Some like it hot...

And some like it cold.  Para mi, I like medium, but here in South Texas, there is no such thing.  Last Sunday, I parked my car (fo' free) at the Pearl Brewery, checked out a B-cycle, and biked my not-trained-for-a-half-marathon butt the 3 miles to the Rock N Roll San Antonio Half Marathon start.  When I arrived at the start, I was already soaking wet with sweat in the 78 degree, 99% humidity morning weather.

Then, there was the matter of running 13.1 miles.  The first 3 weren't so bad, until I passed my car at the Pearl Brewery, the sun broke out, and I knew the monster hill was coming up.  Then, the wheels fell off, and I just worked to cross the finish line one way or another.  And it was ugly...

 NOTHING is better than ice cold water.  Really, nothing.

About mile 7.5 - I was toast, but luckily, Brak Pak friends had the Brak Pak truck "Tom" on the route with ice-cold water.  And only 5.6 to go...I stopped at mile 9 and drank a beer, because I'm a serious athlete and all.  So, I really needed these sponges at about mile 11...

And then, there was the bitter end...

 Pretty much "Dear Dog, please make this end"

And then I remembered to try to look fabulous.  Right.

And then, I was finally done.  Slowest half marathon ever for me.

And then we re-enacted the Bataan death march to my buddies' car

As I have said for each of the 7 or 8 half marathons I ran this year - I'm NOT running another HM without training (except for December 7th, but after that, I really may kind of try to stick to that statement somewhat).

So, how could I possibly follow up that misery?  Well, with a bit of a cold front.  Today, I ran the Ready.AIM.Run 5k, better known as the courthouse 5k, with my brethren professionals of the San Antonio Bar Association.  Start temp? 39 degrees, and again, 99% humidity.  Yep, basically, half the degrees with the misty humidity.  Lovely.  The Kenyans (yes, real Kenyans were there) ran a pace of 5:18, chattering like teenagers, while I managed just less than twice that speed.

Yeah, pants are for wimps.  Next weekend's temps for the Santa Antonio 5K are supposed to, again, be miserably warm, so we should, once again, have stripping Santas.  Crazy San Antonio weather!

Thanks to Ceci, Celia, Bertha, Victor, Lana, Dulce, Michele, and MarathonFoto for the pics.

Post furlough funk

So, we're back to getting paid for working - eventually.  It's kind of still sorting itself out, but I did get a paycheck, so that was nice.  This new sign in our office really is not so nice - kind of "we spent money on this sign, but didn't pay you..."

So, the best way to fight a funk is to run some miles.  On Saturday, I did the Eastside Cemeteries running tour.  Our guide was the (very fast) Bruce, so it was really 3.1 miles of fartleks with very interesting stories.

This was a very interesting part of the cemeteries I had not visited before - the African American cemeteries.

So, I was a little sore after that for the Gusto Push 10 mile race on Sunday - 10 miles of concrete and two passes on a concrete bouncy bridge that takes my vertigo to new places.  But, in the words of my nephews, I DID it!

Here's some frame-by-frame finish line pics of me running like a crazy running chicken. 

yep - puro gallina loca.  It was humid, so we had to replenish ourselves accordingly.

No races for me next weekend - I'll continue to fight my funk by traveling to Arlington to root against the Vikings.  In a Packers jersey. 

Blue

...is my favorite color, but not my favorite feeling.  I have been trying to fight the blues since getting the ol' furlough notice and dx last Tuesday.  After the 15k on Sunday, I put together a "drag myself off the couch" list of no-expense chores that I didn't dislike.

For example:

Dislike:                                                         Notsobad:
change way-high lightbulbs (did it anyway)    plant front bed with cactus
clean house                                                  clean and PUT AWAY all laundry (did it)
weed front yard                                            play with critters and plant leftover seeds to see what grows

And, so, I woke up at a normal time on Tuesday and set forth to accomplish those "notsobad" tasks - for about an hour before I got the call to return to work on Wednesday, without pay.  Lovely.  Work was a sad place today, so I just tried to shut myself in my office and do my job.  Again, without pay.

When I got home, I thought about just taking a nap and avoiding zoo run, but one thing that always helps when I am feeling blue - running with buddies.  These days, even a bad run is the highlight of my day.  So, here we were tonight, hamming it up and showing off some new shirts (paid for pre-furlough).  I included multiple group pics because I think the progression of the doggies is hilarious - click on the pics to enlarge.

super cheesy.  And I mean Laura - I'm just semi-cheesy.

 Wednesday night zoo run regulars, including the pooches.

And many of the Brak Pak

And las chicas de el Brak Pak (if this no pay.furlough keeps up, some of us may release a calendar :)

So, to my fellow running buddies, friends, and family - I apologize for being down, blue, depressed, and anxious.  Last Tuesday hit me pretty hard, with no 'cures' in sight.  Thanks for dealing with grumpy Sally and helping me off the couch.

And thanks to Michele for doing the legwork on new shirts and Ceci for printing - and the pics.  I see the whole world and I want to paint it a lighter shade of blue.