Almost there...

Good Evening Good People!

I sit here literally on my kitchen countertop in my HMTT (half-marathon training team) t-shirt as I type this quickie post. Sometimes it helps to try writing in an unusual place... at least for me... for those of you germaphobes... I will definitely be cleaning this counter once I hop off it so you can breathe a sigh of relief :-)

So it just dawned on me that this weekend marked the half-way mark of my 14-week half-marathon training... it was week 7. This week we had a little over 7 miles to complete this past Saturday which I did successfully without much issue. A total of 7.26 miles! It was also a little chilly (high 50's) and somewhat rainy and overcast but even with the not so great weather, I felt GREAT and it really dawned on me that day that this 13.1 mile race was really going to happen and I was going to be successful.

According to the official Richmond McDonald's half-marathon website, I have 54 days, 8 hours and approx 7 min. That's plenty of time to get those extra 6 miles... I. CAN'T. WAIT.

You can't really see it but I. AM. EXCITED!

The Official Richmond Marathon/Half-Marathon Website

Pumped!!!

Hello there to the 2 or 3 people who actually read this blog. You are appreciated. I'll try to keep this post short and sweet. It's been a minute since my last post but it's also been an interesting couple of weeks. I survived an 5.8 magnitude earthquake and a hurricane (category 1 but a hurricane nonetheless). No, I don't live in Cali nor Florida (my home state). I live in good 'ole Richmond, VA and managed to find myself in 2 weather events within 4 days of each other. Yikes! But by the grace of the Big Man upstairs, I came out of it unscathed. I say all of this because as a result of earthquakes, hurricanes, which caused a power outage at mi casa for 81 hours, I was little (OK... a lot) off of my weekly running schedule. To put it simply... I didn't run my 3 miles, 3 days a week with lil 'Ames. I just worked out at Gold's (mainly weights and some yoga). Oh AND I was sick towards the end of last week. I say all of this because I honestly don't how I successfully completed my almost 6 mile run this past Saturday.

To recap... I hadn't followed my weekly training schedule (at all) and I was sick (flu type ish) for part of the week and yet I ran a total of 5.92 miles on Saturday and felt SUPER AWESOME afterwards... like I could run at least 2-3 more miles AND conquer the world. :-) That runner's high I tell ya! It's REAL!

The fact that I was able to do that only reaffirmed in my mind that I WILL cross that finish line on November 12th. Sure, 13.1 miles are no walk in the park but the Amy K a year ago would have bet a large sum of moo-lah that I would NEVER run 3 miles, let alone 13 of them. However, I now know that I can do it. I have 64 days left before the race which is PLENTY of time to get those training miles under my belt.

Tonight I did 4.26 miles on the treadmill because it was raining gatos and  perros today and has been alllll freakin' week. Tonight's run will be the only run before my long, group run on Saturday but I'm not sweating it. If I could do 6 miles without running the week before, I surely can do a mere 4 with 1 run for the previous week under my belt.

My good friend, Clapptastic was right... there will come a time when I'll look at 6 miles as an "easy run," and I think that I'm pretty much there. Who knows... I might try for a full marathon in 2012 but let me not get ahead of myself... I need to actually do the half first. I'm considering the half done and mentally marking it off of my bucket list. Just call me Forrest (Forrest Gump that is)!!! Pow!!!

P.S.- I kinda failed at the "short and sweet" post thing... my bad. I'll try harder next time.

Lil Ames & I reaching the end of our almost 6 mile run and STILL smiling.

Week 5 - Saturday Group Long Run