Just like that, the 2nd 5k of this “getting back into running/fitness” journey has come. This morning was the Stan’s Donut 5k, and it went surprisingly well!

This one was a pretty fun one, also at Soldier Field, but went a different direction. While the Bears 5k went north of the stadium, through the museum campus, and ended in the stadium; this one went south from the stadium, just past McCormick Place, and back up.

As the name suggests, it was sponsored by Stan’s Donuts, which means we got a mini-donut after mile 1 and mile 2, then got a full sized donut after finishing. Here’s a selfie I took while nomming on the mini donut with cinnamon sugar.

Fun Run

This race was a bit quirkier than other races and really held to the donut theme. Down to the corral names. Instead of the usual pace related signs, these had fun ways to go about it.

With the elite runners getting the awesome name of “super fast.”

Wait a minute, did you say “elite runners” during a fun run? I’m as surprised as you were! The winner ran had a run time of 15:41!

I wonder if the elite runners also ate the mini donuts. I would be even more impressed if they did. By the time they finished one donut, they’d already be at the next mile to receive the next.

In fact, I’m going to go out and say it should be required for them to eat both donuts while running, similar to those beer runs. Stan’s Donut peeps, if any of you see this post, that’s my official suggestion on how to improve the race!

My Performance

Referring to my previous post, I had very little expectations for my performance in this race. My knee had been acting up so I took it pretty easy this week.

My mentality was pretty much this: Start off at a slow “trotting” pace (lined up in the appropriately named “slow” corral) and if I felt ANY discomfort in the knee, I would walk. No questions asked, no shame in preserving my body for another day.

In the end, the knee held up great!

I jogged pretty much the whole time! The only breaks I took were at the mile markers to get the mini-donuts, then a brief walk break at 1.5 miles in the turnaround because it was uphill and went into a grassy area and I didn’t want to risk a rolled ankle.

I was so happy when I finished. Even stepped up the pace the final bit to cross the finish line strong.

My final time ended up being 53:13, at a 17:08 pace (3.4 mph). So looking back at my post on the Bears 5k, my time was 54:11, a pace of 17:27 minutes per mile (3.5 mph).

So, despite the slower pace when jogging than the Bears 5k, I ended up with a faster overall pace, and a minute better time due to not walking!

Shout out’s to my buddy Previn, who also did well, and more importantly also got back into the swing of running as this was his first 5k in about 8 months!

Recovery and a Betrayal

Now, with that great performance in the books, time for me to rest the remainder of the weekend and have a recovery day tomorrow.

But first, today had a celebratory pizza at Lou Malnati’s. I live maybe 2 blocks from one and somehow I avoided going there for over a year, even though I pass it to and from the gym and it’s my favorite brand of Chicago deep dish pizza!

For the record, even with the donuts and pizza, considering what I burned running the 5k, I still stayed within my calories in MyFitnessPal!

The only downside is that since I’ve been eating better the past few weeks, my stomach didn’t handle all the fatty foods (we also ordered calamari). I got so mad at my stomach! I thought, “even YOU betray me….after all we’ve been through!”

Definitely something to note, considering I was planning on eating all the foods in Disney, haha.

After we got back to my apartment, I started to feel stiff. So after I stretched again we had an “ice our knees” party. Previn joined in for some dual knee icing action. Isn’t getting older fantastic?!

Better that it’s because of precaution than injury, thank goodness!

Next Race and Vacation Goals

So now, looking forward to what’s coming up. I’m currently signed up for the Hot Chocolate 5k in the beginning of November. I’m really optimistic about it considering my progress this past month. My stamina had increased enough that even though I slowed down due to injury, I had an improvement!

If I stay consistent with training, remain injury free, and drop a few more pounds, there’s a GREAT chance that I can have a very strong performance at that race. That gets me very excited!

Speaking of dropping pounds, I think I’ve written about it here, but I’m too lazy to look back through old posts. I ballooned up to around 320 pounds at my “new largest” size. This morning before the race I weighed in at 304 pounds.

Just one more pound to lose before reaching my “old largest” weight from the beginning of this blog, and 2 pounds before I reach another baby animal milestone!

I wrote in a post a couple weeks back, I had some anxiety about traveling and being in Disney while being big. Maybe over a month ago when I was in the 312 pound range, I gave myself an unofficial goal of being below 300 lbs for the trip.

So, sticking to that, I have 3 weeks to lose the remaining 4 pounds. That’s very attainable, and I would be absolutely ecstatic if I were able to do that or even more! Seems like I’ve bottomed out as far as water weight loss, so now’s when the grind really comes in.

It’s that much more important to be on point with nutrition and consistent with working out. Very doable and it’s what I intend to do.

P.S. This didn’t fit into any category, but I just wanted to note that especially over the past couple of weeks I’ve have a very noticeable improvement in flexibility. It’s made things in day-to-day much easier, like cleaning feet in shower and putting on socks.

No doubt, this will allow me to do better in exercises on the floor portion of Orange Theory as well, so that’s very exciting.