hi there!

October 5, 2017October 5, 2017 | cheriarmour

Are you wondering where I went? Are you wondering if I gave up on writing? I didn’t. I just took a little break while work got nuts, motherhood got nuts, and while I started working on a few things.

Here’s what I’ve been up to.

Running

I’ve been running for some time, but I took the plunge and signed up for the Richmond Half Marathon. I decided on it after my old boss’s boss moved there to take a job. I saw an ad for the half, and kind of fell in love with the finisher’s blanket. (I’m a cheap sell.) I signed up with a friend of mine, and we got an Air BnB for that weekend. In prep, I’m running long at least once a week, and maintenance running when I can during the week as well. It’s surprisingly like riding a bike – I’m just really frustrated with how slow I am.

Momming

I am a mom to a one-year-old. It is so very cool. He’s walking. We’re still nursing. He’s sleeping (okay). And I swear, he’s the most active kid on the planet. I’m struggling a bit with daycare – I feel like our transition to the toddler room from the infant room took longer than I cared for, and I struggle with feeling like I made the right decision to return to work. I’m not sure that any of us have the answers, but I will say that outsourcing things that are really beyond your scope and abilities (if you can) is the total way to go. We recently started having someone come in to clean the house one day a month, and I promise you, with everything in me, that that is the best investment of money (and in my marriage) that I’ve made in some time.

Finally putting my house together after having lived there for three years.

This is so embarrassing to me. We moved into our house about (okay, over) three years ago and I never really decorated or designed. Our couch is a biohazard, a relic from graduate school. We have no rug. Our coffee table was a donation from a friend. It’s simply awful. So we’re fixing that. A few weekends ago we took a full Saturday and went furniture shopping. I made a decision on a huge sectional, and I’m acquiring pieces that fit, and purging things that don’t make sense. Bonus points for Scotch Guard and those ottoman coffee tables so my kid doesn’t put an eye out.

Podcasting

I have sworn up and down and up and down and up again, for years, that I wanted to do radio. I am totally dating myself by saying radio, but in college, I used to fantasize about doing college radio, but never really made the steps to make it happen (which I totally kick myself for now). After watching enough Insecure, and getting inspired, I finally decided to put myself out there, get a cohost, and start a podcast, the Pop Tea Podcast. It has been fun. It has been so much work. But darn, I think we’re kind of onto something here. I will definitely post more about how all that works (if you guys are curious).

The podcast is a pop culture discussion (one of my favorite things), so if you’re into that, give us a listen, follow us, and post a review on iTunes so we’ll be poppin’ and I can make some money.

Anyways, what have you guys been up to?

Weekend Update!

April 19, 2016 | cheriarmour

This (last?) weekend went by entirely too fast. I could have extended it at least by one day, but that’s never really how things work, right?

So, many weeks ago, a friend of mine, Erin, decided that she wanted to run her first half-marathon. After discussing it in the group chat (my primary source of news and entertainment throughout the week), Erin and Liz decided that they would run the More/Shape Women’s Half Marathon in NYC. The rest of us decided to tag along, and make something of a weekend of it and spectate the race.

Really, the weekend started on Thursday evening. Because I knew I’d be in the airport for a good chunk of the day on Friday, I needed to put in some hours of work after my class on Thursday night, and I set about to do that. I sent emails and worked on May’s schedule into the night, slept for a few hour, and made it up for my 5:45am Pump class. From there, I ran home, showered, packed, and called an Uber to get me to the airport, where I proceeded to sleep through two flights. By the time I made it to Jersey and to the house in Sayreville, I was exhausted again, and napped on the couch until folks started arriving home from work. My aunt made us an amazing meal, and my cousin and I attempted to watch the first epi of Kimmy Schmidt before I completely passed out so hard, I had to keep myself from panicking when I didn’t realize where I was the next morning. I lazed around on Saturday, went to the park for a walk with my cousin, and got out the door for dinner with race friends in the city.

