Watermelon Crawl

Rolling out of bed EARLY in the morning after a late night of fun was NOT the easiest thing for me to do! Was I looking forward to another run in what already felt like a sauna bath before the run even started???? Of course not, are ya nuts?!?!?! :o)


The race took place in a small residential neighborhood (in Winter Park), so one can only imagine how crowded the run was. There were 3000 hot, sweaty, enthusiastic runners lined up at the start! The anthem played, horn sounded, and the runners were off.

Amongst the throng of trail trekkers was none other than Chef Ewald Notter! I felt like a completely lazy slug next to him. He had already done 4 miles..BEFORE THE RACE! This 5K run was nothing but a cool down run for him.

Hahaha....too funny because when I get to a race, I always see people running before the race and never understood the purpose....now here I was with the founder and Director of Education of Notter School of Pastry Arts and witnessing to him being "one of those people" *sheepish grin*

He gives me great inspiration to run....helps preserve youth, prevent weight gain (it's got to be his secret since he consumes all that sugar all day), and stay fit...HE is living proof!!

My goal (again) was to cross that finish line in one piece! MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!! *does a moonwalk* <--- in honor of MJ :o)

The fun did not stop there, Kobfa and I signed up (along with hundreds of others) to do the watermelon eating contest. 5 guys and 5 gals were chosen (at random) to see who could eat their chunk'o watermelon the fastest in 3 minutes.

My name did not get pulled...but once again, people I go with do get chosen. Kobfa's name was chosen, but because there had already been 5 guys picked, he was not allowed to do it. The MC was gracious enough to allow lil o'l ME to do it instead!

Rules of the game were as follows:

No hands, no upchucking, no spitting!

So, how did I do? Welllllllllllllll.....you are now looking at 2009's Watermelon Queen!! WOO HOO!!! :o)

Me, FL's Watermelon Queen, Winner of Men's Division (and son)!

I won rights to never inhaling watermelon like that ever again, a whole watermelon, a crown (aka watermelon visor with "QUEEN" written on it"), and two beautifully hand painted wine glasses.

So what have I learned from this experience? Maybe cooking isn't my thing...but EATING sure is!!! Maybe after pastry school I'll go and train with Juliet Lee and Sonya Thomas and join them in the rankings of the International Federation of Competitive Eating. *laughs hysterically* JUST KIDDING....or am I? *wink wink*

It was just nice to run along side my sweet darling lollipoo. Our next appearance will be EXPEDITION EVEREST!

*Note-I had to use this Post Title because it used to be one of my favorite songs amongst many other country songs. How could y'all NOT like line dancing? :o)

Sweat, Sun, and Fun

It's 5:30 on a Saturday morning (a day off from school) and my alarm goes off! What on earth am I thinking? :o)

I'm thinking, today looks like a great day to go for a 5K run!!! :o) *begins day with morning stretches*

It was a gorgeous drive to the race...sun peeking over the trees...fog over little bodies of water...and barely any cars on the road.

It was a nice quiet drive until...I took the wrong exit....GRRRRR!

I had about 20 minutes left to make it to packet pick-up...NOT how I wanted to start the race!

After my personal GPS (my boyfriend) guided me back on the right path and having to put up with my frustrations, I finally made it!! (that's why I love my honey-bunches-of-oats so much, he's always there for me even when he's not here...thank you for putting up with your crazy lil monkey buns!!!)

So, how does ORC (Orlando Runners Club) compare to CARA (Chicago Area Runners Association)....hmmm...definitely not as organized.

When I got to the race, there was no distinct starting line...so I wasn't sure if I was parked close or 6 miles away from the start. Thank goodness for getting lost because I actually ended up parking A LOT closer to the starting line than most people.

I picked up my race packet and found only 3 safety pins instead of the usual four. That's okay, because I just asked for one more.

The sun was rising at a rapid pace and you could feel the heat warming up your back. I stood at the starting line wondering why this race wasn't set at an earlier start time. I guess it's Florida, so this is normal. *laughs*

Halfway through the race, I stopped at a water station just to pick up an extremely warm cup of water! *bleck* Oh well, warm water is better than no water, right?

At the finish line, I was told to go back a little because I couldn't pass up the guy in front of me because we had to grab an index card (in the order we finish) to put our name, gender, and age so they could post it (manually). *looks confused*

At one point in the race, I thought for sure I was going to melt into the ground and be mistaken for a water station. *continues to sizzle*

Although there seemed to be many negatives to this race, did I let it get me down? Of course not! I still had fun and rejoiced in my accomplishments. I FINISHED!!! (I think it was under 33 minutes...not quite sure) *does a victory dance*
I was excited to get my hands on post-race food. What does Florida have to offer?

ORANGES OF COURSE!!!

BUT WAIT...THERE'S MORE!! A post-race pizza party was going to be held at Mellow Mushroom...but not for another 2 hours. Boo! So what does Savitre do?...she makes new friends!

Jon, Veena, Jason, Star, and Moi :o)

I met a fun group of friends aka The Headless Lizards. They are hilarious and were fun to past time by with. I am now an official groupie of their band! *giggles*

Before we headed out to Mellow Mushroom, they were doing raffle drawing based on our bib numbers. I was not lucky enough to have my number drawn. However, Jon was....TWICE to be exact. The first time he won a really nifty shoe bag and the second...the really chic bright green shirt that yours truly is modeling for you.

After an hour of sitting around at Mellow Mushroom... breakfast was served!! (sorry, I don't have any pics of the pizzas because all the hungry runners were devouring it up like vultures).

All in all, I had a fun day!!! Am I looking forward to my next sweltering 5K race? Definitely!!!...because next time my pookie bear will be running along side me on the 4th of July!!!
Woo Hoo!!! :o)