Ready To Start

The New(er) Job
What a difference.  It's kind of like I went on a job diet.  I have the same type of job with 50% less BS.  No job is 100% BS free, but I've got a feeling everything IS going to be OK. I feel lighter already.

The Hubs
We celebrated Hubs birthday on Thursday. It was a kick-back occasion with a couple of friends and our immediate family. One of the highlights was this sweatshirt:

A sweatshirt from his SDSU daughter

The Running
I've been sort of bad about attending the track club's Tuesday night track workout, but I attended last Tuesday.  We did 800's with a 400m recovery.  It would have been killer IF I had pushed myself harder, but I'm trying not to get hurt.  This, too, shall pass.  It's not the fear of injury, it's that I've decided to take a more conservative approach (this year) and build up gradually.

I also ran with the track club on Saturday, at the La Jolla Shores "Low Tide" run.

 Pre run C-C-C-C-C-C-COLD!  Michelle and I were thinking warm thoughts.

I love the beach and the idea of running right on the beach sounds sort of romantic - with the sight and sound of the waves crashing along the shore, the crisp ocean air after a rainstorm the night before, and the sight of a few hundred runners running on the beach...

...BUT I'm not a big fan of actually running on the beach only because I end up feeling more beat up than when I run on a paved road.  The unevenness of the sand always leaves me feeling awkward.  There's also a segment of the run where we have to slowly trek over a few huge mounds of rocks, and I almost always seem to tweak a muscle or tendon while making my way over those rocks.  I often run at the beaches (here in the San Diego area) on the paved walkway that goes along the most of the beaches.

As I was saying, I ran with the track club on Saturday.  This run goes from La Jolla Shores, up to Del Mar then comes back to La Jolla via Torrey Pines and the infamous hill.  Since I'm not training for a marathon,  I ditched the run up to Del Mar, and trekked directly up the hill after the jaunt on the beach.  As slow as I was going, I was still in running formation, meaning: I wasn't walking.  I kept running posture the entire time, up hill, the little engine who could.  I believe this was the first time I've ever run up that particular hill without stopping or walking. 

Notice the elevation gain???

I'm glad this hill was a part of the run this week, just so I could wrap my mind around the idea of running up this hill halfway into the half marathon on April 17, 2011. Now that I've made it up (and down) that hill, I think I'm (mentally) ready.

Post run with hubs. By the way, it was COLD.   I had three layers on for this photo op.  Yeah, I'll admit to being a weather wuss.

There's a saying I've heard actor Will Smith use:  "If you stay ready, you ain't gotta get ready."  Those are great words to live by, especially when it comes to running.  To be half marathon ready for months on end is a good thing.

I'm ready.

It feels good to say that.

Last Sunday's Song:
How Far We've Come - Matchbox Twenty

PEACE

Tuff Enuff

I spent one pain free week, then I tweaked out my left ankle at my very last Run Fit class. Doh! It figures, that with the Las Vegas Rock 'n' Roll half marathon THIS Sunday, I go and do something to throw things off. It's not a serious ankle tweak, it just feels off. With an already slow training season, this ankle tweak just means I'll be slower. Ah, well.

Since I trained with Rehab United for this race, I'll be wearing one of these bright yellow tech t-shirts:

For some reason I couldn't get the lighting just right, but the lettering is bright blue.Our group should be easy to find.  I think there will be about 25 of us this year.

I still need to pack. Gloves and scarves will be in the wardrobe.  It's going to be a wee bit too cold for this Southern Californian.


Sunday's Song:
Walk With Me  - Neil Young

PEACE

Daddy

The kitchen counter above the sink.  A little something for everyone.

