I did it.... and am sore....

whew.... I accomplished three goals

Goal 1: finish

Goal 2: finish under 3 hours

Goal 3: finish at 2h 45m

woo hoo.....

Today

.... and so it's here...

wish me luck!

4 more days....

I AM NOT READY..... not mentally anyways....

First, I missed my opportunity to run 12 miles on 9-19 because I thought my son's bike-a-thon was more important (it was). I ran 6 miles instead. Then I didn't run a long run until this past Monday - and that was only 5 miles. The household is sick. Well, most of it. We're on the mend, but it threw a monkey wrench into my running schedule.

Sooooo...................... Sunday is the day. I'm worried. I'm sure I'll do good for the first 8-10 miles. After that, who knows? I'll just be sure to keep my cell phone on me in case I need to call for help.

If you want to come out and support me, please go here for the details: http://www.rnrsj.com

You can wait at the finish line, or search for my body along the race pathway. It's up to you. I won't find out my race number until Friday (or whenever I pick up my packet - I'm looking at Friday).

Any tips for me? Anyone run this particular course before? I have one friend who ran another Rock n Rock marathon and said all the music helped pass the time. I hope that's true this Sunday for me as well.

It's amazing what stress does to you physically....

I'll start off by saying, that I did NOT do 12 miles like I originally had planned. I started out okay, but I couldn't get Eric off my mind. Today he had his first 'Bike-a-Thon' and I was going to miss it. So I did a total of 6 miles and headed off to his pre-school. I feel better that I got to see him. He was happy too.

I also would like to add that I managed not to get shin splints this time, yeah me! I did have aches elsewhere though. I also was dragging butt the whole way... well, except the first mile. I'm just so tired.

My life the last two weeks: got laid off from work on 9-08, my parents left for Ireland/England on 9-10, I've been cleaning for almost 2 weeks, we've had a major ant problem for 6 days, Jeff left for a business trip early Monday, and Eric's birthday is tomorrow. Oh yeah, the power went out on Wednesday morning, of which Eric felt the need to wake me up and tell me... thus waking Ryan up in the process. This was at 5am....

I'm tired....................................................

18 more days....

Not looking forward to my 12 mile run on Friday. Really really really really really really not looking forward to it. The distance of 12 miles is scary by itself, but I'm also worried about getting those damn shin splints again.

Sooooooooooo........ anyone want to join me? Or, anyone have a better marked place I can run?

New twist, a good thing?

Soooooo.............. I was able to run today at 9am... And why you ask? Because Monday I was informed at 8am that they eliminated my job. So yeah, I'm unemployed now.

But this might help my training, at least for the next couple of weeks. I can run in the morning while the kids are at daycare and preschool during the week, and I'll have more time in the afternoons and weekends for other stuff.

I have less than a month until the race. I think if I continue on this path, I will do okay. I believe I can get less than 3 hours, but who knows if I can get 2h45m.

But of course my main goal is to finish without collapsing.

10 miles... ugh...

Overall 10 miles wasn't too bad today. When I did 8 miles 2 weeks ago, it was tough. Hell, 4 miles last Monday was tough! Today, the first 6 miles went by pretty quickly.

But there's a problem: shin splints. And get this, only when I run at Lake Elizabeth. I figure it's the concrete slabs that I'm running on that is the problem. When I run at the lake by my house, I never have problems. And I can't blame distance, as today I was hurting in the middle of mile 3. When I began to run on the sides (dirt, grass, etc) I noticed a difference. I also noticed it hurt more when I was on my walk breaks. Lovely. Any suggestions? I plan to run Lake Elizabeth at least once more before the race in October. Unless anyone has a nice marked trail that I can use for 12 miles?

Running at 6:45am is much better than 9am, especially with this heat wave. I was a bit nervous that it was early Sunday, but there were quite a few people already out there.

So now I'll be dragging butt all day. I tried to go catch an early nap, but my older boy wanted to join me. He's still sleeping (an hour and a half later!), and so are the other two. Damnit, why can't I take naps like everyone else? This happened yesterday too!

