Dallas Half Marathon

We headed to Dallas this past weekend to run the Rock n' Roll Dallas Half Marathon. It was Jeff's first race, so despite my complete lack of training, I was pretty excited!

On Saturday, we headed to the Expo to pick up our race packets and stuff our faces with free samples. Then we spent some time touring Dallas, and I got a history lesson from the Jeffers when we visited the Grassy Knoll.

We met up with Jason—Jeff’s bff from college, who is the reason we signed up for the race—and spent most of the afternoon lounging by the W pool. Considering that I haven’t worn a bathing suit since our trip to Hawaii a lifetime ago, I was a pretty happy camper to be out in the sun. Check out these two characters with their matching sunglasses:

I took a long nap while Jeff went to the JFK museum (I’d had my share of history for the day), and then we headed out to carbo load and eat some serious pasta.

Sunday morning, we got up at 6:00AM and despite being tired, I got up right away—too jittery to stay in bed when my mind was screaming “RACE DAY!!!!”

I’m a little nervous before every race because there’s always an element of uncertainty… Even when you’ve trained well and hard, you never know what is going to happen. Cramps can come out of nowhere, muscles can get pulled, stomachs get upset, alarm clocks malfunction, headphones stop working, racing bibs get forgotten—and even after the most careful, meticulous planning, sh*t still happens.

I try to minimize the risks as much as I possibly can by setting two alarms, getting to the start line with time to spare, making a list of items to bring, packing in advance—and most importantly, by following the golden rule of racing:

NEVER.CHANGE.ANYTHING.ON.RACE.DAY.

By now, I have my pre-race ritual down to a science—from what I can or can’t eat, to making sure all my gadgets are charged, to what running clothes will be most comfortable. It may sound a little over the top, but every time I’ve changed something last minute, I’ve regretted it. Race day is not the time to experiment with different/new products, stretches, foods, etc. That’s what training runs are for.

But I digress…

The race went really well! I was 6-mins off my PR, but felt pretty good about finishing well under 2-hrs considering the amount of training I had done (zero).

But most of all, I was so proud of my man! He finished in 1:50 and felt good the whole time. Before the race, he said that his would be his "first and last," but I think he may have caught the running bug because I'm already hearing talk about signing up for the Detroit Marathon this year! I know only too well how addictive this can get.. especially for competitive people like us, who are always trying to improve our time.

It felt really good to do a race without the pressure of having a strict time goal. I listened to my body and settled into a pace that felt comfortable--and it was actually faster than I had predicted! My knee bothered me, as usual, but by mile 10 I had done a pretty good job of ignoring it. This was actually the first race where I managed to do negative splits so I was really proud of myself. I finished sprinting and my last mile was actually my fastest.

So now I may have caught the running bug too (again). Detroit doesn't sound that bad after all... Now I just need to get this knee fixed!

A few more pictures....

Freezing at the start line... It was close to 90 degrees the day before and temps dropped to low 50's on race day

Check out the poor girl on the left...

Adventures in Fishing

Since I am barely doing any running, I decided it was time to take on another sport. Of course I chose what could arguably be considered the most sedentary sport of all time--if a sport at all: Fishing. Oh, yes, you heard me.

Of course, my initial thought was to sunbathe with a good novel while Jeff caught all the fish, then cleaned them for our dinner. Alas, the reality of it was very different…

On Sunday, we headed to Dick's Sporting Goods to load up on all kinds of fishing equipment - rods, hooks, line, and of course, bait aka. disgusting squirmy live worms.

After watching the Michigan basketball game at Sushi Zushi (all that fishing talk made me crave sashimi), we headed to Brushy Creek in Cedar Park.

Getting there took a little longer than predicted because we got lost due to bad directions, but we still had a few hours of sunshine left.

Unfortunately, we had a rough start… Once we opened the can of worms (prophetic) we realized that they were all dead. Not just dead, but melted together and shriveled up to the size of toothpicks—soggy, rotten toothpicks, actually. As if those things weren’t gross enough already.

So we had no worms and were forced to fish with the little sparkly gummy worm-type fake fish we got at Dicks. Fine with me!

