It is much easier to get things done when you work as a group, but even better yet as a team. That was the case with the DASH Around Kampeska Half Marathon. This “group” came together for creating this event, but ended up becoming a “Team”! It took a lot of work, many hours, and each of us doing our part in order to pull off this event that occurred yesterday. None of us got much sleep Friday night hoping everything would turn out fine. It did! And, we had great weather for our inaugural event.
DASH is an acronym created by the Watertown Police Department, for Drug Free, Alcohol Free, Safe and Healthy. This mission is “to challenge community partnerships to lead by example and to empower Watertown youth to choose to live healthy and positive lifestyles.” This Half Marathon was created by runners, for runners. We wanted to make it a premier event featuring Watertown, but for the DASH cause. It was a success!
We were helping with the packet pickup Friday night, but the “girls” did much better with this. Jill Makepeace is our very own Watertown Promoting Director, and was talking the ear off of everybody. The 3 of us just had to stay out of the way. But Greg and Owen mapped out the course, and I lost track how many times they ran it, biked it, or drove it. They had it down! I am the oddball out in this picture…I clearly need more hair!!
We made a road trip as a group going over the route, where to post signs, mile markers, water stations, aid stations, and port a potty’s. A lot of planning took place on this! We wanted to make sure, as runners also, this would become an event we would want to keep coming back to as well. Michelle helped us all stay on track, and was truly the director and mastermind behind all of this, and helping us all stay on track! Thanks!
Tim Toomey and I getting set for the start of the race. We all needed to help Tim calm down before hand. He is in charge of the timing of the event, and I don’t think he slept at all the night before, wanting to make sure everything was going to go as planned without a hitch. As runners, we want our times in the races we run! A lot of pressure to get this right, and he did an awesome job! His wife Cheri was the photographer as well, so hundreds of pictures were taken as well. Their son created a video that I think will now become out new promotion for years to come featuring Watertown, and showing off Lake Kampeska!
We have to have our fun moments as well, and goof off too! We all had fun with it as well, but we were all relieved it went as well as it did. We had many positive comments, and also came up with ideas for improving it going forward. We can always make things better!
The biggest thing that makes these events so fun and memorable are the bonds that are created during runs like this. Sarah and Megan ran the majority of it together. There were many people who ran a personal best, and many also that were involved with their kids, either running together, or helping at the aid/water stations. All of these things become memories to talk about and remember for years. That is really why this is done. This is why we worked hard to create this event. This is why we will keep doing it going forward. Good times and memories are what it is all about. I can’t thank all of the committee members enough for all of the hard work that went into this event. We all had a job to do, and we all had to help. We all helped set up and take down, and when we work as a “team”, you truly understand the concept of teamwork, and why we all have to rely on help from everybody else. Kudos to all of us involved in planning and creating this event. It will become a feature event for Watertown going forward! Keep moving everybody!
The official kick off to summer and picnic season is this weekend: Memorial Day Holiday! This time of year always bring great cookouts and picnics. Typical picnic foods consist of burgers, brats, hotdogs, chips, and high calorie salads such as macaroni and potato salads. These are all very tasty foods, but they are also all very high in calories, fat, and sodium. Cookouts don’t have to bust the calorie bank. Choose your foods wisely and plan your menus to include a few healthy options and make substitutions like the meal examples below to help you fully enjoy each cookout while aiding in a healthy heart and waistline.
Choose This:
90% lean hamburger with whole wheat thin bun
Grilled chicken breast
Grilled shrimp
Lean Steak such as sirloin
Tossed Salad with light dressing
Fresh veggies with light ranch dip
Baked chips
Fruit salad
Angel food cake with light cool whip and strawberries
This was a few years ago running the Disney Half Marathon with my daughter Megan, and our neighbor Noah Hauck. We had a ball! This picture was taken with less than a 1/2 mile left in the race. We did not care what our time was, we were having fun. Neither Megan nor Noah had run a Half Marathon before, so any time was a personal best for them. But it boils down to this: continue to keep having fun! Exercise should be like going out to play. We all did that as a kid. We need to keep that energy and enthusiasm as we get older. Dr. George Sheehan, a cardiologist who wrote many books on running, emphasized this point many times. “Keep it simple. Keep it fun. Make it play, not work!”. So true!
My daughters and I were working out one day last year when they were both home. This is us after we just got done with our workout. We are all smiling! We got moving, and had fun! Of course, Megan’s shirt helps: “Fartacus!”.
This is still one of my favorite pictures. Our run club members that day were posing on the bridge, and the rest of us are serious, and Jill decides to be “different”. Don’t follow everybody else. March to your own drum beat. Have fun! Be a kid again. Life is too short to be serious all of the time. Take care of yourself in the process, and get out and move. Do whatever activity you like to do, or it won’t be fun. I walk, bike, and run, and my favorite of course is running. Now sometimes other members in our run club rub off on me too!
We were doing a long run, and of course, we needed some nutrition, and Jill brought orange slices. Of course, you can’t just eat them, you have to pose with them in your mouth too! Be goofy! We may all be adults, but that does not mean we can’t have fun just like we did when we were kids!
This was never more true than last weekend when we were in Brookings doing the Half Marathon, and some of us were doing the marathon. I wrote about this last week. Time does not matter. Having fun matters!!!
Pay attention to what is around us. Look at the positives in life. Remember to make exercise fun. Play! Laugh! Relax! Enjoy the moment with everything!
What a great summary! Truth in such few words. Give them something to really talk about. Have Fun! Play! Enjoy life like we are supposed to. Keep moving everybody!
Sometimes we need a break from cooking and need to enjoy eating out. You can still make healthy and wise choices when dining out. Check out these tips to help you make good choices!