All of us, well, except for Hubs, has a cold.  It's just a matter of time before Hubs gets it.  Thank goodness it's nothing serious, just a royal pain in the bootay cold that messes up anyone's schedule.  I had major plans to swim this week since the pool opens earlier.  Ah well.   The advantage to being down  is resting, and that's good for the sore foot.  The foot is doing better, it just feels tired and hot at the end of the day, as if I worked a 10 hour shift in retail for a one day sale.*

We hosted Father's Day this year, which is when I woke up with the cold. Good times. I didn't get around to taking pictures because I was busy running around like a chicken with it's head cut off. Having a cold leaves no room for clarity of mind. Some how I never vacuumed the living room which contained pretzel crumbs from the kid and dog hair, which really didn't matter in the big picture.  Regardless, the fathers were happy with the day, and a friend brought a bottle of Hungarian merlot that I could actually drink without getting hives.  Of course, there was a cooler full of imported beers, ice teas and juice. I made shishkabobs -- beef, chicken, and firm tofu kabobs staggered with hearty vegetables with a teryiaki marinade. FYI, firm tofu handles being on a skewer for barbecue very well - those were a hit with my vegetarian guests. Everyone else brought the salads, side dishes and desserts. Hubs received an 8GB iPod Nano from us.  His shuffle didn't make it through the marathon this year.  He probably got it wet when he tossed a cup of water on his head during the latter part of the  run.   I tried to resurrect his iPod, but it didn't work this time.  I think he's happy with the upgrade.  Father's day was also made happier with World Cup Soccer and Brazil's win over the Ivory Coast. Hubs is half Brazilian, and this victory made one more thing to celebrate.  Vai Brasil!

On the gardening front, the enemy gopher took down two more plants.  One was a head of romaine lettuce, which I was able to save and actually use, the other was an entire yellow squash plant with several baby yellow squash on it.  I was able to save some the squash, but they were really too small to make a full meal for everyone, but yummy with eggs for breakfast for one person. (Me).  I was looking forward to a lot of squash this year, and those would have been ready by the 4th of July. 

Until this cold lessens, I will not be running or swimming.  Pass the tissue.

I'm going back to bed.


Thursday's Song:
Freedom - George Michael, Richie Havens - Katiefeldmom, Miss Rachel

PEACE

*I worked in retail for a gazillion years. My feet hurt just thinking about it.

Loose in Las Vegas

Las Vegas Rock 'n' Roll Marathon/Half Maraton Event - Part 1

It has to be in two parts, mostly because of pictures, but the day of the event felt like three days rolled into one. I guess waking up at 4 am and going to bed at 1 am the next day had something to do with it.

I'm still not rested, but I've unpacked. Life has been busy since returning from Las Vegas, so I'll update as best as I can.

Friday 12/4

Made it to Vegas with little to no problems. Our flight was delayed for about a half hour, due to weather delays in the Midwest.

After checking into our hotel room at Luxor, and figuring out the elevator, we walked over to Mandalay Bay to pick up our race numbers and swag.


After a few times around the expo and scoring on some free Pearl Izumi socks, a red knit cap (came in handy), Elvis sunglasses and a ton of other non-essential items, we finally connected with AKA Alice:


She looked so put together and ready to go out. I looked like I needed an early bedtime! I don't know if it was the dry Las Vegas air or the smoky casinos, but my eyes puffed up almost the minute we arrived in Las Vegas. Oh yeah, I even met "Walter." I wasn't thinking, otherwise I would have gotten pictures of AKA Alice and Walter together.

After the expo, Michael and I went in search of some place to eat. It turns out that a sushi bar in Mandalay Bay had happy hour prices on select types of sushi and sake. We were there just in time to take advantage of happy hour.

Back at Luxor - Checking out the swag...

Nothings says "Merry Christmas" like Vanilla Gingerbread Gu. No, I haven't tried it yet.

After a walk down the strip, a brief stop in Walgreens, and a snack at McDonalds, we called it a night.


Saturday 12/5

We actually slept in. I've been waking up at home about 5 am without an alarm, so it felt weird to wake up at 8 am. After a coffee at Starbucks, we were back at the expo to look for more friends. I don't know why we spent more time milling around at the expo, it was kind of a waste, but we did see a few people from the Rehab United group, and walked up and down the strip with them. A long 4 mile walk was probably not the best idea but it was nice to get some fresh air. We also stopped inside a high end mall that just opened that weekend, just to see what it was all about.

