3:23:25

And the moment you've all been waiting for... I ran the half marathon today!!!

They had World of Color going while we ran!

Okay, perhaps "run " is putting it a bit strongly. I walked with Kristy for the first 11 miles - she was quite the trooper and I'm very proud - and then I ran the last 2.1. What I learned in the experience, first and foremost, is that that's the best way to feel like an awesome runner. Cuz I spent 3 hours at the back of the line and then spent 20 minutes passing like 3,000 people. And that's not much of an exaggeration - Kristy got 13125th place and I got 10367th place, which means that when I left her and started running, I did indeed pass approximately 3,000 people.

Soooo many people!

In any case, we should probably go back to the beginning and start from there. This morning, Kristy and I woke up around 3:30 am. This was lovely because we couldn't fall asleep last night until about midnight. So yes, we slept for about 3 1/2 hours the night before doing this craziness to our bodies...


We got dressed, packed up, and made sure we cleaned up and left my grandparents' house as clean as when we arrived. Grams even said we left "no fingerprint," so I call that a success. We drove down Katella and hit maybe 3 red lights in our whole 20-minute drive. If you don't like traffic, I highly recommend driving at 4 am.

Ready & waiting...

Once we finally arrived and parked and walked to the starting area (where we saw a huge contingent of ladies from that society where they wear red hats and purple clothes waiting to cheer everybody on), we waited almost 45 minutes to start. We were in the last starting corral for whatever reason so there was a lot of waiting involved.

We eventually made it to the starting line and got to the gettin'. The route took us around the outside of the parks, through California Adventure and then Disneyland, and then around some random parts of Anaheim before ending back in the parking lot near where we started. We both finished - and we weren't even last! - so we're deeming it a success.

One thing that surprised me this time was the number of bathroom breaks I ended up needing to take. I hardly drank any water before we left this morning and I only took water at the water stops, so I can't imagine I was that over-hydrated, but I went before we got to the starting corral, 3 times during the race, and probably 3 times during Frozen (we decided we would reward ourselves with a 2-hr movie break before heading home from Disney). It was craziness. I still don't quite get it, but whatevs.

So colorful and lovely =)

I also wasn't expecting there to be bands and cheerleaders along the route playing music and cheering for all of us as we went by. It was really helpful and motivating, especially at the end. The Disney employees (while we were in the parks at least) were also really great. We kept thinking it'd be fun to stop and take pictures with characters like other people were, but also we couldn't afford to sacrifice any time. My favorite, though, were the custodial workers -- when we went around the back of Disneyland, we turned a corner and there was a big sign saying "Welcome from the Custodial Staff!" and a group of 10 or 15 guys taking time out of their mornings to cheer us on. I just thought it was so awesome of them, especially since they weren't there working the race like so many of the other employees.

We did it!!!!!

The other thing that was kinda fun during the race were all the signs. The two best we saw were "Run like it's the start of the Hunger Games" and "Worst Parade Ever." It's really great that so many people come to support, especially people they don't know. All the people really help keep you motivated as you're running, as does the fact that there are just so many people running, and in our case also running slow (or walking). The first half I did, back in South Bend, I was going a lot faster than I was today - I think I ended up somewhere between 2:30 and 2:45 - but I was pretty alone most of the time. Minus the friends who ran with me, of course, but there weren't many others around to keep me pumped about finishing and make me feel like I wasn't just lame compared to everyone else. That's something I really liked about this race.

So anyway, we did it. On 3 hours of sleep. And now we have really heavy medals that have Tinkerbell on them. And neither of us has work tomorrow lol. Life is good =)

Seriously, so heavy. We we sitting down eating after and kept leaning further & further forward from the weight.

Half Marathon Eve

It has arrived. The Tinkerbell Half Marathon is tomorrow. Are we ready? Probably not, but we're doin' it anyway.

Not gonna lie, I was kinda hoping for a bright green shirt (I mean, c'mon -- it's named after Tinkerbell, who always wears bright green), but this isn't too bad. And it's better, I think, than the pale purple 10k shirt, so I'll take it.

Our friends who ran the 10k this morning have already decided they're doing the Disneyland Half Marathon in August. I'm torn. Part of me wants to because over the summer I'd actually have time to train -- no school and all -- but of course, as you may remember, I really dislike running in the heat so part of me obviously doesn't want to. Registration doesn't open until next weekend, though, so I have a little time to decide. If I'm gonna sign up for another one, though, especially an expensive Disney one, it's going to have to be one I take seriously. I'm not gonna sign up for another half unless I actually train for it for real and try to do well. I don't know my exact time for the Holy Half a few years ago, but I think I'd want to aim for a 10:30/11 minute pace. Which would probably be fast for me. But if I'm gonna do it, I'm gonna do it right.

