high school and college I'd have my little camera anywhere I'd go and plaster photos up on photobucket.

So Jer, knowing me better than I know myself in this case, came up with the great idea of starting my own photography business! It'd be for action shots, since that's what I have the most experience at thus far. We decided on the name Daum Photography! Simple, I know. Jer didn't like it at first, but I think it's growing on him.

That same weekend we went out and bought a camera that would be perfect for action photography. The Sony Alpha 33.

We also got the 300mm lens so I could get those far away shots and they can still come out beautiful! It is 14.2 mega pixels for those high res photos, is lightweight, and has a 3 inch free angle mount which means I won't be cracking any screens anytime soon. I simply twist it 180 degrees and the screen is safely protected. It has a long list of other great features too. I'm going to take some free classes Wolfe is offering and possibly even a photography class at a community college over the summer since I have some extra money left in the professional development fund from the NCAA.

Obviously I have no idea how lucrative this business of mine would be since I've spent the last two years taking photos for free, but we're both really excited to see what happens. Lucky for me, I have amazing colleagues at Trinity too who are also helping as much as they possibly can. I'll still be taking photos for Trinity Athletics this coming year, but the difference is I'll get paid for it! Yahoo! I'll also be getting paid to help Trinity's SID with website maintenance to earn some extra money as well.

The great thing about the new change is I get to set my own schedule. I'll be able to train like an animal and be at the races I'm itching to compete at, which I wouldn't have been able to do due to work obligations at my previous job.

So here's to a great two years as the E-Tern (Emily + Intern = E-Tern), although I'm pretty sure that nickname will be following me around for awhile. I'm really excited to see what will become of Daum Photography!

Ode to Our Puppies

 I just got a new camera a couple weeks ago and was messing around, trying different things out. Jer and I have two puppies, who kinda mean the world to us, and who are apparently very photogenic. Here are a couple of my favorites.

Marzuki all grown up



This one of Dexter just makes me laugh. I'd be perfect for a comic strip.

He's even cute upside-down

 

Messing with some color settings



Mazuki giving Dexter some kisses



He's the happiest puppy i've ever known



29 Until Jer is All Mine!

The clock is frantically ticking and with less than a month to go it's crunch time! I haven't gotten as much done on the to-do list this past month because things were still at a peak school/job wise, but with only 29 days to go there isn't a whole lot of procrastination time left.

Wedding To Do List…

Invitations to the wedding

Invitations to the engagement party

Dress Alterations

Dress Shoes

Wedding Cake

Marrying Man

Wedding Favors

Flower Bouquets

Registry

Book Honeymoon

Plan for the rehearsal lunch

Formal wear for the guys

Update Wedding Website

Wedding night hotel room

DIY Photobooth

Marriage Contract

Jer’s Ring

Get my rings resized

Guest Book

Music

SlideShow

Food at Reception

Drink list

Ring Bearer/Flower Girl Items

Garter

On the plus side of things I received some terrific news today. Jer and I asked my grandpa, Charles Coogan, if he'd do us the honor of officiating our wedding and he said YES! I didn't even think it was possible having a loved one officiate until I went to Alicia's wedding where she had her brother-in-law performing the ceremony. Apparently it only takes 3 minutes to become a certified minister. Who knew? I couldn't be happier having one of the greatest men alive marrying me and my best friend.

PS: Liz threw me an amazing bridal shower this weekend which I will post soon! We've also got an engagement party this coming weekend hosted by my lovely parents...so many awesome parties to look forward to this May!!

Ra Ra Ra Race Recap

My goals for this spring season were both of the following: to race freqently and well, and to PR in any event I attempted shorter than a marathon. The idea behind all of this is that if I can go into next fall as a low or sub 15 minute 5k runner, rather than the 15:26 guy that I've been, I might have sufficient speed to run a faster marathon, which for me means something more like 2:25-2:28. Now let's leave aside the questionable logic implied there (there are plenty of women with faster marathon PR's than me who I could take 9 times out of 10 in a 5k), those were my goals, and I just wanted to get fast, fit, and tough, and race like the gritty SOB that I imagine myself to be.

I've already accomplished part of my goal: I've notched PR's in the 5k and 10k, and I've raced 12 times since starting this “season” in December. Numbers 11 and 12 of that total came yesterday.

Part one of my double came at the Castle Hills Fiesta 5k, which was what I would generously term a “small” race. More accurately, there were about 50 people at the race.

Really wasn't joking about the 50 people thing

It was old school, which is just fine with me – cover whatever distance faster than everyone else, anything else is secondary. I ran 15:48 for first, roughly a minute and thirty seconds ahead of 2^nd. Was the course accurate? No idea. I just ran pretty damn close to all out until I got to the finish line. I look at it as the best training you can do – there isn't much that's more specific to racing a fast 5k than racing a 5k. And if I can continue to find awesome race directors who will let me in for free, I will happily substitute these semi-time-trials for workouts.

This pretty much sums up the race

Race #2 was the Fiesta Fandango 2.6 mile run. Why 2.6 miles? The race just follows the parade route for the Fiesta Flambeau parade, part of Fiesta, which is a pretty damn big deal here in San Antonio. The race went off at 6:40pm, with the parade to follow at 7 pm, and the crowds gathered in bleachers along the downtown streets having been there for several hours already. Which is to say, man those people were drunk, rowdy, and loud.

