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July 30, 2006

Happy Half!

Congrats to my pa and bro who finished the San Francisco half marathon this morning. I talked with my brother just a little while ago and it sounded like they had a great time. Perhaps my brother had a slightly better time than my dad did, because he asked my dad at about 12 miles if he wanted to pick it up and Dad just said "no." They had great weather - the fact that my brother went to the start area in a long-sleeve shirt but then ran the race without it says a lot. Sounds perfect. I'm putting it on my calendar for next summer. I'm glad they ran such a great distance on a great day. Maybe now my brother will have a better understanding of why I love running so much! He ran the Honolulu marathon a few years ago and I think he thought the experience was fine. I don't think anyone who runs a warm, humid, full marathon actually thinks it's great. A cool half marathon through a beautiful city, on the other hand, is a completely different experience.

My running this week was low on volume but high in enjoyment. I didn't get to run until Wednesday (I still haven't figured out how to squeeze in runs when Andy's work schedule is wacky) when I ran with our friend the local Brooks rep again and two people I'd never run with before: a former NCAA women's champion and another guy who could keep up with both of the other two. Yep. Just the four of us. We did a fartlek. All I can say about that is that I definitely had the hardest workout of all. We'd all start the hard intervals at the same time, but then when the interval was over and they slowed down I still had to catch up to them (and they were very far away), and I tried to keep the intensity up until I reached them. It was similar to my workout with the boot camp guy. Agh! Moving target! I had a good run, though ... the company (during the non-interval time) was great.

I had actually run with the NCAA champ once before, several years ago. I was finishing up a long run by myself and wanted to finish strong and was looking for something to motivate me to pick it up. She ran by, and she just looked so smooth and easy and strong and I asked her if I could run with her for a while and she said ok. We only ran together for a little bit - she was on the easy part of a workout, but she was a huge help in giving me the pickup I was looking for. When I finished I ran into a friend and pointed out the person I'd been running with. My friend just stared at me with her eyes wide and her mouth open and said "Do you know who that is?" "No. Who?" When she told me, all I could say was ..."oh." I felt a little Forrest Gump-ish.

I had a nice social run on Friday morning with some strides at the end, and this morning's run was good, too. I did my Mt. Bonnell run with a nice social group. I'm definitely a creature of habit, but the route is nice and hilly and scenic - one of the roads on the route is called "Scenic" and it has some very nice views of Lake Austin. A dip in the pool afterward was a great way to wrap up the morning.

The other happy half today is MG's six-month birthday! I'm loving this six-month time - she's so absorbed by everything and she's sitting up on her own and has a tooth and has a giggle/squeal to die for. To celebrate we had some sweet potatoes and turned a paper cup into a party hat. Awesome.

Posted by jenandmats at July 30, 2006 1:55 PM