Running Music

In our efforts to get back into shape, Chris and I started running again. Prior to me getting pregnant with Toby, we were both running regularly, and did several races–both 5 & 10ks. After I got pregnant, I had intentions of sticking with running for as long as I could, but I was so sick that it didn’t last very long. Chris ran off & on, but suffered a leg injury that had been keeping him from running as much as he wanted.

We registered for the Peachtree Road Race for this July 4th again and got picked to do it (through a lottery system). We knew we had to get our act together & start running more regularly.

We bought a double jogging stroller and here we are.

Double Jogger

Our kids love it. Toby sleeps most runs & Elodie chats with Chris. He’s the one that pushes them when we run, and he’s still faster than me!

Toby is fast asleep after a run

Today as I was running, I thought I’d share my running playlist in case you need some inspiration to get out, enjoy the beautiful weather, & burn some calories.

I’m a pop diva & love me some pop music, especially Justin Timberlake, so don’t judge. These are in no particular order.

Ashley’s Running Playlist

BOB- Airplanes Pt 2

Justin Bieber- Baby

Destiny’s Child- Bills, Bills, Bills

Robin Thicke- Blurred Lines

Jesse McCartney- Body Language

Justin Bieber- Boyfriend

Sara Barielles- Brave

Carly Rae Jepson- Call Me Maybe

Fun- Carry On

OneRepublic- Counting Stars

Florida/Georgia Line- Cruise (Remix, featuring Nelly)

Justin Timberlake- Cry Me A River

Oily Murs- Dance With Me Tonight

Lady Gaga- Do What You Want

Florence & The Machine- Dog Days Are Over

Justin Timberlake- Don’t Hold the Wall

Jay Z- Empire State of Mind

Nicki Minaj- Fly

Cee Lo Green- F*** You

Pitbull- Give me Everything

Flo Rida- Good Feeling

Owl City- Good Time

R. Kelly- Ignition Remix

Destiny’s Child- Independent Women, Part 1

Jesse McCartney- Leavin’

Bad Meets Evil- Lighters

Of Monsters & Men- Little Talks

Usher- Love in this Club

Eminem- Love the Way You Lie

Justin Timberlake- Love Stoned

Justin Timberlake- Mirrors

Panic! At the Disco- Mrs. Jackson

Fall out Boy- My Songs Know What You Did In the Dark

Michael Jackson- PYT

Miley Cyrus- Party in the USA

Pink- Raise Your Glass

Justin Timberlake- Rock Your Body

R Kelly- Same Girl

Justin Timberlake- Senorita

Jesse McCartney- Shake

Fun- Some Nights

Justin Timberlake- Suit & Tie

Nicki Minaj- Super Bass

Macklemore & Ryan Lewis- Thrift Shop

Justin Timberlake- TKO

Taylor Swift- We Are Never Getting Back Together

Kelly Clarkson- What Doesn’t Kill You (Stronger)

Justin Timberlake- What Goes Around…

TI- What You Know

TI- Whatever you Like

Macklemore & Ryan Lewis- White Walls

Justin Timberlake- Pusher Love Girl

Justin Timberlake- Don’t Hold the Wall

Enjoy refreshing your running playlist with some of my awesome music!

Maybe I’ll try & have Chris post his running mix too, for a good variation of music.

xoxo

Ash

Bee Brave 5k

A few weeks ago, my friend Jennifer suggested running a 5k together. We signed up for the first annual Bee Brave 5k race, which benefits the Mary Kay Foundation.

Chris decided at the last minute that he wanted to join us, so we all bundled up to face the 30-40 degree weather, and headed out to run.

Elodie, snuggled & ready to run!

Chris was pushing the jogging stroller, and finished with a great time of 24:52.

Professional Photo of Chris’ finish

Jennifer and I stayed together and finished with a time of 32:39 (she, being one step ahead of me, had a time of 32:38).

