Thursday, July 14, 2011

Catching Up

My apologies for the severe lack in blog posts lately. I have not forgotten about the blog, I just have not felt particularly inspired to write. The past couple weeks have been pretty non-eventful. I finished my job with the Ft. Worth Symphony (hurray!!). That last weekend was pretty crazy - I worked five days in a row, and I was exhausted by the time it was over!! It's amazing how quickly the heat will drain you.

WARNING - This is likely to be a very long post...either that, I will just restrain myself and break it up over the next day or two. :)

Last weekend, I crashed and burned at a race. It was only a 5K, too. :( I signed up for a race to help myself get motivated to keep running. Plus, it was a glow-in-the-dark race. I feel like I run better at night, and who doesn't love glow sticks???



Training went well - I used one of AnnaGrace's three gym memberships, and felt great on the treadmill. The Sunday before the race, I ran 5 miles at an easy pace without any problems. I was determined to break 30 minutes this time and set a new PR.

Before the race, when life was good, and my pride was still intact.
The course was great - we were out on a buffalo ranch, and it was an adorable setting!! The race was a small, local affair, but that just added to the charm. Since we were running in the pasture, we were warned to watch out for buffalo chips on the course. :)

This sign makes me laugh.
Race day, however, was a completely different story. I put AnnaGrace in charge of pacing me so that I wouldn't be constantly looking at the time and miles tick by. By the end of mile 1, I was not feeling great. What started out as one side stitch turned into two, and finally, full-blown stomach cramps. I have never felt so awful on a run. I ended up stopping to walk...and then pulling back to an even slower walk.  Tons of runners passed me - the most humiliating feeling ever!! Every time someone went past, I wanted to explain that this was completely abnormal, and I'm really NOT that badly out of shape. :) Talk about a wound to the ego. Thankfully, my faithful pace-keeper did not leave me in her dust, and stayed by my side to ensure that I made it out the pasture (THANK YOU AnnaGrace!!!). :)

I ended up being able to get back into a jog/run for the last mile or so, and finished in 31:35. Not bad, considering that my second mile was at a pace of 14 minutes.

After, still alive. :)
Well, I changed my mind...I'm helping out with VBS this week (more on that later!), and I am whooped. Off to get some rest before the last day tomorrow!!

No comments:

Post a Comment