Latest Endeavor - Nike Women's Half Marathon!

I'm so excited to say that I will be running in the Nike Women's Half Marathon in San Francisco this year! Here is the website if anyone would like more info, although it sold out in the first couple of weeks after registration opened. http://www.nike.com/nikemarathon/

I don't have the mental toughness to train for the full, being an October marathon, it would have meant training in the hottest part of the Texas summer and that is just something I'm not up to! Phil and I are going to spend time with our respective aunts and uncles that live out there and if the soreness I felt after the Austin Marathon is typical, I probably wouldn't want to do any sight seeing after running a full anyway.

I'm going to start a marathon training program at the beginning of August that will lead up to White Rock. I haven't fully committed to running WR, due to the way training tends to control your schedule, but for now it will have me over prepare for San Francisco and if I want to run WR I will be on the right path.

I finally convinced Phil to get fitted for running shoes and since then we've been running together around our neighborhood. I think we live in the only neighborhood in Dallas that has a ton of hills, but it is probably the perfect training ground for San Francisco. This week we've run 4 out of 5 mornings so far, and it has been nice to start our days out with a run. We've seen rain every day for who knows how long, but in the mornings it has been relatively dry. Dodger refused to go today when he saw that it was sprinkling a little hard. The benefit of the rain is that it has been keeping the temperatures outside cooler than normal.

I really need to do some longer runs of 7+ miles but I haven't had the time. I have to volunteer this Saturday at 9:00, so maybe I can convince myself to get up early enough to get in 7 miles but that would be quite a feat. ;)

Random thought, but I will lap my training for the Half from last year pretty soon. I think that will be a year that I've run every week except for the week after the marathon. That is crazy to me!

Marathon Recap!

I realize that I was lazy and never gave a proper marathon recap!

The morning started out quite cool and I dressed in layers that could be easily shed. My dear friend Mar and Phil stayed with me until the start of the race. It was daunting to know that I had 26.2 miles ahead of me, but the weather couldn't have been better and I felt prepared and only slightly worried about my knee.

The first six miles went by quite fast and I was feeling really good. I started shedding some layers as it warmed up. It was so fun to spot Phil and Mar in the crowd cheering for me with my giant sparkly E sign that Mar had made. The hills weren't nearly as hard on me as I thought they might be. My time was pretty decent and my half marathon split was a PR so I was happy about that. The miles between the half and the low 20's were relatively boring and weren't run in the prettiest area of Austin, but it was pretty flat which was nice. It started getting harder after about 20 and I had to load up on the Gu. Mar joined me around mile 22 and it was so nice to have her there by my side. She carried water for me and I really relied on her to keep me going mentally. I can only remember flashes of those last few miles and it is really amazing how you can only have 2 more miles to go and have done so much training and yet your brain is telling you STOP. I was dead tired. But I kept going. Mar left me to run the last bit on my own. It was neat to run around the capital and finish to my name being called out. I was so happy to be finished and to have that medal around my neck!

My official time was 4:31. I was extremely pleased because my first goal was just to finish, my second was to finish in 4:45 and my "extreme goal" was 4:30, so to be one minute off of that made it even better.

The week after the race I was really REALLY sore. It was amazing how once I finally felt back to normal, running still did not feel natural. I felt stiff and like there was something wrong with my gait. It slowly got better and I got back to my usual running routine and definitely enjoyed some time off for other things besides running!