Professional Photo of our finish

Chris managed to clench the 1st place spot in his age division!! Pretty awesome for him, considering he took that little cutie for a ride!

Getting his medal: first in his age division

I finished faster than the last 5k I ran and Jennifer’s goal was to run the whole thing. I think we all accomplished something great with this race!

Me & Jennifer, after

Watson Family, after

We had a great time participating in the inaugural race and would love to do it again next year.

Just added 3.1 more miles to my goal of 400 for the year. 🙂

xoxo

Ash

It’s kind of a big deal…

Thanksgiving morning, while most people are starting to prepare their Thanksgiving meals, Chris, Jessie and I were running the Gobble Jog 10k race with 10,000 other crazy runners in Marietta.

Before the race

Me & Chris before the race

Jessie actually just started running a few months ago. She was doing a couch-to-5k training program and we had been bothering her about signing up for a race with us. Finally, we convinced her to run not just a 5k, but to double it & run the 10k with us!

Some of the other 10k-ers

Chris and I both wanted to beat our times from the Peachtree and Jessie just wanted to run the whole thing! We all accomplished our goals. Chris did the Peachtree in 51:58 and completed this one in 45:18; I did the Peachtree in 1:16:45 and I completed this on in 1:10:36; Jessie had never ran a race before and had an awesome time of 1:20:37!

If my math is correct, Chris and I both shaved 6 minutes off our time.. so that means we both shortened our time by a minute per mile! Not too shabby 🙂

Post race! We don’t even look tired

Being tough… or awkward

Go Team!

This running thing is becoming quite addictive and I’m looking for my next race already (I’m thinking this one–the 15k).

Needless to say, I think we definitely earned our Thanksgiving meal this year!

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving.

xoxo

Ash

A random update

So here’s a little of what’s been going on with the Watson’s:

• Potty Training update: If you would have asked me about potty training yesterday, I would have said I still don’t think Elodie’s ready. She’s been doing alright at our babysitter’s, having 1 or two accidents a day. Our babysitter tells us that Elodie will always let her know when she needs to go, but she never really does that at home. We put her on the potty at home and she cries or hops right down, only going a few times a week. Today however, something has clicked in Elodie. She went right when she got up, ran to the potty a few hours later saying “poop,” and proceed to go poopy on the potty, and when we came home from running errands, she ran right to the potty and used it again. 3 times in one day & she told us every time. I’m so proud and honestly pretty shocked. If she keeps this up, she’ll definitely be wearing big girl underwear at her 2nd birthday party. Way to go, kiddo.

Cheeeese!

• We’ve been enjoying the start fall through some football. While the weather still has highs in the 80s, the crisp, cool mornings give us something to look forward to. We went to the kickoff game at Chris’s school a few weeks ago and this past Friday night, we watched my school do awesome in some football! This upcoming week is another fall favorite: Homecoming! I should have some fun pictures from all the silly things we wear for homecoming week.  I also get to chaperone the homecoming dance on Saturday, which should be fun too. Oh, the joys of HS teachers 🙂

Chris, secretly representing his school on our way to a “blue out” at my school

School Pride heading to a football game

• We’ve been hanging out at the park, like usual. Chris got the bright idea to sign us up for another 10k on Thanksgiving, the Gobble Jog. Needless to say, we’ve been back out running & training and letting Elodie enjoy the lovely weather, of course. We’re going to earn that turkey this year.

Roooarrring on the swing

Spinning at the park

• We’ve been spending some quality time with friends. Watching football, celebrating birthdays, etc. My BFF Jessie and I just celebrated our 12th anniversary. We’ve been friends since 7th grade when we met back in 2000. Yes, we have an anniversary, Sept 21–3 days before her bday & 3 months before mine. We’re fun, we know 🙂

BFF & I celebrating a friend’s bday

We try and have a life other than work work work, but it’s difficult sometimes when our apartment is a wreck by the weekend and there’s 10 loads of laundry, lesson planning, and toddler entertaining to be done.