I friggin FORGOT how annoying it is to drive into the city, btws. A ride that was supposed to take me like 40 minutes, ended up taking well over an hour when I got stuck in traffic in the Holland tunnel. Blah. But we grabbed some italian, grabbed some ice cream from Big Gay Ice Cream, and headed to the hotel to hit the sack for our 5:45am wake up the next morning for the race. After heading to the start (and spotting Sara Bareilles and Padma Lakshmi), we saw the girls off for the start, around 6 miles, and then squatted at a Pain Quotedian and met a friend of mine from camp to meet the girls at the finish. We surprised Erin at dinner the night before with these shirts we had made, so we all wore them, and made sure we snapped pics.

We finished the day with some burgers, (a ridiculously hearty black bean for me), annd parted ways back at the hotel.

I did not leave without the parking garage losing my car and Andrew and Ryan having to find it. I did my best not to panic and remember that if they lost the car, there were really worse things in the world, and that it could totally end up being a funny story. Fortunately, we didn’t have to make it quite that far.

And now, I’m here sitting in the airport late, waiting for my last flight home, where I can shower and get into my own bed.

What did you do this weekend?

Wrightsville Beach Half Marathon – A New PR!

March 24, 2015March 23, 2015 | cheriarmour

I hope you have had a good weekend.

I did! Let’s lay it out right here in the beginning – I PR’ed at a half marathon on Sunday with a time of 1:55:40, at an average pace of 8:55 minutes per mile. Whew!

I can honestly say today that I am sore and hurting today. But more on that in a minute.

Weekend’s Beginning.

So I started the busy weekend off by heading over to Fleet Feet Raleigh, and working on Saturday, which I do from time to help them out. And it certainly doesn’t hurt that I get to be around a bunch of running stuff and running people. You really ARE the company you keep – it’s nice to be around a bunch of runners and not feel crazy once in a while.

So after my shift at FF, I headed out to Holden, where I spent the night with some friends. I was really paranoid about oversleeping the race, so I figured if I was with three other people who were running the race, it was nearly impossible to oversleep, right?

The Wrightsville Beach Half Marathon

The only thing I knew about this race was that it was flat. Previously, I had run one beach race before, the Shamrock Marathon, and it was a good experience, however, because it was at the beach in March, the weather was chilly and very windy. I was a little concerned that the same would happen this time because in the days leading up to the race, the weather app was looking pretty bad. Bad enough that I had to borrow some rain jackets from some of the staff at Fleet Feet.

So anyhoo, the morning of the race dawned….early. We had to wake up around 4:30am to drive to the shopping complex at the center of everything, and take a shuttle to the start, where we could run back to the center. It was warm-ish, like 51 degrees, and we headed out to the start on a trolley.

There were *ahem* facilities as far as the eye could see when we arrived, and I was able to quickly use the restroom before we started.

The race was flat, and the air was still. Because of how humid it was, I didn’t listen to music, and instead thought…a LOT since the humid air was causing my earbuds were slipping.

After the first mile, I looked down and noted that I was running a little fast. In the 8:20s. I tried to will myself to slow down, but kept things between the 8:30 mark and the 9:00 mark. It hurt – the course was really flat, and with the same muscles firing over and over, my quads and hips started to ache early on. Once I passed the halfway mark, and saw that I was holding that pace pretty steadily, I decided to push on for the following 6.5 miles, and held in there.

I quite obviously chugged a beer at mile 12.5ish, then pressed on to the finish, where I swung around to meet my friends. There was a beer stand, massages, pizza (not for me after a race), and most importantly, places to sit after the race!

This was Jeff's first marathon! — This was Jeff’s first marathon!

The race was good, ran smoothly. Unlike Tobacco Road, there wasn’t the profound congestion on the trail, so there was no need to bob and weave and waste energy throughout the race. Water stops were frequent, and were FUN. My favorite water stop was the ECU stop (they don’t call it a party school for nothing), where they’d rolled out a camper and blasted music for us to enjoy.

