Fog

I thought I'd post a picture of the weather that I ran in today. Foggy and wet. At least it's not that cold... only 47 degrees. And I was lucky because it was only dripping while I was out. About 20 minutes after I finished up it started raining steadily. I think I might have to consider getting a light to wear. The combination of the fog and the shorter days means that it's fairly dark towards the end of my run. I'm not worried so much about cars as my clothes are light colored and somewhat reflective, but today I almost ran into a fellow runner as it was difficult for us to see each other through the fog until we were pretty close! I'm wondering how long it will be before I have to deal with snow and, once it's here, if I can actually run in the snow. Most people I know thought I was crazy to want to run a half-marathon in the first place. The fact that I'm continuing to run in this kind of weather without a race looming over my head has them baffled. I never claimed to be sane.

What next?

Did 3 miles today. It's really small potatoes compared to 13 but I'm still following this training program. It has 3 weeks worth of post-race training to get you back to a "regular" amount of running. Since the program worked so well for me for the race I figured I would see it through to the end. It was damn cold out there today - 38 degrees at 12:30pm. I made the mistake of leaving my gloves at home. Won't be doing that again. My pace was better than a few days ago, which is reassuring, but I'm anxious for it to get back to that near-9-minute-mile mark. A friend is trying to convince me to run the Broad Street run in Philly in May of next year. It's a 10-miler. I'll probably do it. I need something to look ahead to. That nervous energy seems to serve me well.

Back on the pavement

I went for my first run since the race today. Just a short 30-minute run. I was very slow. I'm sure part of it is that I'm not fully recovered from the race (although I feel just fine) but hopefully most of it was due to the fact that I had just rolled out of bed. I never do that. I'm usually up for a hour or two before running and even then I find that I'm slow. But since today is Thanksgiving and there were pies to be baked and a turkey to be cooked I had to get my butt out there. Anyway, it was good to be running and I'm jonesing to get back to my "fast" runs. I'm trying to be patient but it's not one of my virtues.

Coming off that high

Well, it's been two days and I'm still feeling pretty damn good. I'm sore but really not that bad. I'll be running again later this week and I'm looking forward to it. The weather is awful now but I'll manage. I'm already thinking about the next race. Not sure what it will be but I realize that I do much better when I have a specific goal so I'll find something to shoot for. I know the Philly Race For the Cure is in the spring. Since that's only a 5K maybe I'll make it a goal to do an 8-minute mile. We'll see. In the meantime, I promised pictures so here are a couple. The one that I had some people take of me at the actual race was far too awful to post here. These were taken after I got home. Don't let the "medal" fool you... everyone who finishes gets one. Lame, yes, but I wore it anyway. ;) Tess was obviously very thirsty from sitting on her butt while Mommy ran 13.1 miles so I shared some of my water with her.

RACE DAY!

I need to say something before divulging my race results. There's no way I will ever win a million dollars, grow taller or win a Nobel prize. You see, it would appear that whatever I deem impossible comes true these days, so I just wanted to get those things on the record. I ran and finished the Philadelphia Half Marathon this morning with a time of 2:04:30. That's a 9:30 mile. I was totally shocked. I was actually averaging closer to a 9-minute mile up until the hill around mile 10. It wasn't a steep hill but one of those long, slow climbs and it kicked my ass pretty good. I was never quite able to get back into that 9-minute groove again. But that's OK. I'm more than happy with my time. The weather was decent. Not great but it could have been a lot worse. It was cold and it tried to rain but didn't manage to do more than drizzle a couple of times. All in all a good race. I promised pictures but they'll have to wait until tomorrow. I'm off to celebrate!

Last run

Well, this is it. I went for a ridiculously short 20 minute run this morning. It was 34 degrees outside. Brrrr! 24 hours I will have completed 13.1 miles. I appreciate all of the support from friends and family these past few days/weeks/months. I will post pictures here after the race. If you are awake and lucid at 7am EST tomorrow you can cheer for me.

Snow!