We are going to try and go to an air show next weekend and are really looking forward to October: pumpkin patches, apple picking, corn mazes, hay rides, & etc. It’s a great time of year!! Hope your busy schedules allow you to begin enjoying fall as well!

xoxo

Ash

Warrior Way 5k (aka: We saw, we ran, we conquered)

This morning, Chris and I ran the 4th annual Warrior Way 5k, sponsored by my school’s cross country team. There were about 350 runners out there today, which is nothing in comparison to the Peachtree Road Race we ran over the summer, but was still fun nonetheless. This year, the race was the kick-off event to Acworth’s Love the Lake Festival.

There’s nothing like running with a bunch of high-schoolers who are on the cross country team to boost your ego about your athletic ability (cough.. sarcasm.. cough). We held our own for being a couple of old 20-somethings. The course was through downtown Acworth and was super hilly. Afterwards Chris and I both commented on how tough it was because of the hills.

He finished the race in about 22 minutes and I finished in just under 33 minutes. We left before the official results, but we think Chris finished first in his age division & I finished 2nd in mine, so that’s cool.

Post Race

We will probably run a 5k sponsored by Chris’s school later in September. No half marathon on Thanksgiving like we were planning, due to our busy schedules & lack of training time, but we may do a 10k on Thanksgiving instead. We’ll see.

Have a safe & wonderful Labor Day Weekend! Here’s to getting outside this long weekend & sweating a little bit 🙂
xoxo

Ash

How we celebrate the 4th of July in Atlanta

Today Chris and I (and 60,000 other people) participated in the Peachtree Road Race. This race is the world’s largest 10k and it was our first time running it, or any race for that matter. We had a really fun time and will definitely be participating in it again next year, lottery permitting (the runners are chosen based on a lottery system).

Ready to go!

A few of our friends were running in the race as well (& they had run it before) so we met up with them at 6:00 am to head down to the race. Since we didn’t know what to expect/where to go, we wanted to be with some people who knew what they were doing. Being in one of the last “waves” of start-times, we had PLENTY of time to hang out & watch the beginning of the race.

Waiting..

The first wave of runners

People were dressed in all kinds of costumes!

Our wave: “U”

It’s go time!

Throughout the 6.2 miles, there were thousands of people through whom we had to weave in and out of while running. Following the simple “slow runners/walkers stay to the right/faster runners & pass on the left” rule seemed to be too much for the majority of people to understand. Afterwards, Chris and I both talked about how annoying it was to dodge in between walkers while trying to keep a steady running pace. Along the way, however, there were also hundreds of spectators/business owners handing out water & goodies and cheering us on along the way! That (and the mist areas) was the best part of the race!

Piedmont Park at the finish!

So, how did we do? Well as a self-proclaimed non-athlete-defintiely-not-a-runner, I ran the W.H.O.L.E thing! I made quick stops along the way at the water stations, but other than that, my butt was running. I was pretty darn proud of myself. Chris, of course, ran the whole thing. My time was 1:16:45 and Chris’s was 51:58. Not too bad for our first race, ever! We are both convinced that had we started earlier, we would have had better times because we wouldn’t have to weave in and out of slower racers not following directions. Maybe next year!

Done!

Me, Chris, Ashley, Kyle & Brandie after the race

The girls

My pictures seriously do not even do this race justice. There were so.many.people!! Check out our local news channel’s coverage of the whole day to get the gist of the energy, excitement, and the massive number of participants of the day! It was crazy & so fun! We’ve already talked about how we definitely want to (try) to do it again next year. We’ve even played around with the idea of making our next race one that’s a little longer, a half marathon (13.1 miles) perhaps. Maybe this Atlanta Half Marathon on Thanksgiving Day?

I’ve heard this running/racing thing can become quite addictive. We’ll see!

Hope you had a great 4th! We’ve spent the rest of the day representing our new & much-deserved tshirts and recovering!

Our sweet t-shirts

xoxo

Ash