We did it!!!

Half-marathon time: 2: 30: 16

Two posts in one day?? I must be scrambling to make a deadline or something! Honestly, the half marathon is in three days, and I wanted to catch up to the present in time to post about it!


The week after the 10-miler with my dad, I was still hurting. My hamstring would remind me whenever I took a step that he/she didn't like what I had done to him/her. (Why did I give my hamstring a gender? I ask you, why not?) My shins were improving, if still a little stiff.


Fast forward to the following Saturday. The training schedule advised only running 7 or 8 miles (nothing too strenuous a week before the race). My dad also told me to take it easy.


For whatever reason, I ignored their cautions and told myself that if I could run 10 miles in hilly SLO by myself, then I really could complete 13 miles the next Sunday in the half-marathon. It became my make it or break it moment of training. I took some Tylenol, drank some water, and took a pack of Goo Chomps with me.


I don't wear headphones while running- mainly because mine just flop out of my ears and I'm too cheap to buy replacements. This is good and bad: Good because I can hear oncoming traffic (cars, bikes, other runners, rabid dogs, etc.) but bad because I have no distraction from my exercise! I amuse myself by surveying the scenery, especially towards the halfway mark. I'll add a pic soon.


In the end, I made it. The Lord had created strong winds against me that day (literally, not figuratively) but He calmed them for me whenever I needed a break from the strain. It was a great day! I was very excited. Full of triumph, I declared to my husband that I would dominate the half-marathon next week!


Two days later, I attempted to do a light run (3 miles) on the track. I couldn't do more than two laps because my right ankle was giving me pain. WHAT THE HECK BODY?? Why do you break down so often?


It has been a day and a half since that attempt. Today I will try to run three miles again. This time, I think I will push myself even if it hurts a little. I need to do at least some cardio before this Sunday!

The half-marathon in SLO was rapidly approaching. On the weekend that a 9-mile training run was scheduled, Joe and I participated in a 5K with his family. I was very nervous, as I had never participated in any sort of competitive group run. I resolved that this would be a good warm-up for the half-marathon, and that it would get my nerves out of the way.

Oh. my. goodness. My first mistake was telling my husband that I had a goal-time in mind (34 minutes). He took off like a shot, weaving in and out of other runners, beckoning me to catch up and plowing the way ahead. I kept up for the first mile, but after that my strength began to flag and he had to slow down. I was NOT used to running at that pace! I had run 9 miles two days before, but not nearly as fast as we ran that 5K. My legs were burning and I was breathing heavily. At the sign that marked the beginning of the 2nd mile, I cried "What!?? We've only gone one mile?"

We beat my goal time, thanks to my darlingannoyinglyathletic husband. We completed the 5K (3.1 miles) in 30 minutes and 58 seconds. This was about a minute ahead of my mom-in-law, a minute-and-a-half ahead of my aunt-in-law, and three minutes in front of my father-in-law and sister-in-law. Joe was pretty proud of us (I'll admit that I was too!). 

My second mistake was not stretching thoroughly after the finish line. I suffered for it the following two weeks- I had either pulled or strained my left hamstring, and my shins were once again swollen.

I was so frustrated and worried at this point. The days leading up to the half-marathon were dwindling FAST, and I needed to get healed and keep training! I couldn't believe that once again, my body had turned against me. In Fresno, my main problem was asthma: we moved out of the dirty air to SLO, so problem solved! Instead of being great, my body just failed in a different way.

A week after the 5K was Easter weekend. Joe and I went home to spend time with our family, and I fearfully joined my dad for a 10-mile run that Saturday. I took Ibuprofen after breakfast, and he had me put a hot compress on my leg. Once it was warmed up, we took off. Thankfully, Fresno is a lot flatter than SLO. I was able to complete the run just fine, praise God.

Dad even said he noticed an improvement in my strength and endurance since the last time we had run together. Watch out half-marathon!

Like I said in my previous post, I was blessed with access to an outdoor rubber track on Cal Poly's campus. It is walking distance from our apartment, and rarely has more than three people on it whenever I go. Below is a picture of my husband and niece on the magic track.

Running on this track was like running on clouds compared to the pavement hills I was jogging on.  I took it easy at first, trying to run as gently as possible. (How in the world do you run gently??) Eventually, the cushy effects of the track were evident: I was HEALED, praise the Lord!


