dawson's running history

I am so excited that I was finally able to reach my goal of a sub 2 hour half marathon finish!  There were a few points in the race where I was not sure I was going to make it in time.  One thing that I was confused at was the fact that by the time I crossed the finish line, the Garmin said I had gone almost a full third of a mile farther than I should have.  I know they had to change the course because of a fire up the canyon, but that seemed like a big discrepancy.  After I finished, I walked back through the course until I met up with my wife and her sister.  (It was their first, and my wife says last half marathon for them).  They were both doing awesome!  I ran alongside them to help motivate them (but my legs were screaming at me the whole time to stop).  We had some friends that ran it too, along with some of their family members.  Everyone did an awesome job and I think it was a great experience!

Like I said in my post from August 27th, I am looking through my Garmin and going backwards to post some of myu runs, so I have no memories that really stand out for this run.

So, although the Garmin has this logged as an 18-mile run, I was completely out of energy (and willpower), so I walked almost the entire last two miles so I am only counting it as 16.  I did not get up early enough and so the sun met me with still at least 7 miles to go.  Also, I had not done too much hill training up to this point, so the downhill pounding on my legs and knees killed me.  This run definitely goes in my top 10 list of crappy runs!

Although I tried the same exact run last week with less than optimal results, I got it into my head that this was going to be a better experience.  I got up almost a full hour earlier, and I got up to the gas station and was all stretched and ready to go about 45 minutes earlier than last Monday.  The other thing that I had going for me was the clouds in the Eastern sky.  They delayed the sun rising just enough so that I was litterally walking up my driveway when I finally saw the sun peek out.  I think that is what saved me!  Other than walking to drink or take some GU, I was able to run the entire distance (ok, Veyo hill still got to me a little).  I felt pretty good after I gfot home.  But, because I had to run errands all day and not get in a good nap or at least some down time off of myu feet, my left knee really started to hurt.  By the time I was ready for bed, I had to put an ice pack on it, which seemed to ease the pain a bit.

This was a run on the treadmill.  I tried something different to vary the speed as I went along.  If nothing else, it kept my mind occupied while I was constantly adjusting the speed up and down.

So, it has been a long time since I have even logged on.  It's not that I have not been running, it just seems to slip my mind.  I will try to fill in the gaps in the past few weeks where I can, mostly using whatever runs I did outside so I can look at my garmin.  Today was a good, easy run with Tim on the 4-mile loop from Albertson's.  I got some great advise from him, so I am really glad I was able to pull my head off of the pillow this morning.