Friday, August 31, 2012

It's tomorrow!

I've probably started 20-30 different posts over the last 3ish weeks but never found the time or patience to sit down and finish one. Oh well.

In less than 18 hours, I'll be running my first half marathon. My emotions are all over the place right now. I'm nervous, excited, and everything in-between. I've been watching the weather forecasts like a hawk for the past week, but nobody can agree on what's going to happen because of the remnants of Isaac ... jerk. And it changes every 3 or 4 hours. I'm still not 100% sure what I'm going to wear, either. I'll probably change my mind at least a dozen times between now and when I leave for BG in the morning.

And after the race, I'll come home and shower quick, watch the beginning of the Ohio State football game (GO BUCKS), and finish packing. Then I get to drive 2ish hours to Ft Wayne, IN to celebrate a good friend's wedding! I can't wait to see S! I'm not COMPLETELY crazy, though. I already have a  hotel room reserved where the reception is for Saturday night. After the party, I'm going upstairs and collapsing on the king-size bed and hopefully sleeping better than I have in a long time. I may even have a friend coming down to stay with me for the night and hang out. I haven't seen them in a long time so it'd be nice to catch up ... especially in these swanky hotel rooms! :)

Maybe I'll even be making an extra stop somewhere in IN on my way home? Visit a friend or 2? We shall see.

Next post will probably be a ton of pictures ... and maybe an August wrap up ... and hopefully some jumping up and down excited-ness was well. Send some positive and encouraging thoughts my way, please! :)

Thursday, August 2, 2012

Garbage Truck Run. And July Recap ... Sort Of.

One month (minus 1 day) until my first half marathon. I go through phases of freaking out and calm confidence in my training.

I decided I needed to run in the morning yesterday since I suspected my day was going to get a bit hectic (I was right). While I didn't get up QUITE early enough to beat the sun (darn thing popped up between my 2nd and 3rd snooze alarms), it was still pretty cool out. Well, at least it wasn't in the 90s. I had mapped out a 5-mile loop of local roads and was pretty comfortable with my choice until I made it up to Eber and saw the line-up of garbage cans on the same side of the road as I was running. Oh boy. I hadn't even gone a half mile before I could smell the garbage truck and then was able to see it after another couple of driveways. I'm not even joking, I almost threw up! And who knew the smell LINGERS 3-4 driveways beyond the truck? Yuck! I was glad to be past it and didn't really think about it again until I turned the corner back onto W-S and heading the last 1.5 miles home ... cue the dramatic music. More garbage cans. And the same truck heading towards me. The driver must have thought it was hilarious because he smiled and waved as I ran by on the other side of the road, VISIBLY dry-heaving. If I could have held my breath without passing out, I would have. Anyway, I ended up running just over 5.5 miles in an hour.

The BEST part of the run was when I got home. Mom had been so caught up on what she was doing that she didn't realize I had been gone a whole hour! lol

Yesterday was another dr's appointment for mom as well. As always, I didn't go past the waiting room [Anyone remember the story of how I almost passed out when they removed the cast on my hand after the first surgery? Yea.] so you'll just have to take mom's word for it. The dr took out all stitches on both feet and MAY consider taking out the pins next week. A week early. We'll see. I remember how many times my surgeon told me "we'll take out the pins in your finger next visit" before it actually happened.

There isn't much to say about July. I ran almost 83 miles which makes it my 2nd highest mileage month after June. I didn't run any races but I DID get semi-serious about biking again and managed to complete 2-in-a-row double-sport PDR weekends. Oh, and I turned 26 ... which doesn't feel any different than 25, except I feel a tiny bit worse for still being where I am in life ... which brings me to ...

My weekend blogging is about to get even worse. I apologize in advance. Something has happened and it's about to kill my Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays for the foreseeable future. It's nothing BAD, just a necessary side-step in getting where I want to go in life. Money makes the world go 'round and I'm tired of not having any. I just need to figure out how I'm going to make this work with my running. :-/