Renata, Jessica and Me getting in a stretch. Those cylinders were illuminated ice. Security told us to get our feet off the display.

No trip to Las Vegas would be complete with a few architectural photos from Michael.

We parted ways with our friends and went back to the sushi place for our carb load dinner. We had the same happy hour meal, just left out the sake, and added a huge bowl of rice. We spent the evening in our room and rented a movie and snacked on pretzels filled with peanut butter. I know, not real exciting, but with the race the next morning and an early wake up time, we needed to keep things simple.

Sunday 12/6

Race day! We woke up at 4 am because we needed to meet the RU group down in the lobby at 5:15 am. I'm glad I had the where-with-all to purchase bottled mocha frappachinos at Starbucks and a couple of pastries the night before because that place was PACKED first thing in the morning. We kept the frapps cold in the ice bucket. It worked well!

Down in the lobby, we saw a couple of the RU people and then waited for everyone else to trickle in. As we were waiting, we noticed SEVERAL people starting to come back in from a night on the town, still all dressed up and blingy. I'm not quite sure if it was the "walk of shame" or they were still party-ing. Someone jokingly commented "gee, I wonder if they're running today?" My PT Bryan showed up, then eventually Justin and everyone else was there. It felt like we were about to go skiing, more than running. It was so cold. We all went outside to do some warm up stretches and then have a photo op:

Click photo to embiggen

I'm sort of on the left middle, with the reflective strips on my shoulders blaring. The guy right below me to the left with his tongue sticking out is Bryan, and guy at the front far left on the bottom row is Justin. Renata and her husband Gil are donning the white trash bags. Everyone else is either a part of the Run Fit program or RU staff. Photo credit to Michael.

After the warm up, we all went and dropped off our gear and waited in our numbered corrals. I was in #17. I couldn't get Lucy to cooperate, so I scanned the crowd for someone with my kind of Garmin. A guy was kind enough to show me what I was doing wrong. I had the right sequence down, I was just trying to hurry myself and missed a step. It really isn't that hard, but when you're half asleep and freezing, things just don't fall into place as they normally would. I called AKA Alice, but she ws still trying to get to the gear check area, which wasn't close, so we never hooked up. There were pre-race fireworks, the National Anthem, and then we were off, sort of. I started the run with Renata and Kristen. It took us about a half hour plus to get to the start line, since they were letting people go in waves. It was cool that the jumbotron at Mandalay Bay showed the runners.


I ran about the first two miles with Renata and Kirsten, but my calf was still tight, and I felt their need to go ahead of me, so I told them to just go ahead. I kept a relatively steady pace through the entire race. I was allowing myself some walking if I needed to, but it never got to that point.

Somewhere around mile 6, I think, maybe after the 10K point, I came upon Dawn, blogger Running Pink Chick. She came with a group from Canada. In the huge sea of people, I was so happy to see her. Since my camera went kaput on me right after the start of the run, she whipped out her camera and too this shot:


We ran together for a short while, but I had to keep my pace so my calf wouldn't lock up. It really lifted my spirits to run with Dawn.

I kept scanning for AKA Alice and her day-glow green race shirt, but no such luck.

After the turn-around that took us through a little neighborhood then back down the strip, I saw Renata waiting in line at the restrooms. Amazingly she caught up to me around mile 9, and we ran about 2 miles together. She pulled slightly ahead of me, but I always had her in sight. Around mile 1o.5, maybe 11, this Chippendale's dancer guy ran in front of me. He was wearing nothing more than the starched white collar, cuffs and bowtie, and black briefs, oh -- and running shoes. That's it. I kept thinking this guy had to be freezing or he was going to freeze something off...

