My running/training pretty well mirrored my blogging leading up to the P.F. Chang's Rock n Roll Half Marathon in Phoenix. Little to none, to be exact. I think I ran maybe 6 times since my last post here. Yikes. Fortunately, I had all the elements in my favor on race day. (Yes, I was [half]crazy enough to still attempt to run a half marathon.) The weather was BEAUTIFUL, I ran in shorts and a t-shirt in January(!), I dropped from 5,600 feet altitude here in Chinle to around 1,100 feet in PHX. This one change probably was what honestly helped the most. And third, I had run 9 miles once and when I finished that I run, I KNEW that I could do 13.1. Friends, it sounds cliche and trite perhaps, but distance running is really truly 75% mental. If you can develop the mental fortitude and discipline to just keep moving, your body will learn to adapt.
I DID IT! Along with several great friends who live here on the compound, I RAN (no walking) my very first half marathon in 2:27:47! I am thrilled and humbled and totally hooked. It was a blast. I have plans laid for more races and hope to continue to share my journey with you. Even more exciting, is that my hubs has said he will run a Half with me in November! I am very much looking forward to sharing that experience with him.
There are lots of posts that I have "written" in my head for you that life has not allowed me to type and publish. So many lessons learned. I apologize for not being more diligent in both my training and in my writing. I do really enjoy sharing this with you. I have only run once since the race and it was a brutal 3 miles. I have many reasons (excuses) as to why I haven't been running or writing, but really what it boils down to is that neither has been a priority lately. I hope to change that, at least as much as is feasible as our lives gear up for another (hopefully) cross country move, back home.
I do want to shift gears and broaden the perspective a bit now that my first goal has been accomplished. I will continue to share my training and running stories with you, but I'd also like to expand this forum to include the nutritional and health journey I'm on. I have been doing lots of reading and my views on nutrition and optimum health have been shaken to the core. I am at a cross roads of sorts and need to decide the path I am going to take. If you'll have me, I'd like to return to "half crazy runner" and hopefully inform and perhaps even entertain you a little as I share glimpses into my half crazy life.
Happy Running!