The Houston Marathon!

It has been sixteen days since I have completed my first marathon, the Houston Chevron Marathon. When I first signed up for the marathon I had this idea that I was going to train to qualify for the Boston Marathon; however, shortly after starting graduate school I realized that I had over-committed myself and needed to readjust my goal for the race. I decided that instead of aiming to run under 3:30 I would aim to run the marathon in 4:00 or under. As the semester picked up speed and training grew more time consuming I began to question if I could do both training and school successfully. To top it off I added a week-long vacation in the middle of the semester and to visit my best friend in Panama where training took a backseat to some amazing once in a lifetime adventures!

Fast forward to race day…

As I reached downtown Houston with my dad at 5:45 AM my nerves started growing uncontrollably. I had been reciting the mantra to just finish and not hurt myself for days now, and I was praying it would come true. After walking around the corrals and talking to my dad about whatever came to mind to distract myself from the self-doubt that was beginning to seep into my mind, it was time to get in Corral A and start warming up and stretching. Luckily my dad stood on the other side of the fence and offered to hold my things for me and kept me calm until it was time for the race to start.

Leading up to the gun going off there is music booming through downtown as the sun is just starting to rise, the national anthem is sung, and thousands of runners push themselves forward slowly to the start line. All the anticipation from months of grueling training are bubbling up the surface as we all wait for our turn to cross the line and to begin our 26.2 mile journey.

Once I had crossed the line and was actually able to run I was soon joined by a middle aged man (I wish I remembered his bib number), but him and I were running at the same pace so he decided to stick with me and my GPS watch for the first few miles of the race. However, I lost him after a quick trip to the port-a-potty. The miles were passing quickly and I was running faster than I anticipated which made me extremely nervous because I still had such a long way to go.

Mile 5: My dad met me and took my arm sleeves from me and got scolded by a volunteer about being close to the runners and the course…

Mile 6: My mom missed me, so she called me. I can now say I talked on the phone while running a marathon. I also was able to text people back using Siri; technology has come so far!

Mile 10: My parents met me again (running a marathon really is a team effort). They were full of encouragement and surprise at my pace, but they also had some of my nutrition and a much needed hat! At this point in the race I was feeling great! There was no pain, my nerves had finally subsided, and I was barely even breaking a sweat.

Mile 13.1: I passed the halfway mark only two minutes slower than I raced the half last year!!

Mile 16. I hit the wall and I hit it hard. At this point my knee started killing me; it was the same pain that I had experienced last year in the half marathon which was excruciating and made me take a step back from running for a few months to allow it to heal. I panicked. I didn't want to hurt myself; I had promised my parents I wouldn't do that this year, but I had also come so far…16 miles so I didn't want to give up. I decided my best option was to stop and stretch and walk it off…start jogging and walk until I could get to my parents.

Mile 17: Hobbling to the left side of the course I met with my parents who were all full of smiles, and I was a complete Negative Nelly at this point because my knee was hurting so bad. I begged them for medicine which they didn't have with them at the moment…that was a crushing moment. But I continued to walk jog my way towards the next mile marker.

Mile 18: Miracles do happen!! My dad drove past me on the course, stopped the car and stuck his hand out of the window with three or four magical little blue pills. Pain medicine!! Eagerly I tried to take the medicine with no water while running…this doesn't work due to dehydration. So I take care to hold the moist medicine in my hand til the next water stop.

Mile 19: Water. There was my mom holding a water bottle so I could take my medicine as soon as possible. I can do this…once the medicine kicks in!

At around this point I am getting a flood of encouraging texts from friends and family. All of which Siri reads to me in a monotone voice and she also reads out the emoticons (queue frowny face with furrowed brow and fish with puckered lips). This amuses me until I realize I am no longer experiencing the dreadful knee pain. Hooray!! The miles begin to pass rather quickly at this point. I am getting so close to finishing!

Mile 23: I see a guy stretching on the side of the road and when I glance back at him I realize that I know him. It was my old roommate Joe!! So of course I had to stop and take a selfie with him.

