Austin Half Marathon Pictures

Austin Half Marathon

So I fell behind a little in my posting. I went back to work last week and I am running a little low on time. I did run on Monday and Wednesday, on the treadmill, 4 miles and 4.5 miles. So Thursday night I check my facebook messages and I have a message from a friend. She is a fellow runner that I went to high school. She was running in the Austin Half Marathon this weekend and had a friend that had to back out due to an illness. She asked if I wanted her friend's bib. Before even thinking about it I said "yes yes yes!" Then I really got to thinking. My longest recent run was 7 miles and I was actually hoping to get in 8 this weekend. I am not ready! My race is in April, that is what I have been preparing for. I am not sure what came over me but I could not say no and I could not back out. It all happened so fast. Needless to say, I ran it. I have never run that far but I did it. I did it well. I did not walk, at all! Honestly, I didn't even want to walk. I felt good until about mile 11. I started getting tired. But when you have 2.1 left and you have already run 11 miles, why would you start walking? I had come too far! There was a massive hill at mile 11 that I was not happy about. But I thought at least that is it and I can cruise on in. Right. Turns out, there was an even bigger hill at mile 13! UGH! I kicked it in and I made it up the hill. From that point it was smooth sailing. It was all downhill, literally. We circled halfway around the capitol and the finish line was about 400 meters behind the capitol. Once I saw the finish line, my legs took off. I wasn't even making them. Something about me craves that finish line! I ran as fast as my legs would take me and I took it to the house. I finished in 2 hours and 40 minutes. (my new personal record) We kept a 12:10 pace throughout the race which is not bad for first timers. It was an awesome experience and I cannot wait to do it again. This will make my race in April alot easier!!

Day 68

Ok, people my math is seriously lacking. I am not sure how I made such a miscalculation and how I am just now fixing it. My race is April 11th, and from today, I have 68 days left. Let's just say I was never great at math and move on. So, I did not run from Friday-Monday. I did not get to do my long run last week. That makes last week's summary remain at 9 miles completed. That is okay, but not what I wanted. Well, the whole reason I started this blog is for a little accountablity and here it is. I will be able to look back on my training and see where I went wrong. I ran on Tuesday, at the gym. By mile 3 I was so bored I didn't know how I would make it to 5 miles, but somehow I did. My hips are a little sore today. I may have to run at the gym again this week but hopefully by the weekend I can be outside and doing a long run. I am still hoping to get at least 7 miles this week for my long run. I must say I am enjoying running at the gym a LITTLE more, but I still get bored and it is not ideal. I just have to embrace it while Chris is out of town and it continues to rain. I almost just want to run in the rain, but I have been feeling a little under the weather and not sure if that would help. For more information on the run I am competing in here is the website: www.texasmarathon.com