It is freaking cold out there. There were actually teensy tiny snowflakes falling for a few minutes a little while ago. What the hell! And it's windy, too. I seriously hope the weather improves between now and Sunday. The forecast is for a high of 47 on Sunday. That's the high, folks! Egads. I suppose it really doesn't matter. I'm running no matter what. It would just be nice not to have to stand shivering at the start line for 30+ minutes beforehand. If the wind goes away then the temps will probably be tolerable. I picked up my bib today. Can't wait to be wearing it Sunday morning. While most of you are still sleeping.

Things I have learned (Part 2)

More things I have learned:

1. Wet leaves are slippery.
2. Humidity can be a good thing.
3. No matter how cold it gets, I really don't need gloves after a couple of miles.
4. I may not be considered a "slow" runner anymore.

Fidgeting

Definitely feeling anxious. For the second time now I want to go for a run even though it's a rest day. I seem to have a lot of nervous energy these days. It would be great if I could save it all up and then tap into it on Sunday. I tried to look at the profile of the course. They don't have one posted on the race website but I made a crude one using the pedometer function on Google maps. There appears to be a good-sized hill from mile 7 to mile 8. That will be difficult as mile 8 tends to be the crux for me. Luckily, after that it appears to be pretty flat. I need to work on some visual imagery or mantras to get me through the rough spots.

My new PR

I ran a 9:06 mile today. Technically a new PR but since it was only for ~3.5 miles I don't know if it really counts. I wanted to see what I could do if I really focused but I also didn't want to be foolish about it so close to race day. I probably won't push it anymore, just to be safe. But after the race (and a recovery week or so) I think I'll have to play around with some speed work and see what happens. It still feels really weird to be running such short distances when I've got 13.1 miles to run on Sunday. Today I tried convincing myself that the speed made up for it a bit but I wasn't buying it. I guess we'll just have to see.

Grrrr

I do not run well first thing in the morning. My average pace over the 5 miles this morning was OK but the standard deviation was horrible. I was all over the place. My legs are just not awake that early in the morning. This doesn't instill me with confidence for next Sunday. Today was my last "long" run (I don't think 5 miles can be considered long anymore) and I really wanted to feel better about it. I started thinking that perhaps my pedometer wasn't working properly but since this same pedometer recorded my PR two days ago it's just too sad to consider the possibility that it was wrong. Besides, it's a poor runner that blames her gadgets, right? I can't believe the race is only 7 days away.

Picking up speed

9:19. That blows the doors off of anything I've done in the past. Yeah, I've run faster than that for very short intervals of time but this was over 4 miles at that pace. Of course, there's no way I can keep up that pace for 13.1 miles but it's nice to know that I can do it for the short runs. I'll be interested to see what I can pull off on my next short run. It was 39 degrees out there, too. I'm having a hard time imagining it as "warm" as 45 degrees at 7am next Sunday when it's been in the 30's at that time of morning this week. I think I need to find some gloves.

Itchin' to run

Today is the first time that I've wanted to run even though it's not a "run" day for me. Today is a rest day - one of two that I get each week - and normally I'm happy to rest on those two days. But today I actually feel restless and would love to go for a run. Perhaps it's the decreased mileage that my legs sense. Maybe it's pent up frustration from other areas of my life. Whatever it is, I'm itching to go for a run. But it's a rest day and I'm trying to respect the schedule. Tomorrow is a 40 minute run. Maybe I'll try for another PR.

The clothes make the run

Sometimes a good run can sneak up on you. At the start of my run today I wasn't feeling into it - the first 5 minutes or so I was running my normal pace but I felt slow. After another 5 minutes the kinks were working out and I was doing better. Then all of the sudden I was running a sub-10-minute mile. I realize that doesn't sound very impressive but that's fast for me. And I kept it up for the rest of the run - just over 4 miles. Not sure what happened but it was pretty cool. It's got to be the new running clothes, right?

Getting cold

When I checked weather.com before heading out for my run this morning it said "44 degrees - feels like 38". They weren't kidding. I'm not used to running in the cold. Next time around I'm going to have to do more of my training at the appropriate temperature. It took me 3 miles to get into the groove because of the cold but after that the rest of the run was OK. Eight miles today and my pace was actually faster than usual for a long run. I sweated off about 2 pounds this morning, despite the cold. Two weeks to go.