The Anti-Running Runner

At 6:30 AM on Jan 19th, hubby dropped Alyssa and I off at Coachman Park. A ride to and from any race is such a blessing. Alyssa and I have decided it's essential for a marathon. We don't recommend driving yourself if you don't have to. A side trip about my pre-race eating habits: I have finally learned what works best for me and my uber-tender running stomach. It tells me loud and clear what it does and doesn't like. The problem? During long runs when I haven't eaten the way my body wants me to, what I have often felt is motion sickness. At least, that's the closest thing I can compare it to. Once in the fall during a late evening run with Hea (18 miles), it felt like that creature from Alien was about to burst through my diaphragm. Mainly because I ate a sea salted almond around mile eight. Body rejected. It should've been an unsalted almond, but now I can't eat any type of almonds before or during a run. The other thing I've learned is tha

There are certain places where I love to run. Weedon Island Preserve is one of them. It's far enough away now that I don't often get to run there. Plus they don't allow dogs. Hubby and I decided to run there yesterday for about an hour. He knows the trails, luckily, because I would get extremely lost without him. The trail run is hubby's favorite type. I also love trail running. It's like an adventure. And Weedon is really pretty. My pace is much slower than hubby's, so he decided to make it more challenging for the first two miles. He filled a bag with forty pounds of sand. Then he put that bag in a backpack. Then he put that backpack on his back. Seriously, there is a 40 pound sandbag in his pack! Yes, hubby is hardcore. Those who know him will not be surprised by this. Me, on the other hand? I can barely carry myself during a run. So the first two miles, we were at my pace, but hubby kept up like a champ. And even sped up as we got

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