Half-Marathon Training Highlights

About two weeks ago, my husband and I took a 24 hour trip out of town to celebrate Independence Day with family, friends, food, and of course, fireworks.  After a brief cat nap in the afternoon, I went for a quick three mile run, which was really enjoyable because I was in an area in which I had not previously ran.  I feel like that always makes a run more interesting.  The downside, though, was that I looked like this for the fireworks show that evening...

Yes, my face is about as red as my shirt.  (But my sweet sister-in-law looks great!)  That's primarily because it was hot - at least 90 degrees - and I found myself running a steeper incline than I usually do.  (Our part of the state is pretty flat, but the east part is not, so I wasn't exactly prepared for that.)  It was still a great experience, though.

The rest of my runs have been pretty basic - three miles or so here and there.  (One of my best times, in fact, was three miles in 27 minutes and 49 seconds.)  Then on Saturday, I ran six miles with my friend Pam.  She's a much more accomplished runner than I am, so I was only able to keep up with her because she was fighting an injury.  And even then, six miles was a little more than I was prepared to do.  By the last mile or so, I found myself alternating between running and walking.  But I finished the run (after Pam finished and ran back to "cross the finish line" with me).  So I may have to try to talk her into doing a slighly shorter distance, like five miles, this week!

Pam and I are also running a 5K this Friday night, so I'm looking forward to that.  (Plus, she will be running in the same half marathon as me in September.  Thank goodness because I did not want to do that alone!)  The 5K will be the first of the five that I'm supposed to run this year.  I'm also hoping to beat my PR from my last 5K, which was 32:20.  I was actually kind of disappointed with that time, so I really hope to do better!