I’m sore. I’m happy. And I think I would do that race again.

What did you do last weekend?

Tobacco Road Half Marathon

March 17, 2015March 15, 2015 | cheriarmour

I’m sitting on my couch, nursing a beer, and alternately foam rolling my hips (which ALWAYS like to act up when I run long). I’m just smiling when I think back on today.

So I sort of sprang it on you guys last minute, that I was running the Tobacco Road Half Marathon. Quite honestly, I knew I wanted to (and needed to run), but I didn’t even sign up until the very last minute – in part due to the fact that I’m being tight-fisted with cash (I just bought a new car cash), and part because I was just nervous.

So Saturday night, after working most of the day at Fleet Feet Raleigh (which is so damned nice once in a while), I went home, watched TV, and made dinner, fully prepped to take it easy the night before the half. Since Austin wasn’t at home, I did my usual, and started to fall asleep on the couch to a movie, then moved to to boudoir when I woke up around 11:30 or so on the couch.

[Side note: I finally watched Think Like a Lady, Act Like a Man. It was not horrid as I assumed it would be. It was kinda cute, even though that title is problamatic.]

I set my alarm(s) for 4:15, 4:20, 4:30, and 4:40 am, in order to jump in the shower, put a little mascara on, and make sure I had everything I needed together for the race. I figured that wasn’t overkill, and went to sleep, only waking up to say hey to my boo when he got home, and then again when I got a phone call from some friends who were out for St. Patrick’s Day, drinking green beer.

What happened next is straight out of a dark comedy.

I don’t remember my alarms going off. All I know is that I woke up around 5:40, a text came from one of my girls at 5:43ish, and that the race was supposed to start at 7am. This meant I had about 20 minutes to jump in my car, get on the shuttle, get to the start line. My husband, the calming force that he is, remained so sweet.

“Do you want me to drive you? Do I need to get dressed now?”

I was determined. I hopped in the Kia, drove to parking (which I was so late that I didn’t have to pay for), and managed to make it onto the shuttle with two other late people, and do the start line with a few minutes to spare before the start.

I didn’t want to be rude, so though I started way in the back, I only managed to make it up to the 2:30 half marathon pace group, and decided to stay put so I didn’t push folks who’d actually gotten there on time. It wasn’t their fault I was running late, so it’s me who needed to suck it up and expend the extra energy once we started running, to make my way to be up with my group. The weather was nice enough that I only needed a light half-zip, and I noted that this was one of the first races that I didn’t feel like I was dying of hypothermia and shivering at the start.

Off we went!

I trotted along, slowly making my way up, up, up, closer to my pace of about 2 hours. The race was relatively flat, and as I trotted along, listening to my playlist, I saw a few people that I knew. I was feeling good! Still, I worked my way up, and started to settle into an about 9-minute/mile pace.

As you’ll remember, I’ve had stomach issues, so I was a little worried about what that would mean for the day, but some of the girls at work let me try some Huma gel, a gel infused with Chia seeds for natural energy, and I popped one at about 4 miles, and again around 8 or 9, and I felt great – no stomach issues before, during, or even after the race, which has never happened to me.

I cruised along the flat trail pretty issue-free, until about mile 9, where I started to feel like I was getting over it, and I felt a little fatigue set in, and really had to push through for the next mile or so until I got back into the right headspace.

I finished, a few minutes later at about 2:03. Not a poor showing for the first race in a long time!

Here are some of the girls I met up with! I work with them all at Fleet Feet.

Half Marathon — Actor, Sean Astin, Lord of the Rings.

So my assessment of Tobacco Road was that it was awesome. The course was flat, weather was beautiful, and I would honestly not change anything about it. I would do the race again to see if I could improve my time (which I’m hoping to do with some speed work), and if I had some friends doing it with me again.

What did you do to enjoy the gorgeous weather this weekend?

