Last race of 2015

I finished out 2015 by running the Santa Hustle Half marathon in Galveston yesterday. Not going to lie it was rough. I'm sure I am not anywhere fully recovered from the BCS Marathon the week before but I really think the weather played a bigger part in my struggle yesterday. It is really hard to stay acclimated to any type of weather when it is constantly changing. Saturday it was a cool 40, beautiful for running, Sunday it was 60 with 90 % humidity, icky conditions and currently it's 70 and raining. The plan was to be festive and run in the long sleeve tech shirt the race provided and be all "Santa'ed" up but there was no was I would have survived if I had. However if I had I wouldn't have a slight sunburn right now. 

It was a really cool race. One of my favorite 10'ks The Toughest 10k Galveston allows runners to run over the causeway heading onto the Island. This is the first time I have run actually on the Island and Galveston did not disappoint. 10 miles or so of the run are on the seawall. What does that mean to you, fantastic view of the Gulf of Mexico and the gulf breeze. The course is not shady so December is probably the correct time of year to run this course, any time after April and it would be a "found dehydrated on the side of the road" kind of race. Eeven with the unexpected warmer day it was worth it. Always being leery of enough on the course water support, I did bring my own but for those who didn't there was only one 2 mile stretch it might have been an issue. Otherwise there was more than ample hydration support for the day. They also had cookie and candy stations along the course which I felt was very festive.

2015 total race count: 1- 1k, 1- 3k, 4- 5k's, 1- 5 miler, 4- 10k's, 5- Half's, 1 - 25k and 4 Marathons. 

Total racing miles for 2015 230.48. Total all miles for the year (with 9 days left to go) 753.59. 

Almost 200 miles fewer than last year. I am going to have to take that into consideration when I make my goals for 2016. 

Until next time, may all your runs be merry and bright.

I'm still here

I know it looks like I may have abandoned my blog and maybe running since my last post BUT...I'm still here. It's just been a rough year. A few weeks after Little Rock, my boss of 8 years, my mentor, my pseudo-father killed himself. As you can imagine all of this, this blog and my running and what ever goals I had for the year were put on hold. I was going thru the motions but not really connecting to anything.

By the end of March I had pounded out so many miles trying to make sense of what happened I managed to give myself quite a knee injury. I would like to say I took enough time off to heal it properly but I didn't. In fact in April I ran the Hog's Hunt 25k and ended up face down covered in mud on the trails wondering how I had even gotten there. I guess you have to move on. I pushed thru running a little here and there until June came when I started back up running with the Cyfit group. My little group of me and 4 other dedicated runners saved me. Week after week they were there, in the heat, mile after mile. Our coach, bless her she's one of a kind, told me after I spilled all that had been going on since we last ran together said to me, "I'm not going to give you my number, that way you can't skip runs on me." She knew being out there with them was just what my soul needed. 

Nutrabolt Half medal.

So now this season I have set a goal, my first 50k. The Miracle Mile Match in Waco on January 31st. Along the way now that racing season hit Houston I have run 3 half marathons, the Buffalo Stampede, the Nurtabolt, and the Harbor Half (which ran out of medals and still owes me one) and the BCS Marathon last weekend. Still on the schedule before Waco, I have the Santa Hustle and the Kingwood Marathon January 1st. 

I would like to mention a few things about a some of the races listed above. The Buffalo Stampede is a nice small home town race, it was a repeat for me so nothing new to report on it. The Nurtabolt race is put on by the same folks who do the BCS Marathon. In fact if you plan on doing BCS I would do Nurtabolt as a warm up since. It will give you a good feel for how to run the hardest parts of the marathon. The Harbor Half was a beautiful run along the Corpus Christi bay water line. Only complaint is that they ran out of medals and promised they would send them out to those who didn't get them. They said they were shipping on Dec 3rd but I have yet to receive mine.

As for BCS, I have now run both the half and the marathon they put on. This years race was in horrible weather, again, rained pretty much the entire time. I couldn't feel my toes, pretty much the entire time. In the end, I really had quite a fantastic time. It's a marathon so yes there were some rough spots but keeping going is the name of the game and that's what I did. One of the head coaches for the Cyfit group told us this story about how the Navy Seals have a 40% rule, your mind gives out at 40% effort but your body still have 60% more it can go, and it stuck with me throughout the race. In the tough moments, even if that 60% was me telling myself I could do anything for a minute and then running for that minute, it helped me get to the finish. 

 Looking forward 2016 is going to be a big year. I have booked the follow, so far:

Kingwood Marathon Jan. 1
Abb 5k (part of Houston's marathon weekend) Jan 16
Volunteer Houston marathon Jan 17
Miracle Match 5k Jan 30
Miracle Match 50k Jan 31
Katy 5k and hopefully volunteer Feb 6
The Woodlands 2k March 4
The Woodlands Half March 5
Seabrook Half day one March 19
Seabrook Half day two March 20
Clear Lake 10k June 5
Cypress Half Nov 13
Route 66 Marathon Nov 20

I'm tired just reading that.

Happy Running