As I approached mile 12, my left calf started to complain. It was stiff for the whole race, but it started to pinch and nag. I told myself that it's not a marathon, and I could manage 1.1 more miles. I did have the Zensah's on, which were a tremendous help. I don't think I could have run the entire HM without those. As I rounded the corner at mile 13, a huge group from RU waiting were there at the corner and yelled my name. One of the guys had a camera and I stopped and posed real quick for a photo,then ran my last .1 mile. I'll post the photo if I can get it.

Ran through the finish line! According to Lucy it was 2:30:00. Official time was 2:29:57. It felt good to squeak by in just under 2:30. It was my slowest half marathon, but with the calf issue, I felt quite satisfied. I ran the whole way.

Finished!

We got the bling!

After the race, and gathering up post-race eats like bananas and oranges, etc, Renata and I decided it would be a good idea to hang out in the souvenir tent because it might be warmer. It was probably a whole 10 degrees warmer, but it made a difference.

To be continued...

Tuesday's song:
Leaving Las Vegas - Sherly Crow - Southbay Girl - Planet Ynnep Running

PEACE

Leaving Las Vegas

Back from Las Vegas...

Official results:

Distance HALF MAR
Clock Time 3:01:07
Chip Time 2:29:57
Overall Place 9882 / 17827
Gender Place 5326 / 11322
Division Place 264 / 814
Age Grade 51.1%
Pace 11:27
Ttlrace 17827
Ttldiv 814
Ttlsex 11322
5 Km 35:23
10 Km 1:09:23
10 Mi 1:53:24

This was my slowest half marathon ever, but considering I blew out my left calf just 5 days prior, it was FRIGGING COLD, and I couldn't feel my limbs, I'm happy with my time. I was going to be OK with 3 hours running with an injury, and squeaking by just under 2:30 by seconds feels (in a way) like a PR, even though it really isn't.

Once I'm rested and unpacked I'll post a full on trip and race report, complete with photos, or maybe not. What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas? We'll see.

Thursday's song:
Every Body Hurts - REM - Mel - 2nd Chances

PEACE

Grey

Activity: Run
Date: 06/20/09 07:47 AM
Distance: 5.16 miles
Time: 0:59:02
Speed: 5.2 mph
Pace: 11' 27 min/mile
Calories: 500

Today's run with the track club was along Harbor Island, near the airport. I went out about marathon pace for this run. I just wasn't feeling it today, maybe because we arrived late, but I got in just a smidge more than 5 miles, so it's all good. I also ran most of the way with AKA Alice, which helped the run go smoother -- It's always better running with a friend. For us Californians, the weather was a bit chilly. 62 degrees doesn't sound cold when you read the numbers, but we had high 70s to low 80s yesterday, so, yeah, the temperature drop and the grey skies made the air feel a lot cooler.

I wanted to post a map of today's run, but for some reason BiM isn't letting me.

Thursday's song:
Give It To Me - Timbaland - Barbie2be







PEACE

My Kind Of Town

A brief respite to the mid-west to reunite with my best friend from high school and spend time with my sister and family was exactly what I needed.

My sister Donna and brother-in-law Jaime picked me up from Midway, then it was all about relaxing!

The next trick is to recall everything else.

The last time I saw Linda was the day before she packed everything into a large U-Haul truck and moved with her son to Michigan to be with her (then) husband. That was about 15 years ago. I was wondering if she would have changed much, but I was happy to see that she was the same Linda I knew back then: full of life, fun, and always embellishing on a story each time it was told. Yeah, we're older and have added a few wrinkles to our faces, but in my eyes she still looked exactly the same as when I last saw her.

At the Grand Lux Cafe for lunch

My sister played tour guide a little, and we mostly spent time around Michigan Avenue for sight seeing and shopping, but mostly shopping. I'm not a big shopper, and I guess it's because I don't have my sister and best friend to go shopping with. I'd be in serious debt if I always went shopping with those two.

Donna and Linda playing tourist. This is right before we dumped money on shoes and other stuff we really didn't need but had to have.

