The Anti-Running Runner

Today I wanted to run to the beach. It's a treat for me, but there's a cost. Ten miles. And I don't get to end at the beach, that's just the halfway point. But I love running to the water. There's just something about it. And most of the route (miles two through eight) is really beautiful. This morning I left around six thirty. Not early enough. It was soooo hot and humid already. I knew from the first mile that the run would be a challenge to finish, and that I'd end up walking some of it. Things I should've done differently: ~Gone to bed earlier last night ~Woken up earlier this morning ~Drank more water yesterday On Tuesday, I got up intending to run about four miles, and ended up doing seven. NOT normal for me. But some kind of fluke cold(er) front had settled over St. Pete. The cloud cover kept me from getting any direct beatings from the sun (not the case today). I thought this was probably the last cool day I'd have for a while. I sho...

Verse speaking to me: 1 Corinthians 9:26 Song speaking to me: Starálfur by Sigur Rós Today, the goal was twelve miles after work. My last twelve before St. Pete Rock N Roll Half. Thursday is not my early day, so hubby asked me to be careful running downtown. Inevitably, it would be dark when I finished. I estimated 7pm so he'd have an idea when to expect the call with a panting, "dun." He's got good reason for concern, as you will see later in the post. I don't even know if I can describe what happened. The entire experience was surreal. I started out kinda fast for me. Then I thought, just go with it. Maybe you can finish quicker, less running in the dark. If not, whatever. I'd slow down when I needed to. The weird thing is, I didn't need to. It was almost out-of-body, but not quite. I felt the visceral experience that is a runner's high, and I LIKED IT. Even when I got home, it didn't go away. So naturally, I made a video of my runner...

No, I'm not referring to the Honey Bucket visits from the last post. Horrible runs meaning extremely difficult jogs. My last few runs (a six and a couple eights with shorter distances thrown in there) have been quite challenging. I blame the heat (seriously, it is KILLER here), but I also blame my lack of talent as a runner. And my inability to get up early. I don't have "it" like some people do. But that's okay. It's not a complaint. I do have perseverance, so that's in my favor. But getting back up to higher mileage is such an ordeal for me. As a 10-12-minute miler, it takes a long time for me to get some of these runs done. I guess this is one of the reasons why I'm the Anti-Running Runner. While in Georgia meeting my new niece (!!!) I got a chance to run in my sister's neighborhood two weekends in a row. I've mentioned before how much I love running there. Here I am doing one loop around her neighborhood (about 4 miles). It was ho...

Technically, tomorrow is New Year's Day, but I thought I'd wish everyone a Happy New Year today since I'm here. I had a poll question in December about how holiday treats affects you and your running. I must admit, I didn't expect to run as little in December as I did, or to eat as many goodies. I also wrote a lot less than I had planned. On Writing For The Love (my writing blog), I revealed my plan to try writing 50,000 words in December just to see if I could. I didn't participate in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) and thought, why not try it on my own and just see? December was not the best month to pick, but I did manage to write about 11,000 words and that's nothing to be ashamed of. As for running, I took a two-week break somewhere mid-December. It wasn't my intention to do so, but something amazing happened. I relaxed, I got some of those 11,000 words written, and I came back ready to run on Christmas Eve morning with my amazing runner ...

My family ran the Turkey Trot in Clearwater Thanksgiving morning, and we had such a great time. Alyssa, my hubby, and I ran the 10K while the rest of the fam ran/walked the 5K. We also ran with Hea and a friend from high school, Karol. The Thanksgiving meal was even better after burning all those calories and making room for all the food. If you've never done a Turkey Trot, I hope you'll consider doing it next year. Makes for a great start to the day. And I'm certainly thankful that God has given me the ability to run and be healthy. But more importantly, I'm thankful for what Jesus did for me when he died on the cross and of course for my wonderful and amazing hubby.

I love the feeling of finishing a race no matter what the distance. Every race is an accomplishment. There is no such thing as "just a 5K" or "just a half" or "just an insert race distance. " All races from 1K to 100 miles are difficult in their own way, though I personally will never know the difficulty of a race beyond 26.2 miles. My cousin, Alyssa, my best friend, Hea, and I ran the Women's Half Marathon yesterday. The race began at 7am amongst a crowd of 10,000 women. Right when the race started, Hea and I almost lost my cousin because she was in the eternal bathroom line. Luckily, she is a speedy girl and caught up to us about five minutes after the horn sent us all off. The pictures were taken by our good friend, Jeremy Carlson, who spotted us along the route several times. Thanks, J.J.! The downtown waterfront in St. Pete is a scene I know so well. We traveled past the Vinoy toward Snell Isle Bridge, made our way ...