still running

Before I ran the half marathon I started to get worried about what I would do after the half marathon. Would I stop running? Would I sit around all the time and get fat? Would I get depressed because I didn't have a regular running schedule anymore? Or, conversely, would I start training for a full marathon?

Well, running the half marathon let me know that I don't want to start training for a full one. But obviously I will still run. I was silly to worry.

Right now I'm training for a crazy challenge that I don't want to say too much about just yet in case I wimp out and don't do it, but hopefully I will do it and you'll get to hear more later. That also means hopefully whatever feels wrong with my left leg will go away soon. I'm taking a few days off, so hopefully that will fix it.

Also, totally unrelated to running, I meant to blog earlier in the week about what I did last weekend because it was lots of fun, but I'll just say that Josh and I went to the Kiwanis pancake breakfast and then watched the Dogwood Festival Parade, and while the parade was nothing spectacular, it was still lots of fun to watch. So there you go.

13.1

This morning Josh and I ran the Charlottesville Half Marathon! Looking back I think "ahhh, that was awesome!" but there were definitely points when running that I thought "I'm never going to run a full marathon" or "oh dear goodness, I might have to stop and walk." But I didn't stop to walk. And I did way better than I thought I would! My goal was to finish under 2 hours and 10 minutes (basically my usual 10 minute mile), but I finished at 1 hour 57 minutes!!! That is very exciting. Overall I placed 399 (out of 1077).

There were points when I looked around and enjoyed the scenery, struggled with a cramp, had to pee, passed several people at a time, and was passed by several people at a time. There were some serious hills, but Charlottesville is full of hills and I've been training here, so it turned out okay. Josh took off and left me just before the halfway point, but I caught up with him at the end (until he sprinted through the finish line), and he finished 390th.

My legs are sore and I spent the rest of the day lounging about and napping, but I enjoyed it and will probably try to run more half marathons and shorter races in the future.


6:30am and ready to go!


Lookin' good at mile 1. (Notice a similar picture wasn't taken at, say, mile 9.)


Josh running, I think between miles 1 and 2.


See little me waving? About to hit the turnaround point halfway through.


Josh's Grandma came to see us finish! Look how cute they are!


We did it!

thank goodness

Dad got to leave the hospital today! They finally (two weeks later) got all the fluid from outside his lungs drained, and they think he's good to go and the fluid shouldn't build up again. Now he's home, and they say he can even head back to the gym next week!

half marathon countdown

Well, I've trained for thirteen weeks, and tomorrow is the big day! Hopefully it won't rain. Hopefully I won't die. Hopefully I'll feel okay about my time.

Wish me luck!

thanks, friend

Received in the [e]mail today:

thoughts and prayers please

Monday my Dad had surgery to get fluid out of his chest. Three liters of fluid, to be exact. He's still in the hospital, waiting for drainage to stop so they can take out his chest tube and let him go home. We still don't have a diagnosis for why his chest is creating so much fluid in the first place. So keep him in your thoughts and prayers please.

three cheers for warm weather!

Today I ran twelve miles (whew!), slapped on a whale tattoo, bought some books (and books on tape) at the library book sale, and headed to Richmond to hang out on the porch with family and dye eggs.

Pretty good day, I'd say.

bean pie

Today I ate some pinto bean pie at work, but I thought it was pecan pie because that's what I was told.

Happy April Fools Day to me.

(It still tasted pretty good.)