running mess

so this is cool. i'm hella sore, but today was a good run. actually, thursday was extremely good, except i was dumb. so thursday, i decided to get in a good 5 miles--up elm, over 41st to roland to northern and then just back down roland. normally i take that pretty slowly, just to relax. but. i felt very good, so i just thought i'd take it. i ended up doing the 5 in 40 min, which is a match to my 5 mile race PR. que the hell? i was a little winded afterward, but not like i'd be after a race PR. excellent. the only thing is that that was a dumb thing to do so close to a long run. even though i stretched and everything, i was tight for this morning's 11. we met at this little podunk diner in an obscure corner of the city, and we did most of the half marathon course. DAMN HILLEN!!! but anyway. it only took about 1:55 to do it, so that was really good. that's about a 10:45 pace, and i'm very happy with that. it was a big help to have guilford be entirely downhill. after hillen. fuck hillen. i have run that road i don't know how many times in the past few months, and it's a bitch of an incline. even for me. and i cut my teeth on the ridges in PA. i hate hillen. i do know it's good for me though, since it'll be miles 20-21 in the marathon IN TWO WEEKS, so i'll know what to expect, mentally and physically. sort of.

two weeks. i can't wait. it's slowly settling in. this taper is really nice. and that 20 miler last week was a huge confidence boost. even though i ended up doing the majority of it by myself, i felt a lot better because of the large group that was there. so 20 last week, 11 today, 8-10 next saturday, and then THE MARATHON ON THE 15TH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! wow. mom and dad will be there, i'll see some of the terprunners, my friends will be there along the course, and then there's the best-- chris is going to be there at the finish line. :) yay! i don't know if he realizes it, but that's a big deal to me. we've been dating for almost a month now (it's gone by so quickly!), and knowing that there's a big hug waiting for me at the end is a great boost (and incentive!).

i am preparing for the post-race let-down by scheduling a race afterward. i'm going to do the mardi gras half marathon in new orleans. i was thoroughly amazed that it's still going forward as planned, but it's going to be a great race--very emotional, i think. the people who organize it are taking all the funds from the race and giving them to the families of law enforcement lost in hurricane katrina. i'm still trying to imagine how they're going to handle everything logistically, but i really hope that it goes off well. it just seems like it needs to. this is when i feel really good to be part of a community that is so passionate and fanatical--we'll do whatever it takes, and we can accomplish a lot and raise a lot of money by doing what we love. this will be a great next step for me.

and chris is going to be at my finish line in two weeks. :)