Hear that?

That strange sound? It's kinda like... "WHOMP...thumpa...thumpa...thumpa..."

That was me, falling off the wagon and landing in a giant pile of Chinese food and Tootsie Rolls, then bouncing. Halloween was NOT good to me. Strike that - Halloween was VERY good, but not for my weight loss efforts. I pretty much went off the rails until this past weekend, eating any and everything that crossed my path. And that path seemed to intersect with lots of mini Three Musketeers bars.

So - onward. :)

Sunday I walked the Iowa State Fairgrounds 5K with Sarah Jane. Sarah is an awesome walking partner, and cheered me on as we chugged up the hills through the Fair Campgrounds. Thank you, Sarah, for keeping me going while I sucked wind like a defective balloon. I am still feeling those hills in my quadriceps today.

Have I mentioned how much I love the Fair and the Fairgrounds? That place and the events that happen there are some of the main drivers (besides my fantastically freaky family) for my still being in Iowa. Sure, there's an apparent dearth of tall, single men in their 30s who love Jesus, and airfares out of Des Moines to anywhere cool are (for the most part) ridiculous - but WE HAVE THE FAIR! Hands up if you agree with me...

The Fairgrounds 5K was a great event, with fantastic November weather. It was neat to see the Fairgrounds without the crush of mullet/tank top-sporting people packing the streets. There are some beautiful green spaces there that you usually can't see during the Fair because they're packed with caramel apple stands - which are also beautiful, but in a different way. The helpful signs at the mile markers told us when we'd burned off a bag of cotton candy, then a caramel apple (thereby extracting most of the enjoyment out of them for me), and finally a corn dog at the three-mile mark. Not helpful, Iowa State Fair people, if you want to keep your corn dog sales numbers increasing. :) Nevertheless, I had a blast and will be back for next year's event - but probably won't be sporting a swimsuit entirely covered in State Fair ribbons like one participant. A brave woman, she.

Now Sarah and I are looking for more race events in the coming months. Next up - the Jingle Jog at Gray's Lake in December, then the YMCA's Red Flannel Run in February. We will have quite an impressive collection of brightly-colored long-sleeve t-shirts by spring.

I also hit (quite literally) the kickboxing hard last night. I could only make it about 25 minutes, but they were a good 25 minutes. Sunday's walk really highlighted how far out of shape I'd gotten. Sarah made me feel better by pointing out that Sunday was the first really strenuous exercise I'd done in about eight weeks, and I was feeling it. Now it's time to claw my way back, and I started last night with a great session of bag work and some push-ups/sit-ups. I can still do full-on sit-ups, which is a point of pride for me. I am woman, watch me struggle to hoist myself into a sitting position!

Oh, yeah - the scale. I am up two pounds from my post-Vegas weight, which means I've gone back up about four pounds since the end of September. Easy come, not-so-easy go. But they'll go - until I fall off the wagon into a vat of Christmas cookies. :)