You might be wondering why I'm talking about the Disneyland half as if it would be my next half marathon. Aren't I signed up for a half marathon in May? ... I have a confession. With as much trouble as I had with this training (various injuries, sickness, being tired from work, not having a buddy to keep me motivated), I was feeling extremely overwhelmed about trying to train for another one right away. And I was mentioning this to co-worker of mine who was talking about how she wanted to run a half, so I offered her my spot and she was really excited to take it. So that's that. I feel a little lame about it, but also I think having it hanging over my head for the rest of the semester and me feeling tired all the time from running or lame all the time from not running would've been worse... Don't hate me...

In other news, though, I finally bought The Stick. My goal is to use it on a daily basis, even if I don't run, and get my muscles all nice and loose and relaxed. I really have no excuses cuz I can totally do it while I watch TV or something. In the shorter term, I'm hoping it'll help me be able to walk tomorrow and Monday lol.

Anywho, I'm off to eat dinner and lazy around and try to get some sleep before we wake up to leave for the race at 4 am. I'll have more for you tomorrow =)

Thanksgiving

Okay, I may be a few months late for this, but I decided that today's post would be about things I'm grateful for.

Last time I ran was 2 weeks and 2 days ago. I haven't run since then because I had a really terrible cold - worse than I ever imagined a cold could be. I won't bore you with the details, but suffice it to say I definitely couldn't do any running. So anyway, to start the giving thanks, I was thankful during my time of sickness for the friends who took care of me and the fact that now I have a much better understanding of how debilitating non-stomach sickness can be. I'm also grateful I have sick days I can use at work, and for that matter that I have a job at all, and one that allowed me to go visit my friends in the first place.

So today, I finally felt good enough to go running - another thing to add to the grateful list. It was much hotter today than I would like, particularly in winter, but that leaves me grateful I don't have to deal with some of the more annoying parts of cold winters, like scraping my car or getting salt all over everything or shedding 20 layers every time I go inside. And it was hot mostly because of the Santa Anas, but that also means it was very clear and very pretty - and that I'm grateful for.

I'm also grateful that the run wasn't too bad. It wasn't great, but it wasn't terrible. I ended up running about halfway and walking the back stretch, then even running most of the rest of the way (I stopped a teensy bit early out of respect for not having run for 2 weeks and being sick). So 3 miles in 36 minutes or so. Including 5 minutes of walking. Not bad.

I also had a conversation with a random guy who asked how long the loop was and was in a very good mood about the weather, which made me feel a little better about running. So I'm grateful for being able to talk to people and for joy in the world, and for the little bit of cold I got on the second half - gotta love cold air that's been sitting in the shade for a few hours. Refreshing.

And then, of course, there's the fact that I can run. That I have a friend to run (or probably more accurately, walk) with this weekend. That I have a car to get to Disneyland this weekend. That I have grandparents to let me stay at their house since it's closer to Disneyland than mine. 

I'm pretty sure Sunday is going to be a world of pain, but at least I can say I did it, right?

Two Runs in as Many Days :)

Check it out, dudes - 2 runs in 2 days, with a total of 8.5 or so miles covered. Not bad, if I do say so myself...

After the traditional Christmas Eve dinner of shrimp and cinnamon rolls with our friends the Painters, my family and I headed to midnight Mass (which used to actually be at midnight). In an unexpected turn of events, I ran into some old friends from high school whom I look up to. Literally.

They're much taller than I am. Get it?

One of them has been getting into running the past few years and rather than just answer my "how do you get motivated to run?" question decided he'd make me run way more than I wanted to, so we set a running date for the day after Christmas. He met me at my parents' place at 9am the morning of the 26th, at which point we did a little stretching and made our way down to Redondo Beach pier and then to Hermosa. There and back, including the walking parts, ended up being about 7 miles all together. The running parts totaled approximately 1:09 and we were gone about 2 hours (we may have taken a bit of a chatting break at the end of Hermosa pier, which is much longer than it looks).

According to Death (one of Mike's many nicknames, and one particularly appropriate considering what he put me through yesterday), the key to running is smiling. A lot. He told me most of the time we were running that I just wasn't smiling enough. Apparently I also need to find some woods to run through and trails to run on, where there are no people and lots of nature. Not surprising coming from a kid who once told me of an ambition to run a bunch of people over with a lawnmower after spending 5 hours walking through crowds after World Youth Day. Long story.

The aforementioned "Death" aka Mike Fend.

Not sure I'm entirely convinced by his theories, but I do plan to visit Colorado sometime to visit and I'm sure he'll make me run on at least one of these awesome trails and maybe then I'll change my mind. We shall see.

After our run, I squeezed in a quick lunch with another high school friend and hurried off to the airport and caught a plane to Nashville via Salt Lake City. I planned to wake up and go running again this morning where it was colder, but when I got up it was almost 50 degrees so I had to postpone. I spent the day with one of my old roommates from college since the friend I'm actually here to visit has not yet returned from Christmas with her family (you'll see and hear more about her soon, I'm certain, as I will force her to run with me while I'm here) and then, once I got home, it was finally cold!