But as it turns out, my sparkly pink fishing rod was not the best quality (shocker). The line got all tangled up pretty much immediately, and when it wasn’t getting tangled on its own, I would of course manage to get it wrapped around some kind of branch while attempting to cast it (in my defense, it was really windy!).

So, two hours, a multitude of mosquito bites, and no fish later, we were getting pretty discouraged. The last drop was when a gigantic bug flew directly into Jeff’s eye, which promptly began to swell. We decided to call it a day.

***

The next day, I called Dick’s from my desk at work, and treated my co-workers to what must have sounded like a very interesting conversation starting with “Hi! Do y’all have any live worms?”

I learned that apparently all the worms in their fridge had perished and it would be another week till they had live ones. Not to be deterred, I headed to a specialty bait shop after work. When the owner - a very nice guy names Joe - learned that we were going to Brushy Creek, he insisted on giving me some live minnows from his huge tank.

He then demonstrated how I was to pierce the poor lil fishy’s head with the hook (“It ain’t gonna kill it; he’ll keep flappin’ around to attract the big fish”). I had to hide my horror the entire time and just nodded as if, yep, no problem, that sounded like a plan.

Yuck.

We decided to try Emma Long Park this time, but still no luck.

All we managed to catch was this little sunfish Jeff is holding.

Still, we are not giving up!

A few lessons learned:

- Fish don’t eat chicken, so use worms.

- Don’t attempt to hold a worm with a leaf as you try to put it on a hook. Sadly, there’s no way to do it without touching the little monsters.

- Worms BLEED. Yes, they bleed red gooey blood… GROSS!

- Don’t attempt to clean off the gooey worm blood from your hands with scented wet wipes. Apparently, the fish don’t like the smell of lavender and vanilla. Who knew?

The Good, the Bad... and the Slowly

This weekend I went out for a 10-mile run with Jeff in preparation for the race (2 weeks from now—yikes!). It was my one and only long-ish training run. Although it was great to have a running buddy (a shirtless, handsome one to boot!)—I am undeniably out of shape. My knee started hurting after mile 2 and the pain only got worse as the run progressed, and I got progressively slower...

Gone are the days when I could do a 10-mile run and keep my average pace close to 8-minutes. Gone are the days when I was actually happy that was doing ONLY 10 miles, when that was considered an “easy” run.

Not so much right now.

The Dallas Half Marathon is only a few weeks away and I am yet to stick to any kind of training plan. All I’ve managed to get in is a few miles here and there, plus some lifting. A few sad realizations:

- My knee is destroyed.

- I know that I need to start physical therapy.

- I know that I need to be stretching, foam rolling, etc.

- I know that I am going to regret not being prepared…

But is that enough to get my butt on that treadmill or running outside consistently? Ah, no.

So we're wingin' this one.

After the race, I plan on focusing on overall conditioning: lifting more and doing more circuit training. Still, I think I can manage shorter, fun, spontaneous runs. You know, when you decide last minute that it's too beautiful a day to stay indoors, impulsively change into your running clothes and head out the door--no Garmin, no plan, no goal. Just you and your own natural pace. I need more of those moments, and luckily had one a week ago:

Last Saturday was a beautiful spring day here in Austin. The sun was shining, temperatures were in the high 60’s… it would be a sin to run indoors.

I quickly debated the pros and cons of running outside vs. just going to the gym. The gym definitely sounded more convenient: I knew how to get there without getting lost (um, yea, still learning my way around Austin). I could just pound out a few miles and come home--no sunscreen required... But then I looked outside again and my decision was made.

The goal was to run at least five miles (ideally ten) at any comfortable pace.

I made it downtown in one piece, found my exit, and even managed to find the perfect parking spot—no need to parallel park! I stretched for a few minutes and started running... Past people fishing, past little kids rolling down grassy hills, past the UT crew team gliding across the lake. I felt my heart expand with happiness.

What a blessing to be living in this great city. I felt so lucky to be alive, to be breathing in this beautiful day, to feel the sun against my bare shoulders, to be outside... It was one of those rare moments when everything just fell into place and I couldn't help but think "Now this is why I love running."