Adventures in Paradise

Read This in Morgan Freeman's Voice

Because I had an AWESOME race. I beat my previous time by 22 minutes and even beat my "stretch" goal time by six minutes. I thought a 15 PR was plenty to ask for, but after I PR'd my most recent half marathon by 15 minutes, I subtracted two more minutes from my goal. I know that doesn't sound like a lot, but it's a pretty huge jump at the end of the race. I could have finished sooner, but I stopped once to help a guy who fell right next to me, and once at Mile 15 to put a band-aid on a blister, under the assumption that the minutes I took to care for my foot would be shorter than the minutes I would lose limping at the end because my blisters had burst. I do need to think about new shoes, though.

The day was much warmer than last year, so I chose to run in a skirt and tank top (with arm warmers) and didn't really need the throw-away sweats that I bought for the morning. I wore them anyway, as did a lot of people, because I had bought them just for the purpose. Everything wearable that gets tossed at these races are collected, cleaned and donated to homeless shelters, so I bought new, warm sweats that I thought some woman would want to wear.

Sunrise was beautiful despite the fact that it feels like a two mile forced march from the metro to the actual starting line. At least I made it early enough to see the parachute jump.

I dislike most of the pictures that the Marathon Foto people took, so will not be spending the $$$ on that package. I might buy the single print of me at the Marine Corps Memorial because the selfie doesn't really cut it.

At least you can see the medal ribbon, though! And a friend did get a picture of me at about Mile 17, so I'm happy about that.

Not only did I run significantly faster this year, but I felt better afterwards. I only had moderate soreness for a couple of days and now I'm just sort of waiting for the joints to stop aching. It had better happen soon because I am running The Race to End Women's Cancer (caution:fundraising page linked), a local 5k in honor of my friends and family that have fought various cancers over the years.

My Plan for Today

Track Me!

All through last week I was feeling fine. The Army Tem-Miler was fun, especially since I took it easy. One good solid run to get rid of the chest cold followed by my last long run yesterday, which I did much faster than I'd intended.

I started with a group and dropped back around mile 2 because they were going faster than I like to start, and I needed to remove the fleece I'd started with. I caught up to a pair that had stopped to do the same around mile 4 and ran the last six with one of them. We actually stopped at mile 5 when the three of us met up with the two guys they'd been running with (turns out to be a husband and a friend of the pair I ran with) and we started up again after a short rest. That's not my preferred practice because I'm always afraid that I won't get started up again after I stop moving. Still, the guys left us behind around mile 6 and one of the women dropped back shortly after that. I kept trying to slow down to keep her with us because I felt like they'd have stayed together if I hadn't joined in, but the speedier runner just kept going, so I adjusted and kept up. I did NOT plan to be running 9 minute miles, but that's what we did. Mind you, the route we ran is five miles uphill and the five miles downhill. The profile looks sort of like the Little Prince's drawing of a snake eating an elephant.

Anyway, even though I was going much faster than I'd planned, I managed to have a full-on conversation the whole time. Turns out my partner grew up a Navy brat and she was living in the Bay Area for part of the time I was living there. Her dad worked at the Naval Station that shared space with the NASA installation where my mom worked. How funny is that?

But now I'm getting butterflies. Big butterflies. I worry that I've heaped my expectations too high. I ran last year in 5 hours and 15 minutes, which is SLOW, but beat all the max allowable times by more than an hour. I want to run this race in under 5 hours, which is a 15 minute reduction in time. I beat my half marathon record by 15 minutes in September at the Navy Air Force Half Marathon, so I know I can do it - but can I sustain it for a full 26.2 miles? Argh.

Anyway - track me via this link : Runner Broadcast Service

My bib number is 13970.

So that there's not a photo-less post, here's the dog I'm currently fostering, Leo. I said I wasn't going to foster until after the race, but I'm a sucker and it's getting cold in DC, so the boarding facility we use that only has outdoor kennels is closing in the next couple of weeks. So, we need to get pups into foster.

Leo is about 40 lbs, hound mix, and as my dog walker calls him a "gentle giant". As long as he gets along with Harvey, he gets to stay.

The Marines keep e-mailing me like I have a marathon to run in 8 days or so. They're right, of course, but I'm not sure I apprecaite the reminder as I hack my way out of a chest cold. Better last week than next, though. I managed to run the Army Ten Miler on Sunday at nowhere near my best pace, but I spent a lot of time finding places to clear my lungs of the gunk that I was coughing up. (Pretty picture, eh? Welcome to distance running where discussion of bodily fluids seems to be inevitible.) I did a couple of trapeze lessons during the week, but hadn't made it out to run, even what has been my habitual run to work on Wednesdays thanks to a days-long deluge. So, I hauled myself out midday yesterday for a six mile run. It's finally cool enough most days to run in the afternoon again. I'll probably still do some early mornings, but daytime gives you neat views, like this one on my way back to the Pentagon.

I'm a Bad Blogger

But everyone has already figured that out. Right now I feel more over-scheduled than a high school junior who has just figured out she needs to pad her resume if she wants to get accepted to a good school. There's work, of course. That's pretty much 7:30 - 5:00 on weekdays.

Then there's volunteering - I open the community dog park twice a week, but since I do that on my morning walk, it's not really a big deal. There are, of course, the dogs themselves, since I am still fostering. My most recent pups:

Heidi was very short-term - I picked her up on Thursday afternoon and she went home with a new (pre-approved, we don't do same day adoptions,) family on Saturday afternoon. She is a big girl - about 65 lbs and needed to gain 10-15. We think Aussie mixed with a guardian dog-type like Anatolian Shepherd. Wonderful girl.

And this is Brie. She stayed with me for almost two months. Niko adored her, but then, my Niko has never met a dog he didn't like. Brie went to a home with a Stay-at-Home-Mom, a 5 year old, and a deaf canine brother - one reason she was picked is that she's so good at coming when called that she cues her new brother to come - when you live on a four acre farm, that's important! (Also, does that sound like the greatest life ever for a high energy dog, or what?)

I'm foster dog free for the moment, because there's the non-volunteer aspects of my life taking precedence right now. For one thing, the Marine Corps Marathon is ten(!) days away.

 

 The weekend of my longest scheduled run was, predictably, while I was supposed to be away on travel. So, I made the best of it and ran 21 miles along Sydney Harbor. (This was a work trip, did I mention that my life, busy as it is, does not suck?) For real, I could retire to Australia.

Last weekend was the Army Ten Miler, which I did with a cold I caught in Australia, and so was not the best 10 miler I've had. But that's okay, because I'm supposed to be backing down a little. This Sunday is a 12 mile run, and then the big one. And ten weeks after that (give or take)...the Goofy Challenge at Disney World. That would be a half marathon on Saturday followed by the full marathon on Sunday. No, I don't know why I thought this was a good idea either.

There's trapeze (and other circus fitness stuff), Zip Zap Circus (more volunteering), travel and yeah... I need a vacation. Knitting - did a bunch on the multiple-day spanning airline trips but it was hours of stockinette in 4 ply yarn, so there's actually not much to show for it. I'm starting to think this may need to become a non-knitting blog if it's going to stay in business. For instance, I take some really cool pics when I run...