Apologies for Last season!

Obviously, last season has been over and done with for quite some time. Thanks to school and the rest of life, I have neglected our blog here and haven't really ever thought of it. I am determined to do better in the future.

So, quick synopsis of last season:

Training for the Chicago half-marathon started in June last summer. I ran again for Team World Vision and with runner #2, just not over the summer. I found training to be a lot more difficult the second time around. Not because of it being too strenuous, but because of time. I work a full time job when I'm home from school and we leave at 7:20am every morning, sometimes earlier ( I know, yuck!) and don't get home til 7:00pm. Trying to fit in a workout before or after is tough. If that were all though, I probably wouldn't complain. I live in the great state of Texas! And yes, in the summer it is HOT. Once it gets later in the summer, usually mid-July, the evenings are almost as hot as the days. The temperatures stay up around 96-98 degrees (Fahrenheit) until the sun has been set. I refuse to run if it's 100 degrees or more. It's pretty uncomfortable, but unfortunately, the mornings get shorter so I can't fit in my workouts in the morning. As runner #2 would say, "Strugglebus."

Okay, I'm done complaining. It was still a great season! 4 of us tried to run the Half together and even acted like airplanes with our arms outstretched whenever we saw photographers. Lesson learned: ALWAYS HAVE A RUNNING BUDDY! It truly makes any race a phenomenal experience. 2 of us eventually had to split off though. If you didn't know, probably because you may not have run far enough to experience this, there comes a point when stopping is so much worse than running. The legs seize up, and it's just an overall unpleasant thing but, hey, great motivation to keep going! Anyways, another runner and I decided to tackle about the half of the race at a more consistent, plodding pace. I didn't know her all that well, so it was fun. It was her first time to run a half, and I was really glad to be there to encourage her to the end. We also had some friends there to cheer us on. Some of them were runners too that would be running the Chicago Marathon in October; some were boyfriends - or future boyfriends ;) When we finished, I actually didn't feel that awful muscle seizure that I was expecting. Granted, I hadn't run near as hard as I had the previous year (almost half the pace). But, hey, I was there to run with friends and for clean water in Africa. The odd this was, is that I was convinced I could've run another one and wasn't sore for a week!

That's pretty much it for last year. Stay tuned for the beginning of this season 2014!
This time: WE'RE RUNNING THE FULL!

Run Hard!
Runner #1