• Go for a smaller portion of the meal such as half of the meal, lunch portion, or appetizer size portion.
• Look for key words such as baked, broiled, grilled, or roasted. Stay away from descriptive words such as crispy, creamy, crunchy, and crispy as those typically mean fried and more fat added.
• Substitute the fries for a salad (dressing on the side and use sparingly) or if available a second serving of cooked veggies or fruit.
• If dining in, get a to-go box right away before you start eating and package half of your meal in the box and eat at another meal at home. If eating carry out, only take a portion of the meal on your plate and put the rest in the fridge. If it’s on your plate, you’ll be more apt to eat it, so put it away right away so you aren’t tempted and you are more apt to practice proper portion control.
• Share! It’s ok to share an entree with you friend, spouse, etc to help you practice better portion control.
• Look at the options ahead of time online or using your smart phone. Many restaurants have their nutrition information included in their websites or you can use the Calorie King app to explore the options and make a healthy choice when dining out.
• If eating out is a rare occurrence, it is ok to splurge, but keep in mind it should be a special occasion and only every once in awhile, not every day or every week as those extra calories will add up and cause weight gain quickly!
• To help balance out the extra calories consumed when eating out, be sure to get your activity in and engage in at least 30-60 minutes/day!
Many of us were in Brooking yesterday running either the Half Marathon or the Marathon. We saw signs out on the road talking about “Forrest Gump”, and his line “I just felt like running!” Well, that got me thinking about a lot of similarities yesterday in relation to the movie Forrest Gump. You will see me use quite a few quotes from the movie as well to make my point. That initial heading could just as well have said “I just like to run!’, or “I just like to exercise!”, or “I just like to run with my friends!”. Take your pick. But, as you will see, there are many similarities, and lessons to learn from this movie.
First, we have 2 people in our run group, WARC, Watertown Area Run Club, that actually look like Forrest Gump with their thick beards: Owen and Greg. Yesterday, Owen had a great day, running the marathon and qualifying for the Boston Marathon! You have no idea how difficult that is to do!
Here Owen is coming through the finish line and his wife and daughter are there to greet him, after cheering for him all through the race. This is Owen saying “and this is my Jenny!” (but he calls her Jenn!, and his daughter Kate) They were so proud of him, as were all the rest of us in WARC! We were all cheering each other on, because this run club group is special. We are all like “Bubba, my bestest good friend!” We help each other, cheer for each other, and train with each other. But, not all races go as planned. We can have the best training plan, work our butts off, and then the day of the race, everything, for whatever reason, falls apart. We have all had it happen, and there is no explanation. Running a race is “like a box of chocolates, you never know what you are going to get” on actual race day. But, you for sure will get support from the rest of us.
Erika and Jill did not have a day like they were hoping for. We helped get them to the finish line. Helping Erika get to the finish line, with several of them helping her run the last 8 miles!
I was out helping Jill get through the Half. She had also trained very hard, with a goal of trying to finish under 2 hours. It just was not in the cards that day. The last few miles she kept apologizing to me for having me run slow just to help get her in. I told her she missed the whole point. It is no longer about time. It is about running, because we like to run. I told her I was just happy I was out running a Half Marathon again. 2 years ago I did not think I would ever do this again. I thought my running was done. I came close to being completely done! Who cares about the time! We have to figure out what our “destiny” is.
We all got a medal for finishing when we crossed the finish line. I am dangling my medal in front of Paula with a tenth of a mile to the finish line to help entice her. Just like Forrest gave Jenny his medal of honor in the movie. “I just got this (medal) because I did what you told me to do. Run…run as fast as you can!” We all need that extra push at times.
We all had that finish line in sight. There is no better feeling when you turn the corner and see this in front of you. Relief! Accomplishment! Joy! Friendship!!
We did not have the McElroy’s in this picture, but we got everybody else from WARC who was there yesterday. As I stated above, we all have to figure out our “destiny”. Before Forrest’s mom died in the movie, she told him “you have to figure out your own destiny”. At the end of the movie, he says “I don’t know what my destiny is. I don’t know if my mama was right, or if Lt. Dan was right.” I don’t know for sure either what our destiny is for each of us, but one thing is for sure, especially from yesterday, it is about doing the best you can, whenever you can, and be willing to accept a little help from our friends. If we do this, we will have a “destiny” to be proud of. Be there for not only yourself, but for others. If you do the best you can, at that particular moment, then you are a success. Do what you love doing, with the people you love hanging out with. I started running 45+ years ago because “I just felt like running”, but I keep running because I love it! Find your destiny! Keep moving everybody!
Summer is coming and the kids will be out of school soon and home more and they’re going to be eating more of the foods that you keep stocked for them at home. Active children burn through their energy stores very quickly and need to replenish them often. Snacking is an important part of keeping your kids energized for their play-filled summer days. Snacks should be a combination of fiber and protein so that they are filling and satisfying.
Some ideas are:
•An apple and a teaspoon of peanut butter
•Mixed berries with yogurt
•String cheese and a whole wheat crackers
•Baby carrots and hummus
•Low-fat yogurt and granola or nuts
•Trail mix
•Celery sticks filled with peanut or almond butter.
Just be sure to keep in mind that snacks are just to get by until the next mealtime, so snacks should not be a significant source of calories. Kids have small stomachs so keep the portion sizes small as well. This is a good time to instill healthy habits in your child so try to avoid having the TV or video games going during snack time in order to discourage mindless munching. Any fruit, vegetable, low-fat dairy product, or whole wheat grain product makes a good snack so find out what your child likes and get creative with the combinations! -Kelsey Raml, MS, RD, LN