I cautiously began running on pavement again. We had reached the halfway point of the training schedule, and I was thrilled to accomplish a six-miler. Of course, after this great feat, Joe and I got extremely busy and I slacked off on the training. We went to Las Vegas with his family. I brought my gym clothes, fully intending to pound out seven miles on the treadmill in the hotel workout room. One mile in on Saturday morning, Joe calls me to come back as the family had risen early for breakfast. I was so discouraged. I had been doing so well with the track and the good habits, and in two weeks' time I had ruined it all.


The next weekend, we went home to Fresno and I was obliged to run the training schedule's allotted eight miles with my dad. Holy heart-attack Batman! During the last mile, oxygen was the only thing that kept me going. I had this surreal experience of "Okay, if I can just keep breathing, then I won't collapse. Air...I love you air."


This taught me something: Skimping on weekly runs is NOT WORTH THE AGONY come Saturday!

My new job in SLO is as an administrative assistant for an insurance company. This was my first exposure to the San Luis Obispo culture. I learned early on that I wasn't in Kansas anymore. 


Gluten-free? What is gluten? You guys don't drink soda? Why are you wearing exercise clothes when you get back from your lunch?


I had entered a whole new world, populated with health-conscious people. Their idea of take-out was a salad from the local health food store. One of my coworkers actually brought cauliflower rice to work for lunch. HAH. That was my response. Organic smorganic. I wasn't made to survive on leaves and vegetables I've never heard of. The exercising during lunch thing really spurred me on to start running again, however, and I quickly developed a habit of running three days a week on my lunch. I went from no exercise at all, to running three miles Monday, Wednesday, and Friday through hilly SLO countryside.


About two weeks in, I had to stop. Shin splints had returned with a vengeance. I felt like my legs were painful stilts that sent jarring, cutting pain shooting up my legs each step I took on my run. My husband urged me to take a week off to let them heal. I took this advice (probably what I should have done way back when I was hitting the gym with Taylor) and impatiently hung up my running shoes for a while. Right about this time, my dad proposed that he and I run a half-marathon in SLO in April. I considered it, and accepted his challenge. He wanted something to train for, and I wanted something to get me skinny.


After my shins had healed, I began running again, this time with a purpose and a training schedule. After about a week, I was in pain again. I cried to my husband "Why is this happening to me? This isn't fair!" For once in my life I actually had the DESIRE to run and exercise. Why wouldn't my body let me refine it?? Joe assured me that everything would turn out okay, that I just needed to take it easy and we would figure it out.


Then, when all seemed lost, God gave me a miracle in the form of a rubber track on the college campus down the street.

Post-wedding: Life is good. I'm freaking married to the love of my life! I get to kiss him whenever I want (if PDA was a disease, we were infected beyond recovery. Go ahead and gag.) and sleep in the same bed with him! Well, sleep is a strong word. More like toss and turn because there's a boy in my bed.

Hello, Hawaii honeymoon!

His grandparents own a condo on Maui, and they generously offered it to us for our honeymoon. It was a magical time. I felt/looked great, and had so much fun being in a bikini and not being ashamed of my body!


Leading up to our wedding, I had suspended work-outs due to time constraints. And of course I didn't work out on our honeymoon (unless you consider playing in the ocean a workout). Once we returned to "real life", it became obvious that I was in a no-work-out rut. As I had graduated from college, I could no longer use the Rec Center on campus. Fresno is HOT in the summer, usually hovering around 100 degrees. Taylor and I ran outside a few times in the "cool" of the evening (85 degrees does NOT feel cool when you are pounding the pavement) but it was hard to establish that habit.


A few weeks later, we moved to San Luis Obispo, CA for Joe's last year of college. I occupied myself with unpacking and crying over separation anxiety from my home. I did that for about four months. I gained all of my weight back, and then some I'm sure. I felt gross and lonely, but it was hard to feel motivated when I didn't have my cousin Taylor encouraging me.


In the fall, my dad and my sister ran a half-marathon in Fresno. I was so proud of them! I told myself I could never do that, though. 13 miles, you're crazy! Seeing them succeed inspired me, however, so I slowly started running again..