Don't Walk this Way

It's the new year!  Technically it is, right? We aren't even out of January yet!  

Well I haven't blogged since September, even though I actually have a draft of a blog from Thanksgiving started.  So much has happened and I have so many pictures to prove it.  

This year has also been pretty exciting too. I will recap little by little soon.  

I'm trying to get back in the running groove after taking a fairly long hiatus since completing the Sticks and Stones 13.2 miler with Justin back on December 1. For a little while I battled some top of foot pain caused by running on uneven pavement for that entire distance.  When the road isn't closed for the course you put safety first, and run close to the grass (no sidewalks in these neighborhoods) and against traffic. Good for seeing cars, bad for the top of my feet.

Given my <insert sarcastic font here> extensive experience with road running (in my neighborhood counts right?),  I thought it was pretty much a given that when out for a stroll in the neighborhood you walk (or run) against traffic. 

Like I said before, safety first! Right?

Sure, sure every now and then you cross the street to avoid an animal, or in my case I cross the street so I don't scare the bejeezus out of some ahead of me and my almost 80 lb dog. 

Tonight was a little bit different though. I came upon a couple, a man and a woman, moving with traffic- so towards Wookie! and me- and they didn't cross the road, in fact they barely gave any way. 

So while I have Wookie! on a short leash (think a foot longer than him and It's wrapped up around my hand), he's going to think these people might want to love on him, so he'll move their way. I figure if they are okay with being that close to my dog then that speaks for itself. Also an 80 lb dog wanting attention has more momentum then people would think. And besides, they have the whole road and technically should be on the other side of the street.

Well, while the man barely flinched when passing Wookie!, I can only assume the pup was confused that no love was given, so he went towards them and the woman didn't say anything to me, but she definitely acted put out. 

Wookie! shook off the confusion of not getting any love from a stranger and I shook off the frustration of knowing that the woman stayed so close to my dog even though she was obviously uncomfortable. I personally don't go into the reptile house at the zoo for a reason people.  

Near the end of our run before the turn around to hit the final half-mile another woman came jogging towards us with traffic and barely gave us any room.  In fact she didn't smile or wave or anything. Which just always puts me off.  Justin can attest to that.  I hate unfriendlies in the neighborhood.  It's not as though we know everyone's name, but a wave or a head nod or some eye contact is all I'm looking for people.  

So I'll continue to wave, make eye contact and smile, as long as they continue to stay on their side of the road. Who am I kidding, I'll do it anyway, they just better be ready to pet Wookie! too.

LLS 1st Annual San Antonio Herothon

We have some close friends who are big supporters of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. So when they innocently asked if we were going to do the 1st annual Herothon event in San Antonio, we heartily agreed.

This was before Spain, France, Christmas and a whole mess of time that meant we lacked the proper preparation because we did not make time to adequately train, even in a half-assed manner. We walked Wookie! 3 times last week. That and a 3- mile run our first day back from Europe is about all the working out we'd done. 

So when we were in the car at 5:50 this morning Justin calmly said "this is a stupid idea. We are going to die." 

I replied "You're driving the car, literally, so you can turn it around."

He didn't. 

We got to the parking lot and before forking over the $10 parking fee (a drop in the bucket in comparison to the race registration fee) he asked "are you sure about this, I don't want to disappoint you."

"You can decide, we have 4 hours to finish, I think we've got this," I said.

We paid and parked. 

And when we were under 15 minutes per mile for the first mile, Justin got pumped up. We weren't going to take 4 hours. No way. Even with a porta potty break at mile 1 (the lines right before the start were way too long). 

We were jovial enough to smile in front of the Alamo between miles 2 and 3:

And then we saw our pace at the mile 3 marker and I mentioned, that not only had Justin never trained for something like this, but he was rocking it, kicking ass and we might very likely beat my time from the SA R'n'R half this past November (3 hours 25 minutes)

Cue the competitive light bulb.  Justin was determined that I was going to set a personal record and he was going to make sure we did it together. 

In fact we were feeling so great between mile 5 and 6, when we saw a friend outside his house with his little one cheering the runners on, we stopped and chatted. 

Then we hit mile 8.56789 or something like that. Way more than half way complete, but still almost 5 miles from the end. It was the wall. But we we kept moving.

Mile 10-11, had signs from families cheering on runners and named those they loved and for whom the ran in honor, or in memory.  Then there were the survivors participating alongside us. 

Those last 3 miles were the hardest, but those constant reminders of why the event was happening were immensely motivating.  

We jogged the downhills, including the last big bridge (that we hit at the beginning too!), and into the finish line at 3 hours and 17 minutes.

