Houston Half Marathon 2009 Update

I finished the Houston Half Marathon in 3hrs and 30 min. Not a PR but one of the best races I have ever participated in. I had the pleasure of meeting many people on the course as well as new friends in my new running club.

I had the opportunity to run with Dawn and a student from the school I teach at. She did a wonderful job after running a fever yesterday. So we walked the last 4.1 miles. I have no problem helping others out as I have had this happen for me and it helps tons.

I will write more later when I have proper time to reflect on the day's events!!!

2009 Houston Half Marathon!

Most of you know I am not an athlete, I am a dancer. Always have been and always will be. But growing up in a family of athletes with my dad and brother into baseball, mom into surfing, sister into softball and tennis, I was always the oddball out and that is just fine with me!
As many of you know, I took up running 2 years ago. I was devastated when I broke my tallus bone in my ankle 4 weeks before the Houston Half Marathon. It killed me to have to go pick up the bib that I was selling to another person (a guy ran as Jennifer Edwards) and explain time after time why I was on crutches and not in the race. Never the less, I tracked my friends online and watched the coverage on television. I put up my running shoes and it their place had a cast and a walking boot.
After rehabbing my ankle, which is fantastic now, I decided to take up running again. I rejoined the running group at the time and met some fabulous ladies that I am proud to call my friends! I successfully ran the Houston Half Marathon in 2008 and went on to complete 2 more half marathons, a triathlon and a full distance marathon. This is a huge accomplishment for the girl who said she was never going to pick up her running shoes again after the break.
In 2008 a lot has happened, it was a bad year for my family in 2007 when we lost my grandmother to cancer, in 2008 we lost my father's father to empheyma. I used the 2008 race to remember my grandparents who are no longer with me, but supported me no matter what I decided to do. They were the most awesome set of grandparents a girl could have! That was my ultimate tribute to them! It seems fitting as they were big on the outdoors, and loved a great competition.
Houston is a special race for me, as it was my first and you never forget your first. I am a bit on the sentimental side of life a lot and feel that again I must race for a reason. So I dedicate this race to my family. They have stood behind some of my more crazier hairbrained ideas (who does a triathlon with little to no training anyways!?!?!?!?) and loved me every step of the way. There were plenty of days I was complaining, crying, and wanting to quit. But they just kept telling me how proud they were of me and how they were tracking me in San Antonio and coaching my nephew to say "Run Forrest Run!" while I was on the course. (I really needed that by the way...thanks Gav!)
So, I have a bib number, I have the shoes, I have the training, now it is time to shine! I am not a Kenyan so I probably won't be on TV, unless it is on the blooper reel, but I will be out there! I am number 29563, look for me!!!

A first ever!

I ran my very first marathon on Sunday November 16, 2008. The San Antonio Rock N Roll Marathon was a humbling experience. I realized many things along the way. Since I do better with lists, here goes my "Things I learned through my Marathon Experience"

• The world is bigger than you and me
• A sea of humanity is a pretty big sea.
• A body can be pushed beyond what you think is possible.
• The body can also survive and thrive on a banana, Shot Bloc's, 2 Oreos, and CytoMax
• Never under estimate the power of a "you are doing a great job", It may be what you need at that point in your life.
• It is okay to cry, out loud with tears streaming down your face. That doesn't mean I am going to quit, it just means I am overcome by the moment in my life.
• Crossing a finish line, any finish line, is a fantastic feeling that should be taken by everyone at any time in their life!
• It really is mind over matter!
• 26.2 miles is purely mental. Eat the bear one bite at a time, do not try to consume the whole thing at once, or it will consume you!
• After 13.1 miles, knew I was tough, after 20 miles I knew I could finish, after 26.2 miles I knew I was too tough to kill!
• You have many miles and hours to contemplate life, or just yell in your head, "This sucks, what the hell were you thinking?"
• I realized that San Antonio's Mission Trails are extremely brutal and the marathon course coordinator is a sick sadistic bastard!

I know I am too tough to kill on the course! I did it and only a small percentage of the population can say they did I did on Sunday. What were you doing on Sunday?