Mile 24: I passed Raymond Cooper, one of my many bosses, on the sidelines! He

was certainly my biggest fan during that stretch along Allen Parkway (the land of hills…)

Mile 26.2: My watch beeps that I have run my first marathon….but I haven’t crossed the finish line yet? Such a let down

Mile 26.2 (for real): As I approached the finish line I turned off my music and listened to the music being played throughout downtown and the broadcasts being announced as runner crossed the finish line. When I crossed I was completely overwhelmed by the purest sense of happiness. I had just run a marathon. I had done it on my own. I had trained for it on my own. This personal victory was all mine at 4:08:53! 

Abilene State Park, A Long Run

Today I had to do a long run, like every Saturday while training for a marathon. Today’s run was two hours long, so I decided it would be best if I found somewhere new to explore for two hours that was off the pavement. I decided on Abilene State Park which is approximately forty minutes away from my apartment.

Driving through small West Texas towns kicking up dust behind my truck I began to realize this run was going to be quite different then my other trail runs which have been densely wooded and green. When I arrived to the park I looked at the map of all the trails and decided first to run in the main camping section of the park then to cross the highway to make my way to the other side of the park. There was supposed to be Lake Abilene on this side. There is no longer a lake. Parts of the landscape resembled the cracked earth from the movie Holes…piles of dusty tires scattered on the lake bottom and an ominous barrier of cactus protecting further harm from occurring to the dried up lake. It was such a sad sight to take in, but in its desolation it was extremely beautiful.

The dry lake bed.

It was extremely hilly throughout the park

This is what is left of Lake Abilene. 

I was alone on the maintenance trails, and I have never felt so tiny in comparison to my surroundings. The further I ran around and into the dried lake I saw the magnitude of the drought in the lack of water and wildlife. I also ran pretty close to the giant windmills I have only seen from the window of cars up until this point. They are massive! 

The Big Move

On Sunday I officially made the move to Abilene where I will be pursuing my Master's in Creative Writing for the next two years, and it didn't really sink in until Monday afternoon that this is my new home for a while.

Abilene is extremely different from Katy/Houston, TX...for starters the humidity has disappeared which is doing wonders for my hair. Bye bye Afro frizz, and hello ringlets!! With the disappearance of humidity the weather must present another challenge and that would be the wind. West Texas winds might possibly be one of my biggest hindrances while running, biking, and driving...there always seems to be a gale force wind present, and it is never a tail wind. Also, it hypothetically should only take you up to 15 minutes to get anywhere in town (yes all the way across town is merely a short drive); however, my drives have been taking considerably longer due to my innate ability to get lost while using a GPS.

During my explorations I have found some pretty nice parks and running areas which I have been testing out and taking Tux to see. His favorite park so far is Red Bud Park which just so happens to have plenty of prairie dogs for him to watch while cowering between my legs! I suppose it is good that he has a healthy fear of them, but it does look ridiculous to be walking a bulldog who is so scared of a 2 lbs rodent.

The other big change is my physical living situation. I am in an apartment with two girls and one of them has two Pugs named Lily and Dobs (brownie points for the Harry Potter reference!) So there is really six of us in our little apartment including the dogs!

School starts on Friday and then I am sure it will be a whirlwind til the end of the semester with marathon training, school, and work. Wish me luck!

A Marathon???

So after finishing the Tough Mudder I began to think what my next running challenge should be. I have competed in the shorter long distance races like 5 and 10K's numerous times and I have finished a half marathon. What should come next? After talking to a friend who is an avid marathoner he reminded me that qualifying time registration for the Houston Marathon ends on Thursday, and having already been tossing the idea around about conquering the marathon I made a bold decision. I signed up to run the Houston Marathon in 2015. This will be by far the longest race I will complete, and the training will be farther than I have ever pushed myself to run before.

It didn't hit me until I clicked the register button that now I actually have to do this; I can't just talk about wanting to run a marathon in the future...because now I am committed to doing it. I am really excited to begin this new training program and begin pushing myself further, and I am also dreading this major shift out of my comfort zone with training. My goal is to run under 3 hours and 35 minutes so that I can qualify for the Boston Marathon!! Wish me luck!!!