The Texas Half

Today I ran my first half marathon, the Texas Half.

It was a beautiful, unusually warm day on White Rock Lake... a lot warmer than it was 3 weeks ago for Too Cold to Hold. At the 8am gun, it was in the high 40s and getting warmer.

I started off feeling fine, but during the second mile my hamstrings began to tighten. At one point, I considered pulling up but ran through the tightness and by the third mile I was only feeling a burning in my legs. It was about this time that the course took us away from the lake and into a residential neighborhood. I kept up a 10:30 pace through mile 6 when the course brought us back to the edge of the lake.

It wasn't until mile 10 that I really started to feel drained. My pace slowed down significantly, but I refused to let anyone pass me. At this point I was in the back 1/3 of the race. In the last mile, I picked up the pace again and crossed the finish line at 2:24:45. I walked to one of the volunteers to have my chip removed then a Young Marine handed me my first finisher's medal. I beamed from ear to ear as I hung it around my neck and then walked (limped) up to the building for bagels and water.

Pictures will be posted soon!

Too Cold to Hold

Saturday was the Too Cold to Hold 15K sponsored by RunOn! I finished in a time of 1:35:36, my goal being to finish in under 100 minutes. Next up... the Texas Half-Marathon.

200!

It's was finals week at the University of North Texas so I have been a slacker on this blog... but not in my training program.

Last Sunday I broke the 200 mile mark


Total miles for the week: 24.26 (personal record)

Sunday's 200-mile-breaking long run:

A Good Week

Despite my Thanksgiving illness still affecting me, I put in my best week to date in my marathon training. It's been 8 days since I became very sick on Ohio before boarding my flight back to Dallas, and I am still having stomach issues, which interrupted today's 9 mile run.

School has also been kicking my ass. In two weeks we will be done for the semester, but I am having lots of late night sessions trying to finish up some projects.



Total miles for the week: 23.39

This Sunday's long run (with intermission):

UNT (Barely) Beats Div I-AA School

The Mean Green were on the field of battle this weekend, and in piss poor weather in Denton, TX (39 degrees, rain) the Mean Green squeaked by the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers 27-26. Now, some of you may not be surprised by this razor-thin victory, and quite frankly neither am I. Many have to ask if the Sun Belt is even a Div-IA school (hell, some of our STUDENTS don't even know).

Regardless, this season is nearing a merciful end this Saturday, as North Texas will take part in the final college football game to ever be played in the Orange Bowl.

Thanksgiving Runs

What a crappy week for running.

First, I had a tempo run scheduled for Thanksgiving morning... the same morning I was flying to West Virginia to visit family. I was late getting up, having slept until 4:00am, and only got half of my 6-mile run in before heading home to shower and head to the airport.

Then, I never made it to run Saturday morning because again I was late getting up and had to drive four hours to Columbus to catch my flight. Not that a run would have been a good idea... by the time I got to the airport I was puking and running a fever. And I puked on the flight.

On Sunday, my usual long run day, I was still sick so I just laid around the house and watched football.

Today I finally got my long run in, but all in all it was a very low week.

Total miles for the week: 12.59

This Monday's after-illness long run:

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