I ran a half marathon and kissed on my hubby a lot 🙂

Terrified: thoughts before a half marathon.

March 16, 2015March 15, 2015 | cheriarmour

Want to hear something that really made me laugh hard yesterday?

This is so so rude, but I was at home sort of in the middle of the day because I’m on duty Thursday nights, and I was sending some emails and such, and listening to E! in the background, when I realized that they were playing all the episodes of KUWTK involving Kris Humphries in Bora Bora. Now the reason why this is so good and so rude is because clearly, Kim is no longer married to Kris (they only made it 72 days, which Austin and I celebrated as our “Kardashian Anniversary”), and Kimmy was the biggest asshole she’s ever been during the Kris era.

Exhibit A:

Now this particular scenario was really exquisite because Kris tosses Kim into the ocean…

Causing her head to slam against the ocean’s surface and her to lose her $75k diamond earrings. Instead of being a logical human, Kim begins to whimper, then cry, as she runs to and fro on the dock. When she tells Kourtney whats happening, Kourtney responds by telling her…

It must also be noted that the earrings were insured, so the tears were just extra.

The Kris era also ushered in this gem.

Now, I won’t bore you all day with the wonderful things that KUWTK has brought to my life, but suffice it to say, that I was entertained for a full at least 5 minutes.

I’m terrified.

I haven’t talked about it much here because of my fear of looking like a complete idiot, but I’m racing for the first time in a while on and it scares the piss out of me. Here are my thoughts before a half marathon.

Water? I should hydrate. Yes, hydrate. Water. Now. Water, some tea, some seltzer, more water.
Speaking of water, I should prep my water plan for tomorrow. Where’s my hydration backpack?
I’m not sure what they’re gonna have on the course, let me make sure that I pack some gels. But gel makes my stomach hurt. Maybe I should ask the chicks at Fleet Feet when I work what I should do.
What shoes am I going to wear? I don’t think the Glycerin is doing it for me anymore.
What do I eat for dinner with only a smidgen of fiber so I don’t poo my pants tomorrow.
Speaking of pants, what am I going to wear? I should lay that out.
Do I have any Coke around for after the race? Shit. Shit.
Also, what am I going to eat for breakfast tomorrow?

And then, I commence to not sleeping, or sleeping fitfully all night whilst dreaming that I’ve overslept and missed my race.

How was your weekend? What do you worry about before a big race/event?

Addicted

January 6, 2015January 5, 2015 | cheriarmour

It’s official…I’m addicted to quinoa.

It all started when I got a free quinoa bowl from Happy and Hale a few months back.

The place is a really cool concept – a very “Stuff White People Like” deal, with a full bar of fresh ingredients waiting to be combined into your delicious salad. Prior to my intro to the ‘noa, I’d kind of just avoided a ton of rice and grain, simply because the serving size on it is so small and I’d really like to eat more of something else without me getting bloated. But I discovered the incredibleness that is quinoa, and now I just can’t get it out of my mind.

Similar to rice, you can cook it in the steamer, get a ton of fiber out of it, stay full for hours, and it’s SO plain, you can mix it with just about anything that you want. Why I waited so long to be introduced to quinoa, I don’t know. But I love it, and I’m not turning back.

2015 Events

Since I’ve been focusing more on the budget the past few months, even thought I’ve really wanted to sign up for races right and left, I’ve kind of held back, and as a result, I’m only signed up for Rock ‘n’ Roll Raleigh, and I’m so itching to sign up for something in order for me to keep my motivation and my fitness up throughout 2015.

So here are the options I’m looking at.

Rock ‘n’ Roll DC

I did this race, and since I stayed at the Westin, I ran into some cool-ass people like Carrie Keagan, who used to host Big Morning Buzz on VH1. Still one of my favorite races, except for the killer hill at mile 6.

