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. 

Inaugural JLSA's Resolve for a Better SA 5K

Alternately titled: One of the many reasons I haven't posted much in the last year.

This morning the Junior League of San Antonio held it's inaugural Resolve for a Better SA 5K. Behind the name- it's still fairly early in the new year and getting healthy/being active is a common resolution and making a better SA is what JLSA is all about.

I was fortunate enough to be on the planning committee for this (in addition to other responsibilities for JLSA), but when you believe in something you make it happen.

And did these ladies make it happen. It helped that we took a couple of 5K planning trips to Port A, that really got our gears turning, and we all completed the audacious 12 races in 12 months. So we've done our race research.

At our last run- Color Me Rad, from left to right: Our fearless leader Mireya, Erica -Communications Extraordinaire, Kristen- Master of Volunteer Coordination, and Me- "We can always move the table later" Ariana

We had a veteran community runner in our midsts and he posted about the run on a Runner's World Forum. Thanks to Scottydog for supporting our event! You can read his post on the forum here.

Thanks to everyone who came out to support the event (almost 300 registered runners and walkers), signed up to fundraise and donated to those who fundraised!   You are helpling JLSA support over 60 Community Agencies with volunteer time and money. Things like this don't happen without people supporting them and awesomely patient spouses who let them get planned.

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!