Respect the run: 2 weeks till race day #1

It’s almost here! My first half marathon of this years running season.  The One America 500 Festival Mini Marathon.  In July I will rock the Chicago Rock and Roll Half marathon followed by the Indianapolis Women’s Half marathon in September.  I may take leave of my senses and do the Geist  Half if only for a medal and some funny writing material.  I’ve driven up the hill at Mile 8 on that course and I don’t relish running it on legs that are 2 hours in.  There is a Dirty Girl Mud Run in 3 short weeks,  I’m on a team and I am anxious and excited for that one too.  I had a really amazing day complete with an epiphany or two last week. But I didn’t get in here to write it all down soon enough so it is as of now still percolating.  Let’s talk about running for a bit.

I did in fact finish all 12 miles last Wednesday.  I did also in fact have to walk the last 5 miles or so because of a bad attitude from the get go and a left foot that started to hurt the more i pounded on it.  I also got to the tired point and felt dehydrated. So at the end I was walking faster than I probably could of ran.  I fell like I can handle next Saturday’s 13.1 with no issues now.   I took Saturday’s run off to rest my legs and foot further and today I tackled another 4.0.  I hadn’t successfully run 4.0 in about 10 days.  I don’t like not having confidence on even the short runs. It means I have to dog deeper within myself to get some and some days it is much harder than others.  Today  we ran in mild temps  but crazy winds.  We seem to have run a lot of wind this season so it doesn’t even bother me anymore. This of course means that the humidity this year will be early and brutal.   Maybe if I am lucky it will clear up by the Women’s over Labor Day weekend.   I was tight and stretched several times today.  When we started I knew my legs were tight but I also know that if I remain clam and patient that I can sometimes find my knees before the end of mile 3.  So i just went with it and the miles were not easy. Babu and I did minimal talking today but I also did minimal grousing.  I was just determined to make it to the next little landmark on our route. The miles passed by while I let my mind wander to how close the actual race is.   And then to the training regimen for the next one, what I can tweak, how much harder can  I work, how much weight can I lose if I focus on nutrition.  Before I knew we were at the final land marks, crosswalk, crosswalk, crosswalk….home.

I had run the whole thing without stopping it nasty winds and there were no cracks in the mental armor!  Up next is 8.0 miles on Wednesday, thank GOD we are on taper.