Jasmine - Congrats on your PR!!  Can't wait to hear from everyone else who is racing this weekend.

For all you heat wimps that are the jealous type, you may want to skip over the rest of my post . . .   I completed my 6 mile run @ 9:30 this morning with clear, sunny & 63 degree weather!  Since I turned off my alarm this morning, rolled over, and slept for another hour, I was pleasantly surprised when I stepped outside and it was in the high 50's.  I'm starting to taper for my half marathon next Sunday.  I'm doing 4 miles tomorrow, and then a couple easy 2 mile runs during the week.  Something's going on with the left side of my back, so I did a little swimming & sat in the whirpool after my run.

I have to chuckle a little at the 'hill' discussions.  I live outside of Boulder, CO, so the only way I wouldn't have hills throughout my workout is to go to a track.  I can say that I no longer do the runners shuffle (or whatever you call the bouncy thing where you could really walk faster than your running pace, but mentally you want to be able to say that you ran the whole distance) going up the hills on my routes.  Tonight, I'm going to fiddle with my iPod 'Half Marathon' playlist so that the faster songs play during the big uphill sections.

Happy running everyone!

LAURELINK

                          Your first race; you must be very proud & excited!!  All of us can relate to this heat and humidity; with that said; doing what you did is just the begining; your on your way!!

I haven't been posting much but I've been reading your posts daily for my morning inspiration before running!

Jo Ann- Congratulations on your race!! You continue to be an inspiration to me! I still hope to follow your footsteps into the sprint tri's!

Lauralink- way to go on your first race...it's an awful lot of fun isn't it!!

I have a 5k next weekend mostly because it benefits our retired k9 officers and I will pretty much run anything for dogs or children's charities!! I needed something to keep my inspiration up...I don't really have another training program out there until I return from vacation next month...then I think I will try another half marathon training that I believe Donna is working on...love that it goes beyond the 10 miles most programs do.

Good luck everyone and keep the inspirations coming!!

Susan

Congratulations to Jasmine and P.J. for their new personal records!!

Laurelink, Don't be disappointed in your results. I hope the race was a good experience for you. Now you know what to expect and how to pace yourself in race conditions. It is a lot different than running on your own. Congratulations on finishing your first race!

D.J. Hope you had a good race today

I ran 8 miles this morning. That is 2 miles farther than I have ever run before. I ran very slowly but, I am proud of myslef for going the distance.

I gave myself 6 weeks after my successful (well, I ran all the whole distance) 5K in July, to be able to tackle a 5K hill run. But this was the 4th week and I'm still not able to take on a mile and a half of hard hills. I started taking Tai Chi, and I think that has helped my form some, but I think I'm just not strong enough. I end up running hunched over, collapsed, mentally yelling at myself to straighten up and get back in form, then slumping down again. Of course running downhill doesn't present the same problems, I just focus on not hurting my knees on the downhill.I think I just didn't train right for the hills.

Glad to read about so many successes this weekend, even if it's not what you really wanted.  Laura I definitely couldn't tackle it in that heat.  I pushed myself to go out and walk 2 miles this afternoon in a hill area on some trails but it was 90 and humid and kicked my butt.  I'll be so glad when the weather cools down because I do so lousy in the heat.  I did go to the gym earlier and tried to run but only got half a mile in.  Did almost 4 miles with the reast of it at about 15 mile pace with a slight incline.  It's really p***ing me off (sorry) that I can't do what I was doing before the weather turned hot but I'm counting on my body getting going again as it cools.  I've tried b-complex vitamins and RIbose-D, which helped me a little before with fatigue last year, and I've had blood work to make sure my thyroid is okay, my potassium, which I've had drop before was okay, I'm well hydrated, cortisol was good, and everything else came out okay.  So, it just must be my body reacting to this weather and I'm going to keep pushing my best till I break through.  I did the 2 mile walk this afternoon after the other workout because I was angry at this situation and I just wanted to go out and push myself a little.  Not to the point of making myself sick though.  The two miles were at an average of about 17.5 minute miles which on the hills and in the heat wasn't too bad for the hiking but I want so badly to do what I hear everyone else doing.  And yet, I also have to look at how far I've come in the last year.  A year ago the end of July I started trying to work on myself.  I was 225lb and a total couch potatoe.  Walking for 20 minutes was a big deal for me and shopping for groceries was exhausting and made my back hurt.  I had to rest before I could put things away.  Now I'm 160 and can do so much more, even if the summer slows me down and I can't do the half marathon I walked on May 1st at this time but I will be able too again.  There is a 5k that I plan to do the end of September, and I hope to be able to run it all by then but if not I'll walk and run it.  I'm going to do it.

My hip is still hurting me too but the funny thing is once I get moving it doesn't hurt anymore until I stop.  SItting really aggravates it.  For the past 2 weeks I had done mostly water exercises and today was the first time I pushed the walking or tried to run because I've been babying it but it isn't making much difference.  So I decided if it doesn't make it worse, and it actually helps it while I'm doing it, I'm going to go back to walking and trying to run.  I'll still do my water exercises too for cross training, which I love.  And I do some stretching every day.  Now if I could just find time and energy to go work on riding the bike I bought last fall and have only ridden 3 times . . . . .   I guess I can't do it all.  I'll rotate around to the bike riding eventually as I like to change routines periodically.

Congratulations to those who set a PR this weekend.  And to the others, you're still moving so much faster than those watching from the sidelines or sitting at home on their couches.  That's what I always try to keep in mind.

Onward and Forward!!

Congratulations to all!   And some of the miles that are being logged in!!  I'm going to start training for the St. Jude Half the second week of September.  Surely it will be cooler by then. I can't even think about distance right now.    It was hot as a firecracker in Memphis on Saturday.  I just tried not to freak out about it.  There were so many people that it took me about a half mile to get through the crowd.  Ran the first mile in just under 9 minutes - Garmin died!  Of all things to not check to make sure it was charged!!!!!  Decided I wasn't going to freak out about that either.  Was kinda disappointed in myself because i walked 3 different times between mile 2 & 3. Each time, counted to 60 and took off again but I was probably within 3/4 & 1/2 mile from the finish!  Still made it in 30:28 and I was pretty happy about that.  It could have been so much worse.

Jasmine - If nothing happens, I'll be in Nashville the end of April - would love to meet!

I'm happy to find this discussion thread of other people like me, 50+ and fairly new to running. I'm 53 and started running 3 years ago as part of a weight lost program.  I'm now totally hooked on running.  Everyone else I know either hates exercise or are young people in terrific shape and running marathons. I have done several local 5k runs and my best time was 27:17.  My new chanllenge is to run a 10k next October. So far my longest distance is 5 miles.