It's been a while since I've blogged, mainly because it's been a while since I've run! Right after the 4th of July we went on vacation to North Carolina. I was able to get in a run there in the 50% humidity instead of the 99% we are feeling right now. It was great except for the fact that North Carolina has hills, and a lot of them. I planned to run a 10K the morning I was able to get out and only got in a 5K because the of the number of hills and the way that they were affecting muscles that did not know what HILLS were.
"Putting on the outfit"
Anyway, I've since gotten a chance to go get officially fitted with some running shoes that help my over-pronation. Apparently my heel hits the ground and the inside of my ankle semi-buckles in (this is code for "I'm fat and have a lot of weight on these legs) so I needed some shoes that would combat that problem. I choose to get a line of shoes called Brooks which apparently after looking at my running club this last Saturday, are the running shoes of choice. I also scooped some really nice running shorts that don't hold in sweat as well as a running jersey that flushes away sweat as well. It's a pretty nice little get-up that I've purchased and I'm enjoying running with it.
"First Injury"
I got up this past Wednesday to get in a run early in the morning before I had to go teach Summer school. I had intended on running my traditional six miles but when I got about 2 miles or so in I took a rather nasty spill. If you see the chart above you notice where my pace just drops right in the middle, that is where I fell. It was early in the morning, around 6:15 AM so I got back up so that the oncoming cars wouldn't think someone was dead on the side of the road and I started for home. It's not very comfortable to run all scraped up. My arm and leg healed pretty quick, but it messed up my back for the rest of the week, not allowing me to have the chance to get a second run in before this Saturday's weekly run with the church group. In fact I didn't really know if I needed to go out on Saturday, but I was stubborn enough that I decided to do it anyway.
"Back on the Horse"
As you can see from this Saturday, I did go out, but I was very up and down. I needed to find a better hydration system for myself because carrying water hasn't really worked that well for me. Around the 2 mile marker there is a water fountain that most of our group stops for. I didn't stop this time, but know that in the future I'll probably make sure to do so. I did however drop frozen bottle of water at mile marker no. 4 and it made a difference. If you notice the chart, you can see where my pace starts to pick back up towards the end. I think my take away from this Saturday was to provide myself with a little bit more hydration prior to racing. It's not cheating myself out of a good prep prior to the Marathon because to my knowledge they have a water station at ever mile to a mile and a half on race day.
"A 5K Down"
I had the chance 2 Saturday's ago to run a 5K at Johnson Space Center with our family friend, Abby Maegar. This was her first 5K and my 4th. Abby had been doing the "Couch to 5K" program the past 8 weeks in preperation for this 5K. She completed the 5K and her husband, family, and Corrie and I were very proud of her. We are planning on doing a 10K later in the fall. I've yet to officially do one those although I basically run one every Saturday with the church. Here are some "pirated" pictures from my run and her run.
"No Exemption"
As I have probably mentioned before, the Houston Chevron Marathon this year will be doing a lottery in order to get a spot. I thought I had found a loophole by signing up with the Houston Area Road Runners Association and applying for one of their exemptions. They had over 500 Marathon Spots but gave out 450 spots today from a pool of 600 spots. I didn't have anything that made me stand out so I was basically looking for a bottom of the totem pole exemption here. I got an email a few minutes ago saying that I unfortunately did not have one of those exemptions and would have to go in the lottery here later this week when it opens up.
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