Yay SpiceGeek!! You should be thrilled with your time - that's fantastic!! I'm sure you're feeling so proud of yourself as are the rest of us. All things considered, there's not many people that can say they ran a half marathon - and in the dead of summer on top of it . And yay!! for Sheila too - less than 30 minutes for a 5km is a great time.

What a motivated bunch you all are!!

I just got back from my long run - 8.1km in 52min, 30 seconds. I was originally worried about my husband when we started and that his shins would give him trouble but he was fine - I was struggling more than he was. I made my first mistake in wearing thinner socks - my toes have been in slightly rough shape lately and the thicker socks seemed to help but today I forgot. And it was hot, so I think my feet swelled. And then I ran through a succession of 4 sprinklers to cool off - it felt great then but my feet got a little wet. My goal today was to do 8.5km (last week we did 7.8) but in the last 1/2km my knee started to flare a bit so I signaled to my husband to pull the plug at the next intersection. Came home, stretched, took an advil and iced my knee (while dozing on the sofa) and knee feels fine, but when I took my sock off, I have the biggest, nastiest blood blister on the outside of my big toe. I've never seen anything so icky - I looked online and they say if it's not hurting to leave it alone. It looks more painful then it actually is so I'm guessing I should leave it while keeping an eye on it? Anyone else experience anything else like this?

Sheila - it IS nice to run with my husband - I initially had some reservations about running with a partner - mostly because he runs faster than I do and it frustrated me when he wouldn't stick to my pace. Very quickly I realized the key was to stick to my own pace and if he ended up a mile down the road ahead of me, oh well. We both listen to our own music while we run so it's still a very individual activity, but it's nice to have the motivation, support AND someone to run with after dark. He says now that he prefers to run with me because he prefers my pace and if he's not running with me, I guess he goes to fast and overdoes it .

Peg312 - Congrats on your 4 miles!! It's a great feeling and gets even better the farther you go!!

SpiceGeek - My husband and I just got our scuba certification this summer - we're going on a cruise in November to Mexico - Costa Maya and Cozumel. Are you familiar with either area at all and would you be able to recommend any dive groups in the area or sites we should check out?

OK - I`m fed and watered so I can give a better report - official time 2:35:04 - 11.30mm pace - I`m thrilled with the time - I wanted to run a 11:30 - 12:00 mm pace - my pace was right on 11.30

5k splits

5k - 46:42 ( 36:26 if you take into account the 10:16 it took to cross the start line )
10k - 38:06
15k - 36:15
20k - 36:47

The first 10K of the route is hilly - the last 10K is pretty much flat or down hill

I ran into my regular running buddy in the starting corrals - she had originally said she wanted to run alone but we ended up sticking together for for first 6 miles then I had to peel off to pee !!

The next 2 miles were a little dull - as I ended up alone and the crowd was thinning out around mile 8 we left the park and started toward Times Square - and 2 friends were yelling and screaming in the side lines - there were also bands every mile or so after this point so it was a lot more interesting !!

I walked thro the water stations but other than that I maintained a run for the whole course.


I followed the Hal Higdon novice plan - with a few changes - I did 2 more 10 mile runs and more races - I chose to cross train rather than that run on the days where you had a choice - I did all my cross training for 60 mins. I stuck to at least 2 hours a week strength training sometime 2.5

I moved the rest week up 2 weeks to coincide with a vacation and tapered over 2 weeks rather than 1.

My longest run prior to this was 10 miles


Key things

Lift weights - it really does help in all aspects of this
take the rest week - I felt AMAZING after the step back week and it gave me the confidence to realize I could do this


halfbyaug - front and center please .. you`re up next good luck - I hope your knee holds up !




http://This message has been edited by spicegeek (edited Aug-05-2007).

Way to go spicegeek!!! I'm so proud of you. I'm hoping to do my 1/2 in 2 1/2 hours too. I guess I'm going to have to stick ion some weight training. Did you do upper body only or lower body too?(squats and Lunges) Awesome report and sounds like you had fun. Way to go!!!

I got out and did 8 this morning. DH followed along on his bike and we had a little alone time together. Say he really likes to ride along beside me(I think he's weird, it's the bouncing ponytail thing. Men!!) I didn't feel so great but I managed to finish. Got a cramp in my right hip(in front) with about 1 mile to go but toughed it out. I'm glad it's over and now back to studying.

Peg, congrads on the 4 miles. It feels really great to reach a personal best for milage. I felt the same at every one I made.

halfbyaug, guess your up next. We are all behind you. Rest well and go out and kick major butt. We know you can do it.

Tawny, it is nice to run with DH, sometime I get him out to run other times he rides beside me. Believe it or not it is our alone time some days.

Joe, wow you get up early. You are so great at starting the thread. Thanks. Are you running today? not going to work I hope.

Enjoy your day all,

Corrina

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Yes I run like a girl, strong, firece and sexy! Now try to keep up.

Congratulations, spicegeek. Great time for a first half marathon with heat and hills.

Did 8 miles today. Broke it up into 4 - 2 mile intervals. Seemed to work real well until the last two miles. Pace was a little slower but I felt like I was working much, much harder. May try this again sometime.

Who's next...date and place for their half marathon???

wbertha

Yahoo Sheila and Spicegeek... what great time you each made on your races!!!
I loved reading about all the details - it keeps me motivated and gives me more to think about on my runs!

Glad to hear so many say they feel the weights and other workouts helped too because I've been looking for motivation to keep up (ok - start!) with my weights & stuff.

Today I was really glad the rain stopped in time to go running this morning and was thrilled that it was only 70 degrees... until I started running and realized how muggy and humid it was - UGH!!!
Well, I still managed to do 11 miles and thank goodness for the water belt. Again I had plenty of energy left at the end and picked up the pace for that last mile.
Total time 1:57:21, avg pace 10:40, last mile avg pace 9:59.
On last week's 10 miles and today's 11, I think one big reason I had energy left at the end is because of the Accel gel I took at about the 1 hour mark. It has protein in it unlike all the other gels, and I have to believe it's really giving me an extra boost. I'm going to have to try using it from the start and see how that goes.

joescoolagain - I love the auto lap feature!

OK - gotta go get some stuff done before bed... where I'm sure to dream of all things running!!!

Hey Sheila - GREAT pictures.
Of course one of the first things I noticed was the 305 on your wrist LOL!
The second thing I noticed was that it doesn't even look like you broke a sweat... awesome!