North Face Endurance Challenge

Since reading Dean Karnazes’ books, I’ve been really intrigued by the idea of ultra marathons (any marathon over 26.2 miles). The idea makes my husband really really nervous, but I’m thinking about doing it just to see what I can do. I love the sense of accomplishment that comes with finishing one of these things.

Marine Corps

Marine Corps isn’t open, but the lottery opens in March. Which means that if I got in, I would have to train throughout the summer. In North Carolina. Kinda blah, but I hear the race is absolutely awesome. I also did training with a friend end of last summer, and I forgot that I don’t completely hate running long. I just hate the heat kinda.

Nike

So this one is just sort of annoying. The past two years, I’ve done the Nike Women’s Half marathon, and love it. Nike canceled their DC event, and have yet to announce a spring event, leading me to believe there is no spring event. It sucks, because these races are definitely one of my top races, but it’s also a total first world problem, and I have clean water and a warm bed to lay my head down at night, so no complaints. Well, not that many.

So those races are on my radar for the year. Any races/events you’re looking forward to signing up for to keep you motivated?

I know better.

September 25, 2014September 23, 2014 | cheriarmour

So a few days ago on my lunch break, I packed up my clothes and my shoes, and headed out for a run with a friend before I had to take off to teach a Zumba® Fitness class. The weather is starting to get gorgeous here – yesterday, the temp must not have gotten over 80 degrees, and for the first time maybe since the summer kicked off, I didn’t feel like death following the run.

But I made a critical error.

I know so so much better than this, but I grabbed an old pair of Glycerin 11s, a pair from last October (almost a year ago), and did a short run in them. My feet hurt. My knees ached. And as an employee at a running speciality store, I knew SO much better. I know old shoes can make the difference between a good and uncomfortable run. I know that they contribute to foot cramping and knee aches. I know that looking at gross worn-out shoes is probably not helping me to pull out of this running slump whatsoever.

But I did it anyways, and only rethought it when, after only three miles, my feet were aching, knees aching, and when a co-worker from Fleet Feet walked in, took one look at my flattened out shoes, and started laughing. We can tell these things.

So today, reflecting on my slump and how discouraging my achy breaky run was, I went to the store, picked up a pair of Glycerin 12s, and went for a little under 6 miles with a friend.

They felt really really great, and the just-under-six really didn’t feel as slumpy as all my runs have been in a while. A few contributing factors to that? Pretty new shoes, decent fall weather, a good friend to chat with while we powered through the gnarly gnarly hills of Raleigh.

Oh, and I registered for a half at the end of next month. I’m sure that didn’t hurt my motivation since now I have to show up and kick some ass.

What do you do that you know is no good for you?

How long did it take you to fall in love with running?

July 11, 2014July 10, 2014 | cheriarmour

I’m becoming a big fan of the Hungry Runner Girl, Janae, because she’s so freaking positive. It’s funny, I’ve seen a few things written about her online, and the overwhelming “complaint” about her, if you even want to call it that is that she’s too positive or that she gets too excited about the littlest things. I can relate to her – I actually had an associate at Barnes and Noble physically back away from me when I expressed my excitement that they had the Gavin DeGraw album in stock. Okay lady, let me be happy, kay?

Anyhoo, so HRG posts yesterday and posed this question:

How long did it take you to fall in love with running?

The truth is, I don’t really know.

Sport Photo mailed me this blast from the past from my first race in 2011. I’m not sure what possessed me to sign myself and my boyfriend (now almost-husband) for the race, except it sounded really really cool, and I think I saw in ad in one of the women’s fitnessy workout mags that I’d been reading like a Bible.

Austin so sweetly agreed to to the race with me, an obstacle 5k in Virginia, and we drove up there after a shift at the Whole Foods Bakery. Yes, I know. I’m a fitness director, and I worked at a bakery my first gig out of graduate school. But I like my sweets, and I love Whole Foods so it worked.

I ran that race. Finished in decent time. Felt great afterwards, and within about a year’s time, I was running my first half-marathon.