We made our way into the old Marshall Field's building, which is now Macy's. Linda spent her younger years of childhood in Chicago and remembered when Marshall Field's was THE store to go to. They had everything. She remembered being able to buy groceries and barrels of laundry soap there, along with clothes, and going out to a nice dinner. I guess it's somewhat of a sore subject, that Marshall Field's is no more. The building markers still indicate that it is the Marshall Field's building, but the signs are all Macy's.

The mosaic tile ceiling at Macy's, AKA Marshall Field's.

Donna had the foresight to make reservations at the Signature Room on the 95th floor of the John Hancock tower around 6:30 PM, before sunset. The views were spectacular.








Linda only had two days with us, as she had to get back to work, but the time we had together was bliss. I hope it's not another 15 years before we see each other again.

I was also able to spend some time with one of my nephews, Kyle. He's quite the character. He's written and produced a few plays that were in production, and able to pay the crews and actors, but never made a profit. He's now back in school working on the small screen, as in commercial production. He's an interestingly funny fellow. He also has a job renting out apartments, which keeps the bills paid. He took us out for Thai food somewhere near Lincoln Park.

Kyle and Donna

My other nephew, Brandon, never made an appearance. He's the one who recently graduated from college with a degree in Political Science and had a rather cushy job at a law firm in Chicago. He decided being in law wasn't for him, so he quit his job and is now attending classes at one of the culinary schools in Chicago to become a pastry chef. He's also working part-time in an Italian restaurant near Wrigley Field as a sort of a sou chef and whatever else there is to do, like wash dishes, etc. When he finishes culinary school in Chicago he wants to trek on over to Paris, France to attend the Cordon Bleu. The bank of mom and dad were rather surprised with this change of career path, but actually happy that Brandon had the where-with-all to do what makes him happy. He currently wears a uniform to class, which includes an ascot. (I so wanted a picture of him in uniform!) Kyle is relentless and often comments about the ascot, getting under Brandon's skin. Kyle has thus renamed Brandon "The Angry Chef."

On Sunday, Donna and I did a very touristy thing and took a tour ride on a red double-deck tour bus. The weather wasn't that cold, it was around 60 to 65 degrees, but once the bus got going we froze our asses off, especially when the bus went near the lake.

Brrrrr! Wearing our "mom" sunglasses... By the way, a large purse on your lap does not keep you warm!

After that informative, yet freezing tour, Donna insisted that we go out to a late lunch at a traditional Mexican restaurant called Adobo Grill. It's right next to Second City. It's real Mexican cuisine, not the typical smothered in cheese tourist crap. They served things like moles and real, freshly made margaritas. It was a little on the pricey side but well worth it. I'd go back just for the margs... They were THAT good!

Salud!

Dontcha just love my sister's post tour bus, wind blown hair? I inhaled that guacamole, by the way.

While we were seated, the rain came. We were quite thankful that we were no longer on the bus tour. We would have been drenched! This is the view from our window-side table at the restaurant:

The guy with the bike had to wait until the rain let up.

After our wonderful meal and margs, the rain stopped and we went for a brief walk. As we crossed the street we came upon two preppy guys, probably in their late 20s to early 30s. One of the guys said "hey ladies!" I reluctantly responded with "Uh, hey?" We walked past each other and one of the guys smacked Donna on the butt and said "Now, that's what I'm talkin' about!" They just kept walking in the opposite direction. They looked like they had been drinking. We just kept walking on our way and then came upon a Pier One Imports, and darted in there to regroup. WTF was that??? My sister was dumbfounded and flattered all at the same time. There was no use getting bent over that incident, we just kept going, but sort of laughing about it at the same time. It was weird. I suppose we could have made a big deal about it and called the cops, but after a Pier One purchase and a short while, we just got a taxi back to the hotel and called it a day.

I did manage to get in some haphazard running while I was on my trip, but I'll leave those details for my next blog post, along with some other pictures. I'm afraid I'll blow up Blogger if I post everything now.

