Just Plodding Along

Well this half was a mix of good, bad and frozen. The Schaumburg Half and 5K Turkey Trot  takes place in Schaumburg, IL mostly in a forest preserve. It is mostly paved bike path with some short sections through grass.  The course is point to point though there were two out and back sections. I left my abode at 6:40 this morning and arrived at the finish area for packet pick-up around 8 a.m. Packet pick-up was a breeze. After grabbing my number and fleece I practically sprinted back to my car to stay warm. There was a moment when I woke up and thought hey I could just stay in bed. And then there was another moment when I sat shivering in my car, the big Arizona baby I am am, when I thought hey I got my fleece I could just drive home, heater on full blast. But I knew I would never live that down so eventually I got up the courage to get on the bus to head to the start. After a ten minute shuttle ride to the start, I hit the loo one last time and then stood shiveri...

Don't you just hate it when you have a big mouth and instead of sitting around eating leftovers all day you have to get off your butt and run an....entire.....mile. Ugh. Day 2 of streak complete- slow start, less slow finish. Thanks Jac for keeping me on track. You rock! I am glad you accepted the challenge because apparently I can not do it without you! I totally killed Black Friday shopping. Out the door by 8:30 a.m. Got a sweet xmas tree on sale, a guest bed and mattress on sale for future visitors and Christmas gifts for the family and didn't threaten to kill anyone verbally or even have the thought cross my mind. Which is weird because usually my normal trip to the grocery store ticks me off in some way. Apparently I have shopper rage instead of road rage. But even the massive line at a department store didn't kill my holiday buzz. Christmas has arrived! Tomorrow is the Shaumburg Half and I am super not excited about it. Mostly because it is supposed t...

So when Running Times isn't grossing me out  it is filling me head with a case of the crazies. There is an interesting article about racing with the idea that you are going to run as hard as you can with the intent to basically blow up on the course and DNF. When we race our first concern is always finishing (okay so Running Times is geared more toward professional/ elite runners so their first concern is probably winning but for us normals finishing always seems to be the top concern) so we are never pushing as hard as we possibly can therefore we never really know how hard we can push ourselves unless we push ourselves to failure. Huh....... did that makes sense. Basically run hard until you puke. That is my interpretation at least. So this article has been rolling around in the vast void of a brain of mine and got me thinking- always a dangerous thing- maybe I should try this. Not really get a DNF, that would mean no medal and that would be tragic, but run as hard...