There was never a moment where I was like “aughhh this is awesome,” but I guess I always just liked the way it made me feel. I also loved the way you could kind of click into cruise control for a long run and just…run. Like after a while it didn’t feel like death on a stick, but it just felt like a state of being, as natural as anything else did. Sure, there were still some runs that made me feel like vomiting on on the side of the road, but the vast majority of the runs just felt…good!

So all that to say is, I just don’t know when I started to love running. I’m not particularly fast or fancy, but it feels natural to me, and it feels like the kind of workout you can seriously do anywhere, and burn the most calories/stress off without killing yourself.

So my question on this wonderful Friday is….

When did you fall in love with running?

Epic Damned Post. #Werundc

May 2, 2014May 1, 2014 | cheriarmour

So this past weekend (don’t you dare ask me what took so long to post this), I ran the Nike Women’s Half Marathon in Washington, DC. This post is going to be split up into two posts, one for the race itself and the prep leading up to it, because I don’t want your brain to explode from how awesome all of the deets are. But they are awesome.

Okay, so I drove up to DC last Friday night, and arrived to my place in Georgetown, which, luckily was right down the street from Niketown Georgetown. As SOON as I got settled into my spot, I changed into some running clothes, and made the quick run down to Niketown to see the set up for the expo.

Thanks to insomnia that night, I really didn’t sleep that well (think like 3 hours), and I headed down to the expo super early so I wouldn’t be caught in the shitshow that was the expo last year. The lines were really too nuts for me last year, and I really don’t do that well around all those people in the sun.

I meet up with these beauties for the #runnerslove meetup at Sprinkles in Georgetown after, and unfortunately, I wasn’t feeling great, so I skipped the cupcakes and went for a coke instead to try to settle whatever was going on with my stomach. I will forever be known as “bike girl” in that group because I rode my bike down to the cupcake shop, and had to tote that thang around while we tromped around Georgetown.

I could not eat any of these. How cruel is this world!

We determined this might have been this easiest way to eat the cupcake without making a mess.

Here were all of the beautiful bloggers getting to work. They were a BLAST. A blast, I tell you.

The girls lead me to this amazing spot where I snagged some new bracelets to jingle and jangle my rest of the way through the night…

And finally, we arrived to race day. (Don’t worry, I will fill you in on the rest of the amazing things we did in DC, including this insane hotel I stayed in next post, to come tomorrow 🙂 )

Race morning, I woke up around 4:45, and jumped in the shower, since I wasn’t really feeling well enough to do it the night before. I ate half of a nasty-ass bagel that I found at CVS, and made my way down to the Foggy Bottom metro station and road down to the start line. Once I was there, I tucked my skinny behind in a corner, and called Austin, and observed people, because pre-race chatter makes me really nuts and nervous. And about 15 minutes from the start, I made my way into my corral.

**I must have been smoking crack when I estimated my finish time because even though I finished in just a smidgen over 2 hours, I was in the 10:30 pace group, which proved to be so wrong, because I spent far too long in the race bobbing and weaving and trying to work my way up. DO NOT underestimate yourself.**

And with that, off we went.

I cruised. I cruised, I cruised, and I cruised some more. I ran, I talked to people. I read the signs. At one point, when I was running back through the tunnel, a drummer hit on me by grabbing my arm, and I have to say, it was an awesome race.

This handsome mane delivered me my Tiffany’s.

My blannnnng!

My new boyfriends.

The race in review?

The bad?

Seriously, none. I have nothing bad to say about this race.

The good?

Too much.

The Whole Foods chocolate table at mile like 11, staffed by women giving out chocolate.
The course. Tons of entertainment, and tons of people came out.
The swag. A Tiffany’s necklace, water bottles, Luna Bars, Nuun along the course
The friends and family station done by alphabet, where we could easily meet up with our friends and family?

The race was sick.

Anyone else out there do this race? What did you love?

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