Wednesday, April 22, 2009's song:
Girl's Nite Out - Tyler Collins

PEACE

Christmas In America

I've been busy with life. My mind has been so full that I'd sit down to blog and I just can't find it within myself to write ANYTHING. Not even filler. (This reminds me of the college years and having to pull creativity out of the air for graphic arts class. This time it was a writer's block.) I suppose busy can be a good thing, but I also came down with a cold. It's nothing bad, just a regular cold, complete with sneezing, sniffles, and having to walk around with a box of tissue all of the time. On top of that, my dog has an ear infection and requires ear drops. Other than the cold and my dog, everything is actually great. Also, the kid's bathroom should be complete AFTER Christmas. Oh what fun it is for the five of us to share one bathroom. Party mode is in full swing and we have one more party to attend tonight. Christmas shopping is just about finished. I just need to figure out what to give my father, since he has everything he needs and more. He loved the wool felt Indiana Jones type hat I gave him last year.

I haven't been running or exercising, but I've been in constant motion. I was in shock to see my weight drop about 5 pounds this week without even trying. It's also not a healthy weight loss, though. The Zyrtec I've been taking really suppresses my appetite. There's no muscle gain and I still can't get back into my skinny jeans. I'm hoping I can maintain just that five pound weight loss until I begin some weight lifting again, mixed in with some high intensity interval cardio. I need to turn that unhealthy weight loss into a good thing.

Yesterday, right before school, I took some pictures of my grandson for our annual Christmas card. I thought about doing the family picture, but we pretty much look the same as we did the last time we took a group picture two years ago. The grandson is the one who is growing and changing, and there's also the cute factor. The kid has the cute factor down... Well, at least I think so.

I really liked this shot, but it needs to be edited in the space between my grandson and the tree, and I don't have a compatible version of Photoshop for my computer.

I took about 15 photos in all, but one this was the winner:

Monday's song:
All I Want For Christmas Is You - Mariah Cary, Vince Vance and the Valiants, etc, - Barbie2be, Katiefeldmom, Tenderfoot Diaries

PEACE

Baby, It's Cold Outside

No workout or running today.

Something I haven't thought about in a long time is snow skiing. I used to really enjoy it, and the last time I went, probably a good 8 years ago, was on a ski trip with my son's Boy Scout troop. It was near Lake Arrowhead. VH1 had some show being taped and Jennifer Lopez was there. I didn't see her but my husband did, and that made his day. The scouts had a good day and earned their skiing badge. I had a good day of skiing and came home exhausted because I wanted to fit in as many ski-runs as possible. Now that I'm a little bit older, I experience pains I never knew I had until it gets cold out. I love the beauty of the mountains, and I really did love the exhilaration of whooshing and swooshing down the snow-packed mountains, then ending the day with a nice hot buttered rum and snuggling with my husband at the ski lodge. Now, even the thought of getting cold hurts. I would much rather save the money and take a tropical vacation. Perhaps I'll go snow skiing again, at some point, but not right now. I think I just need to work myself up to it again.

Peace


Photo from Travelplan.com

Cold As Ice

The Arizona Rock N Roll Half Marathon is now one for my history book! I didn't train as well as I should have, but I did finish!

Let me start at the start...

Hubbie and I were invited to stay at a fellow BFL'ers home when she found out we were thinking about running in the Arizona Rock N Roll Half Marathon. I had known Sylvia from an online, women over 40 Body For Life support group. We've been corresponding for the past 7 years, but we never really met. I know it does sound a little weird to stay with people we've never really met, but we did connect because we had the same sort of weight loss and work-out issues, so we related well to each other on line. Once we all met on Saturday afternoon, we really hit it off. Our husbands even got along well. Sylvia and Chuck definitely rolled out the red carpet for us and I hope we're able to return the favor someday. We did our carb-load at one of their favorite Italian restaurants, and went back to their house for an early bed time.

