Austin and Peanut Butter

So, my post today is about two unrelated topics. First of all, I haven't been to Adventure Racing since last Wednesday because it has been wet and I don't want to hurt myself the week before a race I have been training for for 6 months. See previous posts for my comments on the AR team's affinity for mud!

Here's the Austin part of the blog...I am going on a road trip to Austin! Yay. We're leaving at 4:30 this afternoon and heading up. I don't know why, but I am so excited about this trip. It's like when I was a little kid and we went on family vacations. I just can't wait to get going. I was supposed to have a meeting this afternoon until 3:30 that I knew would run over, meaning I was going to delay us getting going. But, thanks to my co-workers and boss, plus my clairvoyant insight (we were all going to be exhausted and not mentally ready to discuss the topic appropriately), we rescheduled it to next week. Which means that I get to leave when I want to. For some reason this makes me giddy. I think it's the sunshine, which we haven't had for weeks (I had to look for my sunglasses, always a challenge in my purse) coupled with the prospect of a road trip (I LOVE road trips!!!) AND a big race that I've never run before. I mean, I'm going to run 13.1 miles in beautiful Austin on Sunday and we're going to do great. The weather looks like it's going to be perfect and the sunrise is supposed to be 10 minutes after the start of the race. I hope that we are somewhere where we get a great view of the sunrise. When you run the Houston marathon (or half), you run over some overpass (I have no idea which one...I am always lost in downtown Houston) and get to see the sunrise during the first couple of miles. It is gorgeous! So, back to this race...last Saturday, I ran with a couple friends back and forth over the Kemah bridge for 8 miles and we all felt great. We are going to do great in this race, I just know it. And even if we don't have good race times, it's going to be fun, for sure.

So, on to my second topic...peanut butter. Like a month ago, I got sick on a Saturday night. Like really sick. Like I was considering going to the emergency room for an IV of fluids. I had been out with friends earlier in the evening and had some different things to eat. I wasn't sure what made me sick. I had narrowed it down to some ranch dressing I had with pizza, plus the fact that I had run 10 miles that morning, which I figured lowered my immune system (don't know if that is scientific, but that's what I decided). So, then they come out with this recall on peanut butter and I totally have that peanut butter with the 2111 number on the lid. I realize that that number only indicates the plant is was produced at, but still! I always eat a PB & J sandwich before a long run (good carbs and good protein and fills me up). The PB I use is Peter Pan Reduced Fat Crunchy and I had eaten one that morning. I seriously think that that's what made me sick! So, I have had salmonella poisoning and didn't even know it! Fortunately, I wasn't bad enough to require hospitalization and have since had no lingering issues.

Alright, I'll post again on Monday about the road trip and awesome race!