I brought the note Greg left me on my run. It didn’t make me run faster, but it did make me smile.

I made it through my second ten mile run for my half marathon training!  Got up Thursday at 5 a.m. and headed out.  It was close on making it out of bed… I had been dreaming that I’d missed my alarm and slept and it was 7 a.m., and I was kind of disappointed to wake up at 5 and realize that nope, I wasn’t off the hook, it was time to go for a long run.

I have been doing the same route for my long runs and decided I really needed to mix it up and go somewhere different, so I headed out in the opposite direction than I normally do.  Saw a lot more runners going the direction I did – which is good and bad.  It’s nice to feel a little comeraderie when you see a couple other people running at 5:30 a.m.  I especially love seeing someone forty minutes into the run, then again an hour and a half into the run, because you’re both doing out and back runs in opposite directions.  The second wave is always a little more emphatic, as if you not only are acknowledging them as a runner, you’re acknowledging that you’re both out on long runs.  I especially cherish that second wave since to me it feels as though I’m redeeming myself in their eyes for running so slow.  I’m slow, but hey, I’ve been doing this for over an hour too!!!

Highlights of my run: 

Greg left me a note on the sink where I had my running stuff all laid out wishing me good luck on my run.  (Boy did that make me glad I got out of bed rather than hitting snooze!)

I ran 3 miles yesterday so I thought it’d be fun to run 10.1 today, and then I would have completed a half marathon in under 24 hours.  I did it 🙂  Ran 10.2.  I’ve completed a half marathon in 23 hours!  Just need to shave like 20.5 hours off my time.  I’ve got six weeks.  No problem, right?

The sky was beautiful.

I got passed going uphill by two guys who are at least a generation older than I am, and who showed no signs of slowing down.  This is a highlight because it reminds me how much better I can get with more running experience!  Also, I just love seeing a guy who is probably in his sixties kick a twenty nine year old’s butt.  Even when the twenty nine year old is me.  There’s just something awesome about that.

This guy passed me going uphill when he was running in the other direction.   I saw him the second time and took a picture for you guys so you can see what an awesome runner looks like.   Also, this gave me a reason to stop. (I hope this isn’t too creepy and weird, but maybe you can picture this guy passing me  during a tough point in your run and it’ll make you smile!)

Lowlights of my run:

Calves.  Mile 2-4.  Burning.  Shouldn’t have pushed so hard up that hill yesterday with Andrew in the jogging stroller.  AHHHH!!!  I kept thinking about how great it was that I was getting to run through some discomfort because it was making me stronger and preparing me for the half marathon.  I didn’t really believe it.  Had to tell myself to shut up after a while.

Quads.  Mile 7-9.  (I never feel much during the last mile.)

ELEVATION!  Greg warned me about one of the hills coming back on the road I took.  He wasn’t kidding.  The elevation gain from this run was 350 feet.  The elevation gain on my previous long run was 182 feet.  Ask my calves and my pace what they think about that.  However, this is also a highlight, because the half marathon I’m training for has “only 2 areas of uphill running where you will gain less than 90 feet over 2 miles in each of these two section”.  I can do that.  I’ve done better than that.  Awesome.  (I’ll remind myself of this when I get to those sections.)

If you don’t press stop when you get home, it’ll look like you took four hours to do a two hour run.  Whoops.

And I feel great!  NOT.  I kind of want to lie on the couch motionless for a week.  Instead I need to go make the kids dinner and get them to bed!

But hey, I did it.  (Not at a 9:13 pace, that was just my last half mile which I sped up for to get it done before my babysitter left!)

Next week… 10 mile long run.  I’m actually kind of excited because if I can run 10 miles, that’s only a 5k away from my half marathon, and I know I can run a 5k!  (Ok, I get that it doesn’t exactly work like that, but let’s go with the mental delusions since they’re positive.)

I even listened to a podcast for the first time from Abby’s recommendations!

My goal was to complete this 9 miles in under 1:40, which I SORT of did, but actually I took a break to answer the phone when my mom called… sooo… yeah.  But I did all nine miles!

I broke the 100 mile mark on our treadmill! Would rather have run outside, but it’s over 90 degrees out. Air conditioning wins.

Dark enough at 5 a.m. for the street light to be on

I did it!  I set my alarm for 5:02 a.m., jumped out of bed before I lost motivation, and laced up for a run.  I did a lot of walking, then running, then walking for the entire 9 miles.  It wasn’t really that much fun.  The whole time I’m looking at my clock thinking “I have to be back for breakfast WHEN?!”

But I did it – I got out of bed at a time normally reserved for people on their way to the airport, and I went outside and ran, and I didn’t let myself turn around until I was 4.5 miles away from home.  (This is how I know running makes you stupid… at mile 4.18 I looked down at my watch and I remember thinking, “half of nine is what… half of nine is what?”)

It felt pretty hardcore to be leaving my house at 5:15 in the morning, after downing a chocolate goo I stole from Greg’s stash.  (Too bad I couldn’t find one of the ones with caffeine in them… should have checked his gym bag.)  When I left, the sun wasn’t quite up and so the street lights were still on.