Wow! It has been a while!

It has been a while since I last rambled so I thought tonight would be perfect...

I have decided to complete a full marathon. That's right boys and girls 26.2 miles in San Antonio no less. I hate hills, I hate running on hills, but I will complete this challenge.

I was planning on just doing the half...I am comfortable with the half...I own the half (and have the medals to prove it!). But my friends Dawn and Angie, will not let me rest on my laurels. So here I am going to do a full marathon.

In between there, I have 2 masters classes, a new job at work, my old job at work, and trying to get my apartment repaired. So you can see I am a busy Runner Girl! I had to get new shoes and the makers of Muzuno's are godsends to my feet right now! Gotta love it!

A sense of Normalcy?

What is normal? Is it the ability to sleep at night without listening with one ear for the sound of looters at night? Is it the ability to go to the grocery store and get anything you want? Is it the ability to drive around town and not have to see the destruction of a beautiful city?

Before the hurricane, I think the city of Houston and Galveston became complacent with hurricane season. We would breath a sigh of relief when a hurricane formed and went elsewhere. Not that we wished ill will on others, but we know how bad it can be.

Our once beautiful area is now littered with broken street lights, down power poles, broken water mains, mosquitos the size of a small dog, blue tarps stapled to roofs, people in line to get basic necessities that you don't normally see. It is not normal to see a Lexus in line to get ice, it isn't normal to see a cement slab that should have a house on it.

So I beg the question, "What is normal?"
I think it is when the city can finally sleep with electricity and not having to sit up with a shotgun in your lap to protect your property. there is a very big sense of uneasiness when the sun goes down right now. I would love to get rid of it. I want to feel safe where I live, not that I don't please do not get me wrong. I love where I live and I would gladly pay the price again in a heartbeat. But I want to feel that I can sleep without worry. Drive down the street without trying to figure out if a red light is working. Look out and not see dead limbs of trees or trunks of former trees in the yards.

Just rambling tonight. Sorry!

167 hours later...

7 days and 167 hours after Hurricane Ike. Boy how things have changed. I went for a 5 mile run this morning in League City. It seems to have weathered the storm remarkably well considering they are on the coast. It felt great to get out and stretch my legs, and forget about the "hurricane aftermath" for a while.

Half and Hour and a Flyswather later...

Since Ike decided to come ashore things haven't been the same. Walmart is closed at 6. It is powered on a generator. HEB now has milk and eggs and people have been scrambling to it like white on rice. Sam's has cold stuff, although the cheese seems to have weathered the storm (not sure I would eat it, but what ever floats your boat!). Things are nuts here!

Red lights that should be redlights are either twisted the wrong direction, not working or totally demolished. Everyone treats them as 4 way stops but at the working redlights people still treat them as 4 way stops because we are so use to them now. At night it is a journey just to go somewhere. You almost need someone else with you. One person to drive and one to look for unpowered redlights.

All of this said to point out the obvious. It took me 3 stores and half an hour to return home 4 blocks to buy a flyswater. Normally I don't have flys and I pride myself on this accomplishment. (I need to find some pride in this situation!) So I have never had a use for them. I thought CVS would have them, but alas they didn't. Went to Kroger down the street, they were closed at 5:30 so I went to Walgreens in the same parking lot. Jackpot!!!! A flyswater and a Dr. Pepper and I was in business, only to hear "we are closing in 10 minutes" you have to be kidding me? It was almost 6. Go figure.

This is our new normal kids. Stores closing at odd hours. Curfews for Webster between 10 pm and 5 am. People trying to go to work before 5 and being pulled over by great upstanding police officers trying to do their jobs.

Boy, will I ever be glad when things get back on line and I can watch Oprah without hearing about "Overcoming Ike", "Road to Recovery" and my personal favorite..."Ikes Wrath". Every station has 24/7 coverage. If I have to see the same boat on the same lawn again, or the same stretch of 45 with a couch, office chair, and 2 by 4s strewn across it again I may just loose it all together!!! A girl just wants to watch Oprah! is that too much to ask???