The next morning we woke up at the crack of dark to FREEZING temperatures. To say that it was unseasonably cold would be an understatement. It was 24 friggin' degrees. 24 degrees Fahrenheit. 24! It was much colder in some areas... Arizona has not seen cold temperatures like that in well over 10 years. Perhaps if you're from the some place that gets snow for the winter, 24 degrees seems like nothing, but the coldest I've ever trained in is probably 50 degrees, and that's really not all that cold in the big picture -- I'm just not used to it. We had to park near the finish line, per the race instructions, and take a shuttle bus to the start -- Fine, if we only had to wait a few minutes, but we had to wait for more than 45 minutes in the frosty cold. I couldn't feel my toes. I don't really have uber-cold weather running gear, but I do have long running tights, a long sleeved running shirt with wicking material, and a wind resistant jacket. I felt bad for the people wearing only shorts and t-shirts. The buses finally arrived and we made it to the start just as the national anthem was being played. I didn't think I would have time to make a port-o-potty dash so I got into starting corral. I happened to stand next to a man who had run in this event before and said that it took a good 20 minutes after the start gun went off to get to the starting gate, so I did have time to visit the port-o-potty. I was able to get back in a corral, not mine, but I was able to find hubbie in his corral and we began the event together. We got off to a very cautious and slow start because our feet were so cold and there was no way of warming up before the run. My feet felt like I was running with rocks on the balls of my feet... but it was my frozen feet... I could feel that I was running slower than normal because I was just too cold and stiff. People had really layered for this race, and they did shed their jackets, pants, gloves, ets, starting around mile 2. There were clothes strewn all over the streets and sidewalks. We were still pretty cold so hubbie grabbed a couple of pairs of shedded gloves. It probably sounds kinda icky to wear someone elses already worn gloves, but our fingers hurt, so at that point we didn't care. It did help, though, and I was able to shed the gloves around mile 8. As usual, hubbie ran with me until mile 3 and kissed me good by and began his walk/run pattern. I kept running. The section of Phoenix we ran through was not the greatest. One lady (a local) I ran next to said she couldn't believe the event coordinators let us run through that particular neighborhood because we ran past several strip bars, cheesy motels, run-down buildings, and so on. I guess if you want nicer scenery you have to run the full Marathon because that route goes through a nicer section of the Phoenix area. Oh well. Having the bands every few miles or so did help, as always. I didn't pay attention to the scenery. I just kept looking ahead and paced myself with a few people who were running about my speed. The route was relatively flat, with a few very gradual hills, but nothing treacherous. The half marathon was awkward to finish because the route bottle-necked around the last mile -- towards ASU, it was hard to pass around large groups of people, and we couldn't see the finish line until the last few hundred feet, which made it a little hard to put in that last ditch, sprint effort, but I tried it anyway.

My official finish time was 2:21 and change. Not bad for a sparse training season and running in mind numbing cold... I was thrilled to have the mylar blanket at the end of that race, which actually helped to keep me a little bit warmer. It was about 44 degrees at the end of the race. Hubbie came in at 2:51, and our friends came in at exactly 3:00. Once we were all together and received some sustenance, we all wanted to go home ASAP. We were just COLD. Here's a picture of the four of us ( from left to right: Chuck, Hubbie Michael, Me, Sylvia) right before we went back to the car...



We didn't stick around the expo at all. We made it back to the house, showered and went out to eat and enjoy a celebration martini.

Monday morning, our generous hosts had to go to work, and hubbie and I pretty much packed and trekked into Phoenix to have lunch with one of my high school friends. Lucky for us, she happened to have the day off. I didn't think we'd be able to connect on this trip, so it was nice to see her and play catch-up for a couple of hours.

Fast forward to home. We made it back just fine. I'm a tiny bit sore in my ankles, and hubbie has sore quads, but nothing too bad. My weight has not changed at all. Even with all the carb-loading and indulging after the run, so that's a good thing. Hubbie and I are already signed up for the San Diego Rock N' Roll Marathon in June 2007, and training for that will start next week.

Back at home, the Chargers lost their chance at Superbowl, but there's always next year. Now I have to pick another team to root for so it's gonna be the Chicago Bears. Go Bears!

Peace