Austin Marathon

I am officially running again! I ran 4 miles on Tuesday and 10 miles today. The 4 miles was torture on my lungs. I hadn't run in a good three weeks before that. My legs felt great so I think I tried to go a little fast for my first time back. The 10 miles today was a lot better. I was nervous about it because Tuesday's run was not great, but I think my body was like, oh yeah, I remember I like this stuff.

I'm really excited about the Austin Marathon coming up in three weeks. I'll be running on very minimal training, but hoping that the past five months of hard core running (before I got sick) will pay off. It's weird completely training for a big race, and then not running it, and then taking off almost a month, and then trying to run for three weeks, and then trying to run a marathon. You know what I mean? But I think I'll be okay. I'm not going for my sub 4 this time. I am going to enjoy running with Melanie and Scott and celebrate the fact that I can run again.

I was tentatively planning on running a 50k in March, but I'm not sure what I'm going to do now. Should I try for a sub 4? Should I hold off on that and run the 50k? Should I do some shorter races? I just love racing. I know running isn't all about racing, but I think it's so much fun and it motivates me to improve myself.

Okay, if you're interested, check out the Austin Marathon site. By the way, listen to our schedule for marathon weekend:

Drive into Houston late Friday night.
Wake up early Saturday morning to get ready for John and Ally's big day!
Leave after the reception around 8:30-9:30pm and drive to Austin (2 1/2 hours??)
Find the hotel and try to get some sleep.
Wake up early and hope that Megan or someone will drop us off at the start around 6:00am.
Race starts at 7:00am.
Finish around 12:00.
High fives, hugs, and goodbyes.
Drive to Cameron to spend the night at Mom's.
Wake up early and drive back to South Carolina.

Yes, I think we're all crazy for doing this.

Maybe Next Time

So, I haven't quite gotten over my sickness. The doctor's not sure what I have now, but my tonsils are still inflamed, I completely lost my voice, and the doctor put me on a new set of meds. Anyway, this marathon is out, but I've got February's Austin Marathon to look forward to that I'm going to run with my brother Scott and sister Melanie.

I have been bummed the past few weeks that I haven't been able to run (and when I have run it's been less than stellar) and that this marathon might be out of the picture. But now that it's a reality, I'm okay with it. Things come up. There will always be another marathon.

So hopefully the next time you hear from me I'll be training for Austin. Not quite sure where to pick up the training.... but I'll let you know.

And the countdown begins...

Two weeks to showtime! It's about the time where I start getting really excited and lose lots of sleep and pretty much only think about running. I would say I'm so ready, but I'm not quite there yet. I had to take off almost two weeks because of tonsillitis and other things. Side note: Don't take your antibiotic on an empty stomach and then try to run 6 miles. You'll pass out.

So pretty much I'm nervous about making my sub 4 hour time goal since I took off so much time. I feel good about running the marathon, but not so good about the time goal. But I'm going to be positive and say that I can do it. I'm really going to give it all I've got, but I will definitely be preparing a few different game plans for the day.

A. Under 4 hours
B. Under 4:18
C. Finish

I'm so stinkin' excited that Travis and Megan will be there to cheer me on at this marathon! Because the race is on an Air Force Base, they won't actually be allowed on the course, but they'll be there at the end and hopefully at the half marathon mark (it's a double loop course).

Okay, I'm starting to get excited...

I'll let you know if anything really exciting happens in the next two weeks. :)