Half a mile in, I was seriously questioning my decision making abilities.  A police car drove by me with his window down, and I’m thinking, “Where are you going?!  Stop and talk to me so I can walk for a minute!!!  It’s not even five thirty in the morning and I’m outside RUNNING!  HOW IS THIS NOT SUSPICIOUS BEHAVIOR?!?!”  Yeah, he didn’t even blink.

At mile two, I drank half of the tiny glass bottle of water I was carrying (a re-purposed tonic water bottle – very suspicious) and stowed it in some grass on the side of the road for my return.  6 miles to go.  I fully expected that losing the weight and unbalanced awkwardness of that tiny glass bottle was going to make me go so much faster.  This was simply not true.

At mile 4.5, I stopped to walk for a bit and take another goo.  I figured I could use the energy boost since I normally have breakfast before I run, and I hadn’t had a large dinner the night before.  Unfortunately, this made me REALLY thirsty.  I got so delusional that I could have sworn I saw “Water” and “9” written on the road.  “Yes!” I’m thinking.  “WATER!!! WATER!!!! NINE MILES!!! AHHH!!!!  WATER!!!”  Clearly I was just seeing things.  I mean, it wasn’t even 6:30 a.m. at that point and I was half asleep and dehydrated.

(ok so it was really there)

By the time I reached mile 6.5, all I could think of was those few sips of water I’d stashed at mile 7.

“The fire in my throat wasn’t the same as before.  I wasn’t only on fire, but I was now parched, too.  Dry as bone.  So thirsty.  Burning fire, and burning thirst… Also bad news: The fire inside my heart got hotter.  How was that possible?” Bella, in Breaking Dawn by Stephanie Myers

Huh, I didn’t know Stephanie Myers was a runner.  But she’s got to be, because when Bella turns vampire and awakens with a burning thirst, she sounds JUST like how I felt this morning on my run.  Except I had no urge to run down other humans and consume them, because a) that involves more running and b) I really just wanted water.

Low points: 

• Realizing how slow I go when you factor in my walking breaks. (See my previous post about not lying to my Garmin)
• Seeing that it took me 1 hour and 44 minutes to run 9 miles, when on Sunday Greg is going to run 13.1 in less.  Hating myself for even thinking about that.
• Forgetting that the sun was going to come up and I might need sunglasses heading back east towards my house
• Realizing that you can get up at five a.m. and run nine miles before breakfast and still feel disappointed with yourself for not doing better.  (That’s INSANE.  Stop that.  Just harness it and run better next time.)

Irish eggs Benedict for breakfast.  (I’m a health nut.)

High points:

• Other bikers and runners are likely to wave at you when you’re out at five thirty in the morning, even if you’re running slow… you know, the type that usually doesn’t take time to wave at you normally.
• I made it to my water, and I made it home, all 9 miles.
• An hour and forty five minutes of quiet (left my ipod at home)
• Shower.
• Coffee.
• Breakfast.
• Having my long run done and the full day still ahead of me
• Greg getting up with the kids while I was gone – by 9 a.m. I’d had two cups of coffee but changed NO diapers!  Awesome.

Overall – I think I’m doing great.  I’ve gotten the reality check I need to start eliminating those walking breaks and building up endurance for race day in September, and I’m getting out there and completing the distance.  Next week’s 9 mile run?  I’m going to finish it in under 1:40:00.  Wish me luck 🙂

Greg races to eat in time to leave for work – always a time crunch!

Dear coffee, I love you.  -kelly

Yes, that’s a t-shirt.  I am training for a half marathon because I wanted to buy a t-shirt.  More than that, I wanted to earn the right to wear it.

Now, this might sound crazy to you.  That would probably be because it’s crazy.  And lest you decide to stop shopping for any active-wear in fear that this will happen to you, my guess is that this t-shirt would have held no power for me if the seed of desire to run a half marathon weren’t already somewhere inside me.

The t-shirt began things.  I saw it in a little shop downtown that specializes in fashionable workout gear for women, and I thought about it for weeks afterwards.  It’s funny.  It’s a little cheeky.  I’m married to someone who runs marathons, and when he’s done, it doesn’t always look like it was a whole lot of fun.  This shirt kind of makes fun of that… and since there’s usually nothing funny about Greg’s running, it just made me want it even more.  This shirt epitomizes what I love about running – a true challenge, but not so much of one that you’re not having fun.  I liked this shirt.  I had to have this shirt.

I went back and bought the shirt, and put it in my closet with tags on it.

Not too long after that, I found a half marathon in DC’s wine country on the day before my 30th birthday in September.  At the time, it was four and a half months away.  I’d been running consistently ten miles a week, so I was already active.  A quick look at websites confirmed that training for a half marathon in four months was reasonable.

So I talked to Greg, I went upstairs and looked at that t-shirt again, and we booked ourselves plane tickets and signed me up for the Diva’s Half Marathon in Virginia on September 14th, 2013.  (Marathon runners are not the people to talk to if you’re looking for a voice of reason, by the way.)  It’s an all women event.  You get champagne from a shirtless guy at the end.  There are tiara and water stations on the course.  It’s so perfect for a milestone birthday weekend destination race it’s not even funny.  We can even go out for a nice meal in wine country that night and talk about how awesome I am, instead of about how freaked out I am that I’m turning 30 the next day.

It’s perfect.

So… here I go.  Wish me luck and watch out for those t-shirts.