So yeah, anyone with advice or suggestions for shin splints please let me know. I should add that it's only my left leg.

Note to self: carry a camera while running...

... Why is it when I don't have a camera I see interesting things while running? So in the last month I've seen a turtle, many pelicans, and a dead Canadian goose in the water. As you can imagine, these things are not typical. Today, not only did I get to see a pelican a little bit closer (big suckers!), but there was a guy from the local NBC station doing a story about dead ducks in the lake. Interesting. He asked if I wanted to say anything in front of the camera. Let me think, I'm sweatin' like crazy, in a non-flattering outfit, all flushed from the heat. Sure! (not)

It's been hot lately. Damn hot. I ran anyways, though not as much as I would have liked. I hope it's not even close to this hot the day of the race. Yuck.

I'm planning on running 10 miles this Sunday morning. Anyone want to join me? Please???? You don't have to run/walk/jog with me the whole time. Could be every other lap, or something like that. Just something to help keep me going. I'm hoping to get out there by 6:30am (Lake Elizabeth). I thought I heard it would cooler by Sunday, but then I also heard today wasn't going to be hotter than yesterday (total lies!!!!!!!!!!!)

what day is it?

Monday holidays are both good and bad. Good: I'm not at work. Bad: it screws me up for the rest of the week!

Ran 4 miles yesterday. Oddly enough it was a bit tough. I think because I only ran once last week for my maintenance runs (instead of twice). That's the problem with heat waves, I won't run. Personally I think it does more damage with me than good.

But I'm moving forward.

lil punks!

damnitall... they don't tell you about the $5.95 PROCESSING FEE that goes with the $85 REGISTRATION FEE.... why oh why can't they just tell you that up front? Seriously, is it too much to ask for?





oh yeah, I finally registered for the ½ marathon.



wish me luck!

Will I make the commitment....?

I tend to lag on some things.... procrastinate is more like it. Once and a while I get a bug in me and actually do something on time. This is not one of those moments. I've been wanting to sign up for the San Jose Rock 'n' Roll Half Marathon for quite a while. Maybe since I heard of it 2 years ago? Yeah, sounds about right. Shall I back up a bit?

Two years ago I had the great fortune of training for and running a half marathon in San Francisco. I signed up with the AIDS Marathon for the training, and it was great. I never ran long distance before in my life. Well, except for the mandatory mile run in high school. But let's not talk about how long ago that was. The training was a commitment for 6 months, and it paid off in the end at 3 hours 16 minutes (and a run across the Golden Gate bridge and back). I heard of the SJ half marathon around that time and thought about continuing my training for a couple more months. But life takes turns in interesting ways, as it were. For those who aren't aware, I ran the SF Half Marathon while being 4 weeks pregnant with Ryan. And yes, I knew it 2 days beforehand. I was doing okay until I was about 6 or 7 weeks pregnant when all energy was zapped from my body. So running the SJ ½ Marathon was out of the question for 2006.

2007 was not any better. I had just gone back to work (after a lovely 5 months off, which felt like 6 weeks), and never had the time/energy/desire to run on a consistent basis. "Next year" is what I kept telling myself, while my running shoes continued to collect dust.

So now it's "next year" and I've been running again since the beginning of the summer. With the exception of heat waves (and camping), I've been doing fairly good with my weekday runs. My weekend 'long' runs have been okay. Could be better though. Last Sunday I got up to 8 miles at Lake Elizabeth... in the heat... None too pleasant, but I did pretty good. I see why iPods are popular!

But I haven't registered for the SJ ½ marathon yet. I say I'm going to do it. I've told a few people about it, hoping that will give me incentive to not look like a liar. I've even opened the website's registration page...

I will do it.

eventually...........

attempting to start

So this is my blog of my (short) half-marathon training. I've yet to sign up for the half-marathon in San Jose, but I plan to soon.

for now it's late, and the olympics are distracting...