Eating Twinkies for a Good Cause

Yesterday, April 1st, was the annual Twinkie Run 5K!  It's always held on April 1, regardless of the day of the week it falls on.  This race is put on by the Ann Arbor branch of the ALS Foundation, which raises $$ for ALS research.  My Grandfather had ALS so this is a cause that is important to me.  It's a silly race where runners who will eat a Twinkie at the start line after the gun goes off and then again halfway through the race will get a minute deducted for each Twinkie eaten!  Runners have to stand still while eating the Twinkie and can't move until it's all the way in!  I estimate that I lost about 30 seconds to gain 2 minutes!!  The first one went in easily but the second one was harder to get to go down!  The Twinkies felt like a bowling ball just sitting there!!
Well, since the Twinkie company went out of business, this is what they had in place of "real" Twinkies:

faux Twinkies

I have to say that these Vachon Original Sponge Cakes are wayyyyyy better than Hostess Twinkies!!!  They weren't dry and bland, they were good!!  I wrote about it a couple years ago how I hadn't had a Twinkie since I was around 10 yrs old and I was really expecting something really good but it was awful.  I could have eaten 20 of those Vachon Sponge Cakes once I wasn't running anymore!!  I had to count 4 weight watcher points for each of those things!!

Here I am with my 1st Twinkie to eat at the start line after the gun goes off! 

Twinkie in hand, ready to run! 

The race went well.  I ran better than I have in a long time.  Last night after I got home, I found a couple of pictures of myself on the Twinkie Run Facebook page:
First loop, I'm in the bright pink top and pink down the legs tights:

Coming around the first loop

Second loop:

Coming around the second loop, hoping to stay under a 9 minute mile. 

The end result:

3.1 miles in 26:42, 8:37 pace! 

This time includes the time I had to stop and eat the second Twinkie, I estimate about 20 seconds.  This is the best I've run in a very long time!  My first mile was 8:07; Where did that come from????  I'm happy with it and happy to have supported such a good cause!!!
After the run, I took off and ran 3.5 more miles on the trails on the other side of the park.  All of those miles were in the low 9s!  I felt good afterward too!  I got back to the main part of the park just in time to hear the 40-45 age group winners announced and soon after that, I heard MY name!!  I took 3rd in my age group!! 
I'm only a couple of pounds from my goal.  I remember running this race last year and then saw a picture of myself that a friend took and posted on Facebook and I was shocked; I looked awful.  I couldn't believe how I looked.  I looked huge.  When I saw the pictures taken during this race, I was shocked in the opposite way!  I could really see a difference.
This is a couple of my friends and me with our beer glasses which are our age group awards:

age group winners

The lady on the left is a speed walker; she can walk really fast!
So, that's how I ate Twinkies for a good cause!!  

My daughter is back in the USA!!  She left Belize this morning and is in Dallas, TX for the night and will arrive back in Detroit at 11:30 tomorrow morning!  I've already talked to her.  She couldn't wait to turn on that cell phone of hers and send a text message after 3 months!!  I can't wait to see her again and hear all about studying abroad for a semester!  She's freezing in Dallas; she's going to be in for a shock when she gets back to Michigan!

Runner Nerd
eats Twinkies for a good cause

Muddy Shoes

Yesterday, my run resulted in:

Muddy shoes and tights!!

Mud covered shoes

Trying to scrape some mud off before getting in the car!

I ran my favorite 4.5 mile route which includes a 3/4 mile jaunt through the woods!!  As is usual in the early spring, the woods were super muddy!! What is it about running in the mud and getting ones shoes all muddy?  I love muddy shoes!  I had a pretty good run.  I ran from Bandemer Park along Argo Pond and over the dam and along the headrace.  They have been cutting a lot of trees along the river; I wonder why.  I saw something that I haven't seen in a long time.  Along the river along the headrace trail I could see tents on the other side of the river.  The tents are where homeless people sleep.  A few years ago there were always tents along the river but you could barely see them because there used to be a lot more trees.  It's been some time since I've seen tents along there.  I also saw an old couch on the other side of the headrace which is kind of funny!  There were people sitting on it enjoying the new "rapids" they made in the headrace.  They were definitely not homeless people.  I continued on to Maiden Lane, crossed to Island Drive and down and back and on the way back to Bandemer, I took Argo Bluffs trail which is through the woods and that is where I got my shoes all muddy!!  It's my favorite stretch of that run! I saw several people in the river along Island Dr. and in Bandemer under the M14 overpass and it looked like they were taking samples or testing or something. 

My next event coming up is a week from today, Monday, April 1st, AKA April Fools Day.  I will be running the annual Twinkie run which is always run on April 1st regardless of the day of the week.  The race supports the ALS Foundation.  My Grandfather had ALS so I consider it a worthy cause.  I looked up Twinkies nutrition info and I am going to have to count 4 weight watcher points for each Twinkie I eat; good thing I'm running a race!!  I usually run a few more miles afterward since the race is in Gallup Park, another of my favorite places to run!

I am only 2.5 pounds away from my pre-college weight!!!!!!!  Last year I wore my running skirt to the Twinkie run and about fell over when I saw a picture that my friend took; I looked soooooooo huge.  It was awful.  This year isn't looking like it will be running skirt weather but if it does happen to be warm enough, I can wear my first running skirt again!!  It's not the one I wore last year; I wasn't able to fit in this one last year.  It would be so awesome to be able to wear it in the run!  If not the Twinkie run then hopefully the Detroit Race for the Cure in May. 

Runner Nerd
has muddy shoes and wants to wear blue Nike running skirt again