3M half marathon

On the heels of returning from Big Bend, I ran the 3M half marathon in Austin this Sunday.  (Note:  I normally put about 7,500 miles or less on my car per year - and drove almost 1,900 solo miles in the past two weeks!)  In the interest of full disclosure, I mainly ran this run for the swag bag of 3M products:

Also, the course is net downhill, so it should be "Fast. Easy. Fun."  No such hope.

Well, the night before, I attended my running buddy, Julia's, 80th birthday.  I actually have to create a new 80 and up age group now for the Women's Run this year.  She's truly a remarkable friend and an icon of the running community (every time she enters a new age group, most race directors add the new 'and up' 5-year age group).  I can merely hope to be running and rescuing animals like she does - at even approaching the age of 80.

Then, the race started at 0645 the next morning in North Austin, so it was an EARLY start for me.  And, after about 9 miles of downhill-ish-ness, I realized my calves still hated me after the Big Bend 25k and driving and driving, and they rebelled.  But I finished - not my best, not my worst, but still a painful drive home.

Here's the view from the finish line

And my shiny medal

While I was in Austin, I was called by compadres I served with in Bosnia - Mark and Laurie - who are now RET and passing through town.  We met up for dinners the past couple of nights, along with Jessica, another CJSOTF-Sarjevo compadre now stationed in San Antonio - and regaled each other with some old war stories.  Here's Laurie 'playing' with a monkey at Bass Pro Shop

It's hard to believe that it was over 10 years ago that we were 'playing' in the Balkan mountains over there.  Next thing you know, I WILL be 80 years old!  Until then, next up is 'just' a local 10k trail run which may hurt.

thanks to Brightroom and 3M for the pics

Jingle Bell Run 2011

So, I've found my niche.  It's not the fastest runner.  It's not the age group finisher.  It's that runner in the costume - tonight I won the female 'Santa-est' in part of my Santa Antonio 5k get up from last weekend at the Jingle Bell Run. 

We meet at a buddy's house, run to designated houses, shout/sing carols at them until they make us stop by giving us libations and chow.  Then repeat.  But I cheated and just ran to the first house, sang/shouted/ate/drank and headed back - I can't keep up a speedy pace with some of those pros.  I didn't want to be a lost running Santa in the dark.

And then I won the costume contest (female) and was awarded a nice bottle of prosecco. 

Awesome.  And we ate and drank some more and slaughtered the lyrics to carols.  That's what the holidays are about.  Next up - holiday lights running tour tomorrow night.

In the meantime, while I was rocking my Santa suit, Simba apparently napped hard on my laptop - resetting my supersmart home thermostat to 50 degrees (really) and making the type on this page really REALLY small.  Dangit.

Yep, I'm supposed to be tapering

But, I ran the Pajama Pancake 5k on the Mission Reach section of the riverwalk on Saturday.  I came in around 17th place for overall female, but they didn't go that quite that deep in prizes.  (This was after I watched the Brewers rock game #1 on Friday.)  Then, I headed home and watched the Badgers rock it against the Huskers.

Sunday morning, I woke up (a little late) and ran about 8 miles with Fleet Feet for my last pre-marathon 'long' run.  And then I hit Síclovía - where the City closed down Broadway for cycling, running, walking, playing basketball, you name it.  In hindsight, I should have just done my run there.  Instead, I ended up tacking on another 4.5 miles of walking - oops. 

Basketball and street hockey

doggies

my favorite, still - PARACHUTE!

I toyed with the ideas of bringing my bike or the dogs, but did not want to sustain a freak injury ONE WEEK before the marathon - so I walked and walked.  And saw this guy, who apparently has NO fear of a freak dog-related injury.

what, that doesn't look dangerous?  Here he is going the other way - multiple dogs and he is on SKATES!  In my defense, my dogs are over twice the size of those 8 or so pups!

(and, seriously, this is supposed to be about health and exercise, and this clown shows up?)
Afterward, my buddies and I heard there was free craft beer in Brackenridge Park for Parktoberfest - sure enough - there was.  So we enjoyed good, free beer and German music (I was getting nostalgic for Germany).

And so, I returned home to watch the DVR'd Packers game (I know they won - I peeked - but I'm still watching it) and keep tabs on the Brewers game - where they are also rocking it. 

This is probably NOT the proper way to taper, but if I keep in the spirit of WI sports, I will rock my 'next up' - the Chicago marathon. 

Speaking of which - super props to my buddy, Steve, who PR'd today in Milwaukee's Lakefront marathon with a smoking fast time of 3:18:36!  Fair warning:  even if I rock CHI, my time will be an hour longer than that!



Aloha Bonnie and Bryan

Me - dead center in turquoise

This was a "carb loading" farewell for running buddies Bonnie and Bryan - who were deployed to San Antonio for the past couple of years but are now returning home - to Hawaii (now why couldn't the Army have deployed me to places like that?).

Adrian, me, Tammy

I was considering running the San Antonio marathon in November and the Honolulu marathon in December this year - with their free accommodations - but I wised up. Maybe next year I'll join Bonnie and run Diamond Head in the marathon (I'm sure to take some ugly shots in that humidity).

Bonnie and I

Bon voyage and run/bike hard!