The Anti-Running Runner

Hot, humid, and had to walk. There's the pain I've been waiting for! Yes, it was a tough one. And I expected it to be hard, so that probably helped me in the long run. This vlog was taken last Friday during a nine miler with a little walking. Even though I intended to run ten, I'm still happy with my progress. The St. Pete Rock N Roll Half is several weeks away. I've got time to keep building. In Orlando over the weekend, I got to cheer for my cousin, Alyssa, and her roommie, Jenni. They did The Color Run 5K with some 10,000 other people. That would be A/J (my heroes) that I've blogged about many times. Love these girls. They described the race as extremely casual and fun. Many walkers, some joggers, and four color stations where they spray/cover you. Even more coloring at the after party (pic). I definitely want to do it next year. There's one in St. Pete that my friend Rachel did but the race was already full. I better sign up early. Next F...

If the horrible 8-miler I did the week before The Claw Run was an indicator of my finish time for the 10-mile race, I would have guessed a three-hour, sluggish, slow, and painful finish time. Praise God that wasn't the case and my time was a respectable two hours and nine minutes. Luckily, the adventure run took my fears away as soon as the horn sounded. My cousin, Alyssa, and I took off through the woods on a shaded path behind my hubby and Hea's boyfriend, Mike. They got ahead of us pretty quickly, but Alyssa stayed with me the whole time. The sad part was the fact that Hea of Team Hea and Bria had a knee injury and couldn't race with us. She was a trooper and still came to cheer. Two other friends, Robert and Russ, ran the 5 miles and did great. Robert was kind enough to drive us again this year. Alyssa and I raced through forest trails, open fields, up and down "hills" (he...

Every race is an adventure, but some more than others. I realize I have a lot of adventure stories from past races that I'd like to blog about sometime. Stay tuned for those. Last weekend, I ran the Miami Half Marathon with my dear cousin, Alyssa, and her friend, Jenni. Both of them ran the full marathon. Because the full and the half start together and stay together until mile 12.5, I only had to run the last half mile alone. While this wasn't my best half marathon (2:35), I always feel accomplished when I finish. I pray a lot during and I'm so grateful each time I cross another finish line. Alyssa, Jenni, and I chatted throughout, admiring the gorgeous waterfront scenery. This was the most beautiful marathon we'd ever done. The temp was around 71 degrees most of the race, and it was overcast, but also very humid. That made it challenging, along with the fact that I didn't sleep the night before! That doesn't normally happen to me. The adve...