New Year's - Here it Comes

Christmas. So far it's been build-up, but this is it. Time to focus so I am ready for this year’s resolution - to make it to Ironman. The ultimate goal. Why?

Wendy Ingraham and Sian Welch crawling across the finish line on their hands and knees, completely spent. When I googled the date, I was surprised to see that immortal moment was only 14 years ago. That means I was already 27, but in my head, it has been a life-long desire to see what if felt like to accomplish something of such magnitude. A desire that I had put in a box in the “in another life category.” Getting to the point of feeling I could actually do it in this life took knowing real people who had done what seemed impossible, that and a little perspective. Thanks Amy, the key to controlling my fear of the water. Jen and Melissa, the push that got me out on the first triathlon. And dude from Racine, for being a punk and doing Arizona. If he can do it, I can too, right? ….and so can Jen, the master of this evil plan.

half marathon is a start

I ran the McAllen half marathon last weekend. The toughest part of the race was that the entire course had maybe six people cheering. That's not six groups, that's six people. This is a good lesson in getting ready for some day doing a full iron -- you don't have spectators helping you along at 9 p.m. I gave myself permission to walk for awhile once I hit approximately half way mark - 7 miles, but at 7 miles, I still had energy so told myself no stopping other than at mile markers, but I swore I was going to stop at 8 miles. The distance between 7 and 7 1/2 miles seemed to take forever, with a turn around at 7 1/2 back to the 7 mile mark, which was also the 8 mile mark. Funny how going the same route twice makes it shorter, so while I was set on stopping at 8 miles, next mile mark was 9 miles. ..then my knee started to hurt. ok, 10, if i can just make 10 miles, my knee will hold, ouch, ouch, ouch.

When I saw the 10 mile mark, I did stop to shake out my knee - but 20 seconds into shaking my knee out, a woman with a disability says to me, "come on, keep going, and waived for me to run with her." oh boy, how could I not keep running with the woman with a disability was doing better than me. I ran with her, even though it was killing me. My knee hurt like heck -- note to self, I need to work on some knee strengthening before a longer race. I tried to chitchat with the woman to keep my mind off the pain, but she didn't really understand English. I don't know if other people are like me, but chatting when I'm hitting the done point helps me keep going. Inspiration by this woman was not enough and when we hit the 11 mile mark, I could not keep up anymore. Just then a guy that was a chatter came up to me and had some encouraging words. We chatted and cheered the rest of the way and made it to the finish line in under 2 hours. barely, but under two hours. Ouch, but I was done and the aching knees were worth making it under 2 hours. Not such a great pace, but good enough for second in my age group given it was south Texas.

New city, ready to go

I'm in my new city, new digs. No better time to get on the right track. I arrived on Saturday -- walked, yes only walked, 7 miles on Sunday, and afterward, joined the local gym. Crummy gym hours as it closes at 10 pm, but really, how often have I ever been at the gym after 10 pm even when I had 24 hour gym access? The real bummer is that the Sunday hours are 1-4 pm. Prime treadmill time is during NFL games - those hours just don't work, so I forked out the extra $20 a month to have access to gym 2, which opens at 9 on Sunday.

Monday I stepped it up ?? I ran three miles at a 7.6 tread mill setting. Hey, at least it was running rather than walking. So today I found the motivator -- signed up for a half marathon in two weeks. It'll hurt given how little I've been running this whole darn year. I kid myself that soccer is an equivalent substitute, but I so enjoyed it. No soccer leagues here -- seriously, south Texas and no soccer. sadly, true.

Today I'm off to the beach to do some running -- I do love this south Texas weather!