Back in Business! October 2012

I had plenty of good intentions to run a half this past spring.  I diligently printed out a training schedule and picked out two races.  First, Matt took the new job and the day of the Charlottesville race we ended up moving to Greenville instead.  The second race was in Madison, WI and I even flew up for the Memorial Day race, but the morning of the race they cancelled it because it was too cold.  IT IS WISCONSIN!  It was probably 50 degrees.  There had to have been more to that story but we never heard.  If it counts at all, there was a 15 mile bike ride around the lake- just no running.

Our rides around the lake :)

By June I was DETERMINED to up the mileage and get back into race shape.  We bought a BOB Ironman, which Jackson loved.  He loved it until he started walking.  Now he's only happy if we are actually running.  Guess that makes him a better running partner than when he just sleeps.  I ran some, printed out another training schedule, and then we moved again at the end of July.  I picked two more race goals and joined the gym.  There were two races set for October, one in Arkansas (that I promise I WILL run with Maloree one year) and a fall race in Charlottesville.  Then we realized that Jackson's first birthday was one of those weekends and a very good friend's wedding was the other in Alabama.  

First run in his new BOB

I changed my goal to running to the Spinx Half Marathon in Greenville on Oct 27 and printed out another training plan.  Training was going well until Jackson got the flu.  Not just the flu... the stomach flu.  It lasted 5 days which put me out of training (what, you don't let exploding babies come to the gym daycare?) right when two long runs a week had to happen to be ready.  I got behind on my work taking care of him and just when there was a light at the end of the tunnel... got a head cold.  So training came to a halt for about three weeks and the longest run I logged was 8 miles.  As the race drew closer I thought about my utter failure to run for the entire year.  It was discouraging.  Yes, there are the excuses of moving twice, having a baby, having to relocate a law practice, work, and all the other stuff but they are excuses.  I went to the gym and lifted weights late on Friday to punish myself.  Driving home from the gym I told myself that I would get up, go run 8-9 miles of the course, and get back on the training schedule.  The more I thought about it the madder I got at myself until I decided to at least TRY to finish the race.  So I dug through the gym bag, scrounged up a Gu Energy Gel, charged up the Garmin watch, got out the Vaseline and did some stretching to try to stave off the soreness from that afternoon's weight session. 

Quick easy run a day before Spinx

 Morning of the race Matt made me pancakes.  I stopped at a Spinx on the way to the starting line and picked up a banana and 5 hour energy.  As I walked up to the starting line I realized that in my quest to put new music on the shuffle I had deleted everything but not added any music back on.  Fail.  Running a half with no music?  No thank you.  I had my iphone but wasn't sure how long the battery would last.  The first 6 miles were easy and mostly downhill.  Without pushing the stroller I managed to keep right at a 9m pace without really trying.  By Mile 10 I was dragging.  We had looped back to the hilly part of the run (which was the last three miles of the half).  I passed by a girl wearing a running club shirt just bawling.  She was so ridiculous sounding that it forced me to turn on the iphone just to drown her out.  We were about an hour and a half into the run.  Come on, it was Mile 10 and 3 miles is nothing after going that far so by God I would just walk the last part if I had to!  I texted Matt and told him 12:00 pace and kept on plodding.     

Hey Ma, next time suck it in for the camera!

Matt and Jackson high tailed it out of Lowe's and made it to the finish line, which was right inside the Greenville Drive baseball stadium downtown.  Matt handed the baby over the fence and Jackson ran the last 1/4 mile on the track with me!  Official finishing time was 2:12.  Pretty much a miracle.  I'm just glad to have finally checked another half of my list.  Now where can I run in November?

Cheers to race #9!