I am lazy. Just let me begin with that. I know it seems counter-intuitive seeing as how this was my third half-marathon but here's what I mean. If left up to my own schedule I would work-out at best 1-2 times a week... MAYBE! So I sign up for a race, print off my training schedule that says, if you want to be ready to run 13.1 miles here's what you need to do;
Monday- Stretch and Strengthen
Tuesday- Run 4 miles
Wednesday- Light cardio
Thursday- Run 4 miles and strengthen
Friday- Off
Saturday- Run 3 miles
Sunday- Run 7 miles
So, when I wake up, I already know what I have to do that day. And if I blow it off I feel like I am not going to be prepared for the race. Problem solved.
This race was the Germantown Half-Marathon to raise money for the Memphis Special Olympics. There were over 4,000 participants and... IT WAS COLD! Like freakin' freezing cold. At the beginning of the race it was 50 degrees and raining. Like the kind of rain that cancels major league baseball games. The rain continued and the wind blew, and the temperature dropped. By the time the race was over and I got back into Dave's truck the temperature was down to 40 degrees! Yikes. My entire outfit was soaking wet and sticking to my body. I ran a little science experiment when I got home. I knew my clothes had to weigh a ton so I weighed with and without my soggy wardrobe. 7 pounds of wet clothes! Ugh! But the good news was that it was so cold I wanted to be out of it and back into my warm PJs as soon as possible so I ran my personal best time. 2 hours and 16 minutes! My first race in December 2007 was the St. Jude Half-Marathon and my time was 2 hours and 17 minutes. So it was close. But I beat my own time.
No more races on the horizon, but I am definitely going to run another race at some point. I already thought up my t-shirt for race #4. I really want to run a race with my little brother who is a big fan of Anchorman. I want to get shirts made that say, "Jogging. Apparently you just run for an extended period of time." Yeah.
* Forgive the copyrighted photo my photographer friends, but I wasn't about to pay $35 for the digital file just to update my blog.