I figured I could either try to get myself to wake up early enough for it to still be cold enough in the morning or I could go for a little nighttime jog... so I chose the latter. The neighborhood seemed pretty safe and I hadn't really done anything healthy all day (guac & tacos for lunch, then mini corn dogs and popcorn and Junior Mints for dinner at the movie - not good choices for running), so I geared up in my UnderArmour cold gear and got ready to head out.

Love me my cold running gear!!

The first 2/3 of my run was wonderful! I cannot tell you how much I miss running in the cold. I really dislike being hot, so running in 30 degree weather (or less) is as good as it gets, cuz no matter how hot you get, you're still cold. It's pretty much the greatest. I was just thinking over and over again how awesome it was and how it would be nice to live somewhere cold, but then how much of a pain it would be to move again, etc., and then the mini corn dogs and popcorn and Junior Mints hit me. Not good choices for before running, in case you were curious. I started feeling pretty bad so I stopped running after 16 minutes and walked the rest of the way. All said and done, I probably only ran/walked 1.6 miles, but - as always - better than nothing, right? And it was nice and cold!

Can't wait for some more running in the cold with Stephie, and maybe her former-Army boyfriend who has apparently decided it's his new mission to whip me into shape. In 5 days. Good luck, my friend...

Motivation Needed

And the lameness continues.

No excuses, but I haven't really done much running recently. I'm just kinda lazy and really enjoy blazing through TV shows in way too little time.

I did run on Monday, as planned, but I did not run again until Friday, and then we only ended up having time for an 18-minute, 1.7 mile jog.

My running buddy from Friday is on the top left.

I thought I had a running date for today, but holiday plans decided to get in the way. I did end up dragging myself off the couch to go, though, which I'm relatively impressed with. I had my little bro drop me at the beach and I ran about 3.5 miles along the coast in 38:45 or so (pit stop in the middle not included in the time) and then walked the last 1.5 back home (I thought about running at times, but it was very sunny and warm so I just walked).

All in all, I'm definitely failing at this training thing. I mean, the whole goal of signing up for the half marathon was to get me to exercise more, which has technically been a success even if the training is pretty much a failure.

But this leaves me with a question for all of you who are runners/who like exercise: how exactly do I become one of you? I mean, I'm usually glad I went when I go, but how do I get to a place where I actually want to go? I need your wisdom...

Lameness

I know, I know. I'm lame.

Last week, I ran on Monday and didn't run again until Saturday morning. Both times I ran 3.1 miles, for a grand total of 6.2 miles this week.

In my defense, I was pretty exhausted all week from having to work last Sunday (aka I worked 11 out of 12 days Dec 2-13) and I didn't do anything else either. It's not like I ditched running to go do fun things. I ditched running to lay on my couch and not even have enough energy to watch TV at times because it would require paying attention. Not that that's really a good excuse.

In happier news, I actually almost feel like a normal human being today, on the second day of the weekend that I actually get to enjoy this week. Yay team!

This is also the last week of school before Christmas break (waaaaayyyyyy more exciting to me now that I'm a teacher, by the way), and my goal is to run on Monday AND on Wednesday, and then hopefully on Saturday when I'm back in Torrance.

So anyways, short & boring post to note a short & boring week. Here's hopin' I'll have something more interesting to say next time.

Colleen out.

Distractions

Today wasn't too exciting of a run. Rose Bowl loop (as usual) in 34:04 (which isn't particularly impressive) with the roomie. But hey, it's a run. It counts.

The fun part of today's run, however, was the topic of discussion. Of course we talked about work for awhile -- mostly how tired we are already because of Open House yesterday and how tired we're going to be by the end of the week when we have our work party. And of course we both have friends having parties that night as well... And people are coming over here the night after... It's going to be a long few weeks...

But then we started talking about Rachel's fake Instagram account. Her friends have been giving her grief about not having one so she started one on her birthday this past weekend and is kind of using it satirically. She's trying to think of the most cliche Instagram things she can and post them with as many super-obnoxious hashtags per photo as she can, starting with her birthday latte two days ago. So we spent at least half our run brainstorming.

I couldn't actually find her on Instagram, but I imagine her first post looked something like this.

We talked about taking pictures of the food on Friday, doing a Throwback Thursday involving her engagement, putting together a collage of roomie running dates at the Rose Bowl, maybe some corrected grammar mistake in a student's paper, and perhaps one of those pictures in the mirror before she goes out. We also talked about appropriate/ridiculous hashtags for each one.

[I apologize if anyone takes Instagram super-seriously and is offended by all of this, but neither of us has time for that... so we just talk about it instead...]

So anyways, I realized when we were pretty close to being done that I had been perfectly distracted for at least half the run. Not even just partially distracted, but wholeheartedly not thinking about breathing or my tired legs or anything. I call that a win.

Kristy, we're gonna need to find something equally awesome and distracting to talk about come Jan 19...