I struggled mightily to keep up with one younger guy for the first half mile, but thankfully was able to gap him not long after. Once I got a few seconds on him, I was so overcome with relief that my legs (which up to that point had felt shit-tacular) were holding up, I decided to savor the moment, and the crazy crowds, and goof around a little bit.

It was really awesome to be in a race and not feel stressed out about competing all the way to the finish – I just picked it up when I felt capable of doing so, slowed down when I felt taxed, and waved to the onlookers along the way. My final time was 12:45, which if the course distance is to be believed is 4:54 pace, or 15:14 5k pace. I have some doubts that I ran that fast, but again this was old school – just get to the finish before everyone else, and that I got done. All in all, a successful day, and it gives me the confidence to go after my 5k PR at Rice this Saturday, assuming I haven't procrastinated so much that I can't get in to the race. I don't know if it will work out, but I do know that when this fall rolls around I will have the confidence to attempt to take more than a few minutes off of my marathon best.

2 Months Until People Realize I Can't Dance!

Well it's actually a little less than than two months, but life's been a little hectic. Things are slowly getting checked off the list thanks in large part to all the help I'm getting from some amazing people.

*Some of the items are only half way crossed off because they aren't quite done

Wedding To Do List…

Invitations to the wedding

Invitations to the engagement party

Dress Alterations

Dress Shoes

Wedding Cake

Marrying Man

Wedding Favors

Flower Bouquets

Registry

Book Honeymoon

Plan for the rehearsal lunch

Formal wear for the guys

Update Wedding Website

Wedding night hotel room

DIY Photobooth

Marriage Contract

Jer’s Ring

Get my rings resized

Guest Book

Music

SlideShow

Food at Reception

Drink list

Ring Bearer/Flower Girl Items

Garter

I was also finally able to send off bridesmaid dresses awhile ago. I hope all my lovely ladies like 'em!

Jer's been amazing through this whole process. He always seems to know the right thing to say or the right mood to be in when I'm just about to go over the edge. He's helped to make so many decisions where I'm stuck in the middle. He also did an AMAZING job of picking out where to go on our honeymoon too! 

 Drum roll please............

EXCELLENCE Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic!

Take a peak!



Doesn't it take your breath away?



The honeymoon picking was all Jer and I couldn't be more excited!! He was also Mr. Fabulous when it came to trying on his tux as well as the groomsmen attire (so we could see if it was the right color choice).



Contrary to what you're thinking he's never done professional modeling

 

I was a little under dressed

So here's to hoping that we're able to cross more items off the list before we're down to a mere 30 days!

Also HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my soon-to-be brother Karl! 21, woo hoo!!

↓ in Iron = ↓ in Performance

Last Wednesday I finally went to see Dr. Karrh. For awhile now I've noticed an extra level of difficulty in my workouts and even on easy runs. I thought it was weird because my mileage hasn't been very high either. So two things came to mind, either my asthma meds needed some adjustment (since I was have a VERY difficult time breathing during workouts) or my iron level was low.

So at 4:00PM on Wednesday I got 2 1/2 tubes filled with my lovely blood and waited. Luckily Dr. Karrh works faster than any doctor I know and called me the very next morning at 10:00AM with results! Now that's fast. He checked three different things...my hemoglobin level, my ferritin level, and my thyroid level. Hemoglobin was 14, normal, and my thyroid level was normal too. However, my ferritin level was 8! Crazy low. So he put me on prescription iron supplements and told me it'd take about 2 weeks for them to really take effect.

This was honestly the best diagnosis I could've asked for. Iron deficiency is one of the easiest things to fix instead of attemping to get a new cocktail of asthma meds or whatever else could've been wrong with me. It explains so much with how training has been going and racing.

So how could I have possibly been so iron deficient? No, I am not a vegetarian..I LOVE MEAT, I EAT MEAT, and I CRAVE MEAT. Well here are some things I've learned over the past week that prohibited my iron absorption.

1. Ground Beef is not a good source of iron since it's so well cooked. Unfortunate because I have lots of meals with ground beef. LAME!

2. Caffeine inhibits iron absorption. So all those meals that I wanted some delicious Dr.Pepper to wash down all that good wholesome iron with was no bueno. Also my consumption of coffee has increased over the past year. Having a cup a day in the morning, either with my second breakfast or right after turned out to be a bad idea too.

3. Calcium and iron cancel each other out. So keeping those two separated is important. Having queso at a lot of great restaurants right before eating my amazing steak or chicken was not a good idea.

4. Iron is best absorbed with orange juice (rich in vitamin-c), but obviously avoid the oj with calcium.

I wish I would've known these things prior to my iron level taking a toll on my running performance, but I found out the hard way. Luckily it was soon enough before my hemoglobin levels dropped too much leading to anemia or to me developing a serious injury.

This whole process has gotten me really excited about the future. I wasn't terribly pleased with my recent race performances, but the fact that I still hit the times I did with a seriously low ferritin level lets me know that I'm in great shape and will hopefully get back on track before the weather really starts heating up!