Sunday morning, my calloused feet enjoyed some fun time at Central Park for the Fred Lebow Half Marathon with New York Road Runners. I'm a notorious medal whore and I'm not in denial of such. For 2017, I'll be redecorating my side of the office to put up more medals. Cringe if you desire but my office will be bedazzled the hell out with finisher medals.
I kept my running gear simple: Base layer heat thermal shirt from Uniqlo, my Superfit Hero shirt from the BuzzFeed shoot and these cool capri leggings with deep pockets to store my cell phone and energy gels. Although my Saloman sneakers are close to done in mileage, I'm riding them until the wheels fall off. Because my procrastinating nature can get the best out of me on race day, I didn't opt to pick up my bib or hat days before the race. In my head, I lied to myself and said that I would be leaving out of my home by 6AM. Six snoozed alarms later, I woke up at 5:45AM, not leaving my house until 6:45. I suppose this isn't too terrible with my track record.
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The writer's block and break is over. Yeah, you read the title right. I'm not politically correct nor will I decide to be safe about my word choice tomorrow.
Before I start going full Twitter finger warrior on you guys, I must thank Nora Whelan for the incredible feature on BuzzFeed! If you haven't read the article or saw the video, please check it out. In addition, I want to send some serious love to the incredible blogger, 300 Pounds and Running, Martinus Evans, for the feature on his super inspirational podcast. I cannot tell you how humbled I am from both of these experiences within a week span, as they have opened me up to people from around the globe who were brave enough to share their own stories with me. I'm still responding back and while I know there's no pressure in doing so, I love being able to talk back with my readers and followers. Okay, rant time! It's 4pm. Why the hell am I still homebound? I packed up my suitcase for Boston two or so days ago. Because I'm slightly neurotic, I unpacked it, reevaluated my life and decided that 50 percent of my items should go into a larger suitcase because it's workout gear. You know, I used to hate people like me. The types that wake up at 4AM with a smile on their face like some new drug on the market for erectile dysfunction, smiling through a field of flowers, skipping with their clueless girlfriend as they lay out all of the side effects on the television. Then, this person would go to the gym, pump iron for a hour and a half and go for a 100 mile run to nowhere. At the end of the run, they scream out some delusional rhetoric like "...I'm still standing; I'm still strong", jumping up and down as if there's a film crew recording them for Rocky IX. Jesus, fuck these people because I became one of them but fatter. I guess I didn't make the mark on all of the stereotypes. But guess what? I actually love it. Sometimes you have to experience it to understand it. I never said that I don't judge. Hell, I'm human. In turn, I know that someone is going to look at me completely nuts after I done with this blog post. Today is somewhere around 20 degrees and it's snowing. And guess what? I'm going for a 5K jog and doing a full damn workout. You know why? Because it's Saturday. But It's _____ Degrees Outside...Yes, it's cold as hell outside right now but guess what? It's winter darling. When summer hits, it'll be too damn hot. When April kicks around, the rain will beat my ass. There's always going to be something but it doesn't mean that you cannot be prepared. Check out my previous blog on running in cold weather called "I Will Not Catch Hypothermia Running This Winter." Just in case you're one of those folks who don't have time to read it, essentially here's some things that you can do when it comes to shit weather: For Snow:
For Rain:
For Extremely Hot Conditions
With this being said, I need to take my happy little ass outside and go freeze for a mile, then warm up around mile 2 and looked at with the stink face for about 45 minutes. If only I was a faster runner and then I couldn't hear their comments about the crazy nut who refused to take a day off. I don't feel bad because there's others out there who will join me. If you dare, feel free to join me on today's workout of the day and hash tag #runningfatchef or tag me on Instagram/Facebook/Twitter/Tumblr posts. Happy Trails and Side Eyes! Before I get the "bitch wheeet" face, can I say Happy New Year to all of my followers! Thank you for being awesome human beings. I never imagined having so much positive feedback just from being myself. Even if you side eye the hell out of me tomorrow for my crazy comments, know that I seriously appreciate the love. With this being said, this black girl went on her first official hike for the New Year! I will not shut my mouth because I have to tell you guys all about it. A few weeks ago, I was on Facebook and I saw that Mirna was in town. If you don't know who she is, then get your life together. Check out her blog Fat Girl Running. She's super inspiring and not as crazy as I am. She has been working so hard on her book but wanted to go for a hike. Personally, I never did an official hike before. The closest that I came to "hiking" would be participating in Spartan races. While it's beautiful exploring the terrain on the course, it's not every day that you're crawling under barb wire, jumping into mud pits or doing the Hercules Hoist. I wanted to experience the hype of truly being in tune with nature. In turn, I asked her to please let me know when she was down. We talked about it on and off and agreed that New Year's Day would be a spectacular way to bring in the New Year. Fast forward to New Year's morning: About 5 hours of sleep, crust in my eyes loaded up like a bag of cocaine and a dancing headache, I was determined to make sure this day happen. Thankfully, I pulled out my clothing and most of the stuff needed for the hike into a backpack. I whipped up some of my classic pancakes from scratch for the family and jumped into the shower. Mirna and I were both a bit delayed so we gave ourselves a bit more time before getting on the road. My stomach was beat boxing with the devil, as it tends to do before I go for a run, so I went through my religious routine of exorcising my demons for sanity sake. As I always profess, I am terrified of being a poop meme, especially for races. Mirna hit me up, told me she was downstairs and shortly after, we went on the road. |
Latoya Shauntay SnellFor my pretentious ass bio, check out the about me page but for anyone interested in who I really am, make me a good meal at your house and I'll tell you a dope ass story. If you want to donate to my one woman operation, please feel free to donate below. All funds will help me keep the blog running smoothly.
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