As Promised - Day One

My wife and I arrived in Austin on Friday, February 16th around 11:30 am - of course we had to get up at at 4:30 to catch the early flight. This was one day that we were helped by a delayed flight. Parking was tough because of the big snow storm we had prior to leaving. We had 21 inches on snow on the Wednesday prior to leaving. It was really kind of cool - we have not had a good size snow storm in a while.
When we landed in Dallas, which was our connecting airport, it was 30, when we got to Austin it was 40. We were hoping to get to a little warmer client. My mom lives in Georgetown, so we got our car and started in that direction. It was at this point that Yahoo maps proved wrong so we took a little detour while trying to get to our destination. Took mom to Chili's for a nice lunch (only had to get on two business calls while at lunch) and then had a nice visit at her place. My brother also lives in Georgtown so we drove over and settled in for the night.We had a great time eating a little Italian food and getting caught up. Got to bed pretty early since we had been up for so long. Ended up getting a pretty good nights sleep. It is always a treat to get to visit the family in Georgetown, it seems as though we just start where we left off. As you can see in the picture, it ended up being a really nice day, the temp went up to 65, so my hopes were raised that race day would be warm.
I decided to stop taking my muscle relaxers on Friday so that I could have some time to detox - they were starting to make me feel a little groggy all day. I was hoping that this with some walking would loosen my back up a bit. It seemed to be working. When I woke up on Saturday, I was sure that I was going to run the race - I was not sure I was going to be able to finish though. More about Saturday in the next post.

The Run is Done

I have waited nearly a week to talk about my first half marathon, there is so much to write about that I needed time for it to soak in. The most important thing was that I finished, not with the time I wanted but I am happy with the result based on some of the factors. My official time was 2:43:00, 12:27 pace. I was hoping to run at a 11:30 pace of better which is where my training times were coming in. Do not read this as being unhappy though, I was so excited to cross the finish line, even as I type these words tears come to my eyes. The hours of training are all worth it when you cross that finish line.
I want to really tell the story of this journey in a series of post, starting with the day we arrived in Austin. With that I will start there with my next post. On a final note for this post though, this was one of the most exciting and rewarding things I have ever done. There is a closeness to God when I run and there were many times during the race when he provided me with the strength to finish. (Not to mention my wife who was there all the way with me)

A Week Away

Well it is a week (and a day) from race day. As one might expect things have not gone as smoothly as I would have hoped. Last week I ran outside for the first time in a while, nice easy 4 miler to the Y and then a mile on the treadmill to get 5 in. Then I put a little speed on for about a 10th of a mile to burn off a little lactic acid. Pretty sure I extended a back muscle a bit too much. Started hurting the next morning. I thought it would go away, ended up going to the doctor on Thursday and got some muscle relaxers. Have been taking them for a couple of days and they seem to be helping. I also got a little cold to top it off so I have some meds for that as well. I am confident that all will start to get back to normal early this week. I had hoped to be able to get some light runs in this week to keep loose. Regardless, I should be able to make the race. It will be nice to run in warm weather again. It has been wicked here for the past three weeks. We are not getting above 20 and it is windy and snowy at time. Of course it is nothing like the weather in the snow belt. They have seen 100 inches of snow in some places over the last 3 weeks. THAT IS A LOT OF SNOW BY ANY MEASURE!

I did get my bib number for the race - it is H1269 - you can go to the following link at any time after the race to get the times and updates. http://onlineraceresults.com/event/view_event.php?event_id=1466.

OK now for a really amazing story. When I was doing an 8 mile tempo run at the Y a couple of weeks ago I noticed a young lady and her husband running on a couple of tread mills, you could tell they were training for something because she had her GU packets. When she was finished I asked if she was training for a race and she said she was training for a half marathon. I asked where she was going to run and she said Austin. What do you think that odds are of that. Well it gets even more odd. I said I was running in that race as well and then I told her I was going to run in Atlanta in March - she said she had just signed up for that one as well. Her husband was going to run the Marathons as both. We have since exchanged mail notes and will hopefully catch up at the races.

I just put my play list together for the race and it includes a little bit of everything. Here is the list.
In The Secret - Mercy Me
The Reason - Hoobastank
The Feel Good Drag - Anberlin
ThE BEST SONG IN THE WORLD - Mandy Moore
Chasing Cars - Snow Patrol
I Ran (So Far Away) - A Flock of Seagulls
Someday We'll Know - Mandy Moore and some guy
Breakaway - Kelly Clarkson
Takeoffs And Landings - The Ataris
03 Misc - _0729134216 - Vertical Horizon
Speak To Me/Breathe - Pink Floyd
On The Run - Pink Floyd
Time - Pink Floyd
The Great Gig In The Sky - Pink Floyd
Money - Pink Floyd
Us And Them - Pink Floyd
Fever - Michael Bublé
Kissing A Fool - Michael Bublé
How Can You Mend A Broken Heart - Michael Bublé
Crazy Little Thing Called Love - Michael Bublé
Sway - Michael Bublé
Progeny - Hans Zimmer & Lisa Gerrard
The Wheat - Hans Zimmer & Lisa Gerrard
The Battle - Hans Zimmer & Lisa Gerrard
Telephone Line - Electric Light Orchestra
Out of My Heart - BBMak
Track 07 - Evanescence
Head On Collision - New Found Glory
Down In Flames - Relient K
In the Cold - Acceptance
U Make Me Better - Bo Bice
Homesick - Mercy Me

I wanted to have some faster music for the first 3 - 4 miles, then a little Pink Flloyd Dark Side of the Moon to settle into the next 3 miles. Michael Buble is great for the mid point of the race, it is uplifting but not to much so. Then one of my favorites from Gladiator. Bringing in the last 2-3 miles is a great blend of fast and uplifting.

I was hoping to get to test it a bit, but with the back, my running has been limited. I think it will work however because it is the approach I took on my longer runs during training.

I wish I had dropped a little more weight before this date, I am going to have to be more focused over the next few days. Mentally I am ready, physically I will ready.

Later