big weekend

Not much to report from me. I’ve taken to wearing shoes all of the time, from the minute I get out of bed until I get back into bed, and it seems like it’s helping to get rid of my foot pain. The second my foot goes into a pair of Vans to check the mail, though, it’s back. I ran about 33-34 miles last week, averaging slightly shorter runs than usual.

On Saturday, I ran the Marigold 10K. 10K is a weird distance; not a long run, sure, but not short enough to feel very, you know, short. It definitely did not feel short on Saturday. In the interest of full disclosure, I stayed up until about 12:30am the night before and drank two glasses of wine (with ice – hydration!). When I woke up ten minutes before the alarm went off, I actually felt pretty good and made it over to Winterville to register with plenty of time to spare. It was cool, a little breezy, nice. And then as the clock clicked from 7:59am to 8:00am, it was humid, muggy, and hot as heck. That’s a small exaggeration, but I definitely got there early enough to go from reasonable morning weather to typical Georgia weather. I ended up with a time of 56:24, almost three and a half minutes slower than my last 10K which was run on a much hillier course. A couple of things could be to blame. Let’s start with the reasonable:

- Staying up late.
- Drinking alcohol.
- Not running as much as I was a month or two ago.

And move on to the plausible:

- Course was flat. Yes, that is super, but usually when I run outside, I run on some hills. I’m not terribly slow running up hills unless they’re particularly long or daunting (say I from the comfort of my couch and air conditioned house), so I don’t think I lose a lot of speed there. But I do like to charge downhills and it never really bothers my legs, so maybe I am used to picking up some speed on the downhills to make up for an overall slower pace on flats and uphills. I’m using the terms “slow,” “speed,” and “charge” in a relative manner, by the way.
- Water. I drink a freaking ton of water on outdoor runs and should probably have carried some with me since I’m used to drinking regularly. Drinking out of the paper cup doesn’t do it for me and I usually just chuck most of it for fear of chugging and cramping. I think drinking water also gives me another distraction to think about. And distraction is important to me.

There’s probably a “not freaking likely” list of factors to blame, but a couple of days out of the race and I can’t remember them. I went home, worked, tried to nap, and then headed to Atlanta to play some derb in a bout benefiting the Shriners. It was fun and my team won. Technically, I should reverse that order and say that my team won, so it was fun. Not going to lie, I was going to be pretty bummed about losing after feeling like I bombed once already that morning. I was game MVP for my team, as chosen by the opposing team, and that’s always a really nice compliment.

Yesterday, we “kayaked” the Broad River all day. Kayaking is in quotes because it’s more like floating and drinking beer, but the water level was low (26″) so we had to expend a little more effort than usual to avoid getting stuck on rocks, sand, etc. I wore sunscreen and reapplied, but still ended up with a gnarly sunburn on my back, legs, and feet. Brian got it really badly, too, and he used two kinds of sunscreen. Neither too effective, apparently. We spent the rest of the evening laying on the couch trying to recover from that. I haven’t been brave enough yet to try to get into some running clothes without causing major physical harm to myself, but I should probably get on that. Next up, Peachtree Road Race this Saturday. I’m not a big fan of crowds, so this one will be a little nutty.

catching up

Oh, I have been remiss in my posting. You know when you put off doing something and then it starts feeling a little daunting to catch up? Yep. I could post, but then I’d have to catch up on what I’ve been running, which I’ve been less than faithful in recording. I went on vacation (sort of) to visit two of my brothers in Texas (Houston and Dallas) for a little over a week back in May (edit: I originally wrote June, which tells you how on top of things I am right now). I didn’t get much running in while in Houston because we were helping them move and also, it’s so unpleasantly humid there. I barely went outside and even in the evening, it was a little unbearable for me. They live in a massive, very planned neighborhood with tons of sidewalks, so when I actually did run, it was pretty nice.

The weather in Dallas was still hot, but much less humid, more breezes, and generally more agreeable to me. I ran a decent amount there. My brother’s house is in more of an in-town area there that reminded me a little of Virginia Highlands or similar neighborhoods in Atlanta. The older sidewalks were kind of treacherous and buckled in most places; can I count that as a trail run? One day, I ran about three miles over to White Rock Lake, home of the Dallas White Rock Lake Marathon. I didn’t run the whole thing (not even close) because I knew I still had to run home with no choice of bailing because I didn’t bring my phone. It was a Saturday and the park was packed, mostly with cyclists. Really “cyclists,” not just people on bikes. People on bikes in the funny outfits and with all the gear. It was a really nice park and made me jealous that we don’t have a big rec area like that here.

Other than that, not much happening besides battling a little foot trouble. I started on a new pair of shoes this week, which has been helping, but generally can’t seem to go without shoes or wear unsupportive shoes for more than five to ten minutes without feeling some pain in my left foot. I ran 7 miles on the treadmill two times this week with no big problems, after taking last week off from running (just used the elliptical and ran two miles once with some issues). Complaints, complaints. A week off from running means a LOT of mental effort to keep my feet moving this week. Maybe one more treadmill run and then I will take my wimpy feet back to the streets. Races on the horizon are the Marigold 10K in Winterville, GA on June 27th and then the Peachtree Road Race in Atlanta on July 4th. I am trying to be slightly pushy with myself so I can run well at these, though I’m less worried about the Peachtree because it’s huge and I imagine will be a big exercise in dodging walkers. I didn’t have a 10K time to submit for seeding at the time (my time from Hartwell was 53:05, which would put me in 1B, in the first wave of starts at 7:30am). I’m a little confused how they assign time groups because the website says to include any times to aid in placing you in a group, but the packet also says people are randomly distributed with the exception of people who declared themselves walkers or casual runners, who are in the last group that I believe starts at 9am. I’m in time group two, the second wave which starts at 7:36am. So I’m not sure if my half marathon time was considered or I’m just lucky; I know of people with slow times who ended up in better time groups than would be warranted, so I’m guessing luck helped at least a bit. Either way, I’m happy that I don’t have to wait in the heat and run later in the heat. And if I decide to sign up next year, I already have a fast enough time under my belt for the first start, unless times change.

In non-running news, I’m taking the last class for my dietetics program (anatomy) and trying to figure out what I will be doing in about a month when I graduate. I was accepted into the two grad programs I applied to (University of Georgia and Georgia State University), but am honestly not super jazzed about spending another two years in school. I’ve applied for a couple of jobs, but it’s tough without an RD.