Sunday, September 16, 2012

2 more weeks... and something scary :-/

2 weeks from today I will be running my first half marathon - aka my first race EVER!

I'm sooooooooooo excited and only a little nervous... ok let's be honest, I'm freaking out a little inside EVERY DAY haha! This whole "taper" part of my schedule also has me freaking out a little. Are you sure I shouldn't be running more?! ahhhh! We ran our scheduled 7 miler this morning which was GREAT because it was in the low 60s when we headed out - just beautiful Fall weather for a nice long run! I was able to keep the pace, with my walking breaks included, around 11min/mile so I'm pretty happy with that. (Don't judge me you cheetahs... even turtles like to race :))
I tried to run 12-15 min segments this time instead of doing 10 min run/ 1 min walk and I think that went really well even tho we ran so long. Nothing hurt other than my knee feeling a little weird at the end like it has been lately but no pain which is good!
1 more training Saturday until "the real deal" ahhhhhhhhhhhh so close!!

Now for the scary thing...

We ran 1 mile to our normal path that goes partially into the state park but more on roads by it, not on the trails. Mind you, this is right by university dorms and a big hotel and neighborhoods - not out in the middle of nowhere. When we got over there a runner ahead of us was talking to someone in a car and when we got up there he informed us that the road is blocked off by the police. Apparently the search dogs found a body back there in the wooded area! O my gosh! So sad and so scary! We live in a college town - things like that usually don't happen around our area. Definitely freaked us out a little and made me glad that I NEVER go jogging by myself anymore!!

... so we made a detour and got in 7 miles by an alternate course and had a lovely run but wow - definitely not what we expected to encounter leaving our house this morning! The alternate course didn't have the steep hills our normal course does but it had some pretty long inclines so I think it was really good training anyway. No clue what to expect in PA in 2 weeks so whether we encounter steep hills or long inclines up, I feel a LITTLE prepared... better than nothing anyway ;-)

Hopefully everyone is having a wonderful and relaxing and most importantly SAFE weekend!

1 comment:

Elizabeth said...

You are going to do great! One piece of unsolicited advice :) Drive the course before you run it. I don't know if you are going up the night before or anything, but I finally did this on the last 5K I ran and I couldn't believe the difference it made mentally. Just knowing where and when the hills are totally helped me.