And we were still smiling:

Justin received his first half marathon medal (my third):

And then we took a nap. 

2012 Year in Review.

What to say about 2012?

It had it's ups and downs.

My family mourned the loss of my paternal Grandmother early this year. She lived a long full life and because of her we are all here. She was a mother, a traveler, an ice skater, a storyteller, an artist. She loved and is loved and she will always be remembered.

In comparison to that the other low points are not even blips on the radar. Her long full life is a reminder to constantly go and create my own stories and I definitely did my best this year.

I completed my second half-marathon, this time properly training and beating my first time by almost an hour. Thanks to a lovely group of ladies (and one of their committed husbands and the constant cheering on from my own) I completed one race a month, besides the half along with all of them.

I've had the honor of being on the Junior League of San Antonio Board of Directors as the Community Council Chair for the 2012-2013 year (the fun continues until May of 2013).

Justin and I traveled. Mostly together, sometimes separately. We went to Minnesota to remember my Grandmother, Leakey on the Frio River to celebrate friends, San Francisco to celebrate the 4th of July with Amy and Doug, Las Vegas to celebrate birthdays, Madrid/Toledo/Paris/Brussels/Barcelona to celebrate Christmas.

I went to Cabo and Rockport/Port Aransas to celebrate friendships and Austin to celebrate music at ACL.

We renovated our kitchen. Not with our own hands, unless writing checks counts. We are smart enough to know our limits. So soon we will travel to our dining room to celebrate cooking in our house.

It's been a year to remember. The ups and the downs.

Seven days until finish two.

One week from today I will be done with my second half marathon (2012 Rock 'n' Roll San Antonio).  Because my first one was so awful (due to improper training- my mom was a rockstar, I was a weakling) it's almost like this is the first one.

I am stoked. I am ready to go out and rock this thing. I am ready to work on my running speed after this is over, since I won't have to focus on my distance.  Saturday mornings will be all mine again.  You see when your jogrun is at about 13:30 minutes a mile (just under 4.5 mph), even the longest run done so far, at 10 miles, takes you over 2 hours.

Last time it took me over 4 hours to finish, and my mom was a trooper with me the whole way.  Justin even provided me moral support by walking a couple of the last miles with us.  He should have just signed up for the whole thing.

This time will be different. With my fully charged iPhone, my awesome mix of music and a little voice telling me to go faster (literally, with an app on my phone).

All I have to do is follow the path shown by the purple line:

Want to pay to get text messages to see where I am on the course? Go here. I swear these people think of everything.

Please send me some positive race day vibes!

Half-Marathon Training- Week 10

The USAFIT website is kindly reminding me that the half-marathon is only 105 days away.

And yesterday, was a 5-mile route along the "scenic" frontage road of 1604.

As my friend Erica was passing me by, we waved and then a crazy driver tried to take us out. Not really, but it felt like that. Obviously, when I told my husband the story he was even more excited about the fact that we'll be on a greenway next week.

I don't know how precise Map My Run always is, but it says I did 5.56 in 1:25:11. So that's an average jogrun of 3.9 mph. I hope it's those hills slowing me down.

Here's the route we did:

The best/worst part about completing the Saturday morning route is coming home, cleaning up and getting the rest of a good night of sleep. It's amazing sleep.

And I ran so far away

Ok, maybe I didn't run that far. More like a good combination of my patented jogrun and some walking to achieve my 5-mile goal this morning in approximately 1 hour and 14 minutes.

This is part of the road to completing the San Antonio Rock 'N Roll 1/2 Marathon this November.

Yeah, so when I signed up for the training, I eventually signed up for the 1/2 marathon too. And after this morning, I know that if I continue to train and build up my mileage, I am going to get there.

I did the 5 miles this morning because I won't be at the training on Saturday. And it was actually only supposed to be 4 miles, but I got antsy and wanted to see what I could do by myself.

When I thought about posting the Flock of Seagulls song came into my head and now it can be stuck in yours.  Thank me later.

Intimidation Factor

Did I just register for training to jogrun (maybe even run by November) a half marathon?

I just did that. Who I can blame? Oh I know who I can blame. Or do I give them credit? Maybe it will be credit after the "race," but when I'm up and running at a hour that's too early for a Saturday in Mid-May, it will be blame.

I do have 30 days to change my mind. But NO REFUNDS after 30 days. Is getting a refund on something like this sort of like getting a refund on life?

I registered with the USA Fit group here in San Antonio.

In the meantime (before May 19th) I need to see about getting new running shoes. And thanks to a handy dandy Google Search that doesn't seem intimidating at all.

Only 140 millions results returned in less than a second.

Not intimidating at all.