well…. I must first apologize for my hiatus. I haven’t been able to get myself to update on here. Everytime I think about it I tell myself that people don’t really want to know or care how many miles I’m running or what races I’m doing so I put it off. Today, I realized that this blog is for me to be able to look back at my running journey and see how far Ive come and if other people enjoy reading about it then thats even better.
Im in the thick of my marathon training. Im on week 8 of 18 and going strong ( check back after i hit the 20 mile long runs. I might be singing a different tune then). Usually I run around my neighborhood and have been averaging about 25-35 miles a week, but now my weekend long runs are getting longer so the weekly average is more like 35-45. Ive also been able to meet some fellow tsfm ambassadors for some runs.
Its been really fun meeting new local runners who are just as (crazy as I am as my friend puts it). The first meet up was at a thursday night run at sports basement in campbell. If you didn’t know they have free classes and on thursday nights they have a group of people who meet up to run. Some just like to run with other people, some are getting in training mileage for an upcoming race.
I met fellow ambassadors Becky and Erin there and we promoted the sf marathon and ran together. It was a hot one but fun meeting them for the first time. It was the first time i had met any other ambassadors. I also met Alisyn and Paulette (fellow ambassadors) for a run this last weekend . Alisyn is going to bunk with me marathon weekend so I thought it would be a good idea for us to meet each other first. It was a fun run and I did surprisingly well considering it was the day after my half marathon. I did go for a massage afterwards though.
Last weekend my long run was supposed to be 14 miles. I signed up to run the mermaid series half marathon that weekend so it was perfect. What can i say about the mermaid series runs.. they are fantabulous!. Last year was my first race with the mermaids and I did the 18 mile run and believe it or not I enjoyed it. I know i know … no one else except another crazy runner can understand enjoying running 18 miles but with this group its so much fun. The mermaid series is women only.. well men can run but they can’t win. I only saw two men running this year. The fellow runners are so supportive and encouraging to each other and cheer each other on while running. Its awesome to see the camaraderie. They also have the best running shirts out of all I’ve obtained so far, I find I run in theirs the most. Ok enough accolades about the mermaid series lets get back to the race.
It was the longest run I had done since the SF marathon last year. I think prior to this I got up to 12 miles. I know one more mile is not that much longer but when I run by myself I tend to run a bit slower and average 8:35-8:45 min miles and on races the adrenaline gets to me and I run a bit faster. This race I averaged 8:20-8:30 min miles, so my legs were a bit mad at me after this race but I had a good excuse to get my massage the next day. I know I know who NEEDS an excuse to get a massage.
I tend to pick someone ahead of me at the start and my goal at the end of the race is to finish before them. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t but its the little game I play with myself. I ran the race in 1:51. It was not my fastest half marathon but like I said I haven’t run a long race since the marathon last year. There were 300 women running the half marathon and I finished 23 out of 300. One day my goal is to come in first place in my age group. This is always a fun race and you get a cute necklace at the end (unfortunately they are not handed out by hunky firemen in tuxedos like the nike women’s marathon). I don’t know what race if any is next for me, aside from the SF marathon on July 27th but my training will continue and Ill keep up better on here.
Running Across America 