It was EIGHTEEN DEGREES when the half started at 8:30am. EIGHTEEN DEGREES.
Now I know that people who live in colder climates, where it is often MUCH colder than 18 degrees in the winter, will go running outside like it's no big deal. They pile on the appropriate running gear and just go for it.
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| Like this guy in Russia....... |
But this girl isn't all about 18 degrees. Especially along the river when the wind is blowing. BRRRRRRRR. Once I got moving, I was actually perfectly fine when I wasn't running against the wind. I actually got hot and had to shed my gloves and jacket. But against the wind.....BRRRRRRRR.
My friend Angie and I ran together, and neither one of us were really prepared for a half marathon, though she was better prepared than I was. I did pretty well until I crossed Mile 7. That's when things started to fall apart. My lungs were fine, and I didn't get any side stitches (like I usually do), but my legs were killing me. My thigh muscles were screaming and my feet felt like lead weights that just kept getting heavier and heavier (the "unpreparedness" was setting in......my body was saying WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING????).
Overall, Angie and I completed about 10.7 miles before calling it a day. I was having to walk quite a bit of those last 3 miles, and Angie's ankle started bothering her and she was afraid that if she pushed those last 2+ miles she'd end up with an injury. So we ALMOST made it the whole 13.1!
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| A pic taken of me after the first loop, about 2.5 miles in. Right before I shed my gloves and jacket. |
The potluck portion of the event was INSANE. That was the most amount of food (and food variety) I had ever seen at any race EVER! There was everything from bagels to doughnuts to homemade sausage balls and homemade brownies and homemade chili to a guy grilling hot dogs and grilled cheese sandwiches over hot coals. Along with hot coffee and hot chocolate and chocolate milk and Gatorade and sodas galore. And that doesn't even cover it. Had it not been so darn cold I would have stuck around and enjoyed more of it!
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| Some of the aid station snacks. |
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| ONE of the finishing food tables. |
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| Grilled cheese. YES SIR. |
Would I do this race again? Absolutely. I will just hopefully be more half marathon-ready next time, and it hopefully won't be quite SO cold. Run Chattanooga is hosting a Raccoon Mountain Marathon, Half Marathon and Relay on March 21st that I am considering signing up for. It will be a month AFTER the Scenic City Half Marathon (which I am running) so I should definitely be ready for another half by then. At least one would hope so, right?
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| The Raccoon Mountain Marathon course. That's a nice lookin' course! |
Now onto my current weight loss happenings (and the point where some people might decide to close their browser window hahaha):
It's been 2 weeks, and I am down 2 pounds. Sigh. I know that 1-2 pounds a week is a good, steady pace, but I was really hoping I'd be rocking the 2 lbs a week instead of the 1 lb a week. And the even more frustrating part is, I've been doing REALLY well minus a few exceptions. I've been eating healthy about 90% of the time and I've been running 3x a week the past 2 weeks.
I've been feeling like this has been so much harder this second time around, but then I looked up my weight loss tracking chart from October 2010 through December 2011. I logged everything on an Excel spreadsheet as motivation. And as it turns out, I didn't lose anything the first 8 weeks! It took me 15-16 weeks to lose 10 lbs, and then it took me a whole 31 weeks to lose 22 lbs. My weight fluctuated up and down and up and down constantly! So I guess that's what I have to look forward to! I don't feel so bad now.
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| Weeks 1-12 (starting October 2010) |
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| Weeks 12-24 |
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| Weeks 25-36 |
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| Weeks 37-48 |
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| Weeks 49-60 |
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| Weeks 61-64 |
I stopped logging after December 2011 because I was then pregnant with Delano and so no longer losing weight. :) I started logging again in September 2012 a month after giving birth to Delano, but I didn't keep up with it very well and eventually gave up. Lately I've been keeping up with my runs on the Runkkeeper app, and keeping up with my weight on the Monitor Your Weight app. Maybe I should try my Excel spreadsheet method again......it seemed to work the first time, plus it's nice to be able to go back and look at it as a morale booster!
Bring on the next week and the next pound!
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