Mention of the Running

My last official running post was here. I had been running consistently for a month and I was happy with the results.

And then....McKenzie decided that we needed to run a HALF MARATHON. If you go back and reread that post, you will notice that there is NO GOAL to do a Half Marathon. If anything, I think I was working up to a 10K.

But things change. I agreed to run the Halloween Half with McKenzie and we have been training hard ever since. That is why there have been random mentionings of runs here and there. The weekends are usually when we do our long runs. There was that 8 miler in the canyons that was terrible. We thought maybe that was the end of our road. But we went on to run 10 miles the next week and it was nice. Here is a picture from that run that McKenzie took. We were at Bridal Veil Falls. (Yes, I look a little stoned.)

In the course of these long runs, I have learned some things about myself:

* I don't like to listen to music. (This is probably because I have never had music to listen to, and I enjoy talking to McKenzie more.)

* I don't need a lot of water. (Unless it is sunny, and then please pour a bucket on my head. But these cool Fall days are wonderful, and I don't need to replenish much.)

* I am comfortable talking or being quiet. McKenzie is the perfect partner. We chat and run, and sometimes just run.

* I am think I am more of a 10k girl. I feel really good up until mile seven or eight and then my knees really start to hurt. I have been taping my knee and that helps, but I would rather skip the pain.

* I do like to run. But I like to run with someone. I know the only thing getting me up in the morning is McKenzie. I would not be so diligent by myself.

We did 11 miles a week ago, and it was great. There was knee pain and some really questionable footing after dark, but other than that, it was a good run.

This last weekend was 12 miles. It gets a little tricky finding a good route that goes so far. I feel like we are running ALL OVER the city. (And we are!) This time we started over at Kiwanis park. It had a great view of the 'Y'.

Tyler and I were trading kids. (Have I mentioned how awesome he has been supporting me through all this running?) Here are the kids being cute.

And then here we are about ready to run our epic 12 miler.

It was a good run. However, the last couple miles my body went on autopilot. My knees were very sore, and I knew that I needed just to keep a rhythm and finish the course. There was a downhill at the end, and that was probably the worst of the whole thing. Downhill is very unfriendly on sore knees and I hobbled down the hill like an old woman. I'm pretty sure no one would call it running. But we did it. 12 miles!!

We rock!

And then in an ironic turn of events, my knees felt fabulous the next day...and I threw my back out playing Volleyball. I guess it is good that we only have filler runs until the race. And I think my back will be fine tomorrow when we run again. (Finger crossed.)

I do know that we can do hard things. And I am not worried about the race. It will come, I will run it, and I will finish. I will get my personal best (since I have never run that far before) and I will be happy that I did it. But if you asked if I would do it again...the answer would probably be no. I think I'll stick to the shorter runs for a while and work on improving my speed. We'll see.

Stay tuned for race results. We are going to do this.