Houston Half Marathon

In May of 2012, I signed up for the Houston Half Marathon for January of 2013.  I had really enjoyed the 2012 race as was ready to do another and I had even seen some pregnant women running the full marathon the year before, so I thought that I could do the half easily.  Well, being a pregnant diabetic was a little more work than I thought that it would be.  Although I kept running, I was not running very long distances and the amount that I had to check my blood sugar and levels that I had to keep it at were not conducive to the half, so my doctor told me I couldn't run it (which was honestly kind of a relief to hear).  So my big belly and I deferred my entry to the 2014 race.

After having Sadie, I wasn't cleared to run until 6 weeks after she was born.  I started off slow and easy (honestly slightly afraid my stitched from the c-section would rip open..haha..).  Luckily, they did not!  I think that starting running again after all that my body had been through would have been difficult, but starting all of this at the end of June in Houston added a new facet to it.  Once I got back into it though, running became my "me" time.   After Sadie turned 6 months, I was able to bring her along with me and I have enjoyed getting to introduce her to outside time and being active.

I planned out my training for the January race by adding 2 miles a month until I got up to 12 miles and running that distance a few times.  I was not able to run as many days a week to train, but that's okay!

Last Sunday, I finally got to run my race.  I felt about as nervous as I did for my first half.  I was running this distance in a race for the first time in 2 years, without a running partner and all of my training runs had been slow.

The weather was wonderful and thanks to full nights sleep from my little one, I felt rested.  I started off cautiously, afraid that I would be unable to finish or would have to walk.  

I ended up finishing in 1:52:35 and felt great.  I was exactly two minutes slower than 2 years and a baby ago.  I'll take it! Nine half marathons completed! Now I'm ready to sign up for the 10th!

I hate driving downtown and the road closures make me nervous, so I was SUPER early...like the 5th person in my corral

Nervous, but ready to run 

Finish time

 So excited to be finished!

The Color Run

Last weekend, Meagan, Lauren, Carolina and I participated in the Color Run, which was basically an adult's excuse to get really dirty.  We showed up at the beginning of the 5k in white and left absolutely covered in layers of colors.  Every little bit there would be a color station that you would run through where they would throw a certain color of colored powder on you.  The kicker was at the very end we each had packets of the colored powder.  They counted down and then everyone threw up their packet in the air.  If you looked up, you could literally see nothing but the powder...kind of freaky.  What a fun day!

National Running Day

It is National Running Day! And luck you, you still have time to fit in a run (and it will actually be cooler than when I ran).
On their website, National Running Day starts off the sentence "I run because."  I was thinking about mine today and here's what I've come up with so far.
I run because:
it makes me feel good, it makes me healthy, I like chocolate, it gives me a sense of accomplishment, it challenges me, it gives me energy, it gives me time with my friends, it gives me time by myself, it gives me a break from school work, it allows me to decompress after a hard day, it gives me time to think, it gives me time to pray, it keeps me in shape, it helps me set new goals...
I could probably keep going, but those are just a few of my reasons.  Why do you run?

Carolina and I ran intervals this afternoon at Matzke Park to celebrate the day.  Now its your turn to go out and run : )

On the brink..

of a break! Praise the Lord my grad school semester is ALMOST over! I will have a few weeks break before the summer session begins.  Unfortunately for me though summer session starts on the last student day of school school (aka kindergarten), so I will not have an absolute break for both.  I will however be grateful for what I do have.  These next two weeks will be BUSY though with final projects, so I've played today.
After staying up late for our staff retreat Friday night, I got up early to head down to the City Centre for the Green 6.2 (10k) with Carolina.

It was a hot run, but a great way to start a Saturday.
Afterwards we met up with Dinah for breakfast & coffee at Flora & Muse.  Great atmosphere and food!  And we did a little shopping.  I love the City Centre.
I ran by Ikea to pick up a few things that you will see once they're actually put to use in the organization of my office and then headed on to lunch with Lyndsey, Chris, Jenni and Dave.

Other than church and a few other distracted breaks, I've been working on grad school.
Praying God can help me sustain my attention span and focus long enough to get these projects finished!!  Have a great week!

Finally a break

This week I've been able to finish my grad school work and still have time for fun!
Thursday night we went to Canyon Creek to celebrate my sweet friend Meagan's birthday!


Saturday morning, super bright and early, I ran the Woodlands half marathon with my favorite running partners! This was my 8th half.

We also met up with Annie before the race!

Although I didn't beat my Houston time, we still had a great run and finished in 1:52:11 making it my second best time! I love Saturday races. It gives your body a little more time to recover before Monday.

Later that day, we met up with Carolina, Jorge, Meagan and their friends Bethany and James for a relaxing afternoon of visiting.

Hope everyone has had a chance to enjoy this beautiful weather!! I think that a puppy park trip may be in order sometime today after church to let the pups enjoy it too!

Hot Chocolate

This weekend Lauren, Carolina and I headed up to Dallas to see Beth and Kelly.
We arrived Friday night to a very pinteresty scene of energy bites and fruit. Yum!
Saturday morning we got up super early and stepped outside to be shocked by the lower than freezing temps. OMG it was SO cold!! We drove over to the fairgrounds (aka Cotton Bowl) for the Hot chocolate 5k/15k.

Kelly and Beth ran the 5k

and Lauren, Carolina and I ran the 15k I have never run that many miles that bundled up before!

It was a beautiful run with a few less than beautiful hills, but the best part was after the finish.
1. because we got to go inside and warm up

2. because we were given fruit, melted Ghiradelli chocolate, Ghiradelli hot chocolate and Ghiradelli squares. YUM!

3. because we got to dance to the band! They were so fun!

Afterwards, we headed for brunch (oh yes we did eat more..) at La Duni

I had the most amazing caramel cappuccino and breakfast tacos

We went out for a little shopping later in the afternoon and met up with Traci. We found a lot of great deals...

And the Starbucks love cups!

That night we headed to The Porch for a very fun dinner!


Today we headed to the Katy Trail for a morning walk

and then onto Crooked Tree CoffeeHouse for a latte and an amazing blueberry scone before heading back to Houston (I promise we did more than just eat all weekend...)

We had such a great weekend! I love getting to see my college friends and love that my friends now get along so well with them!

Happy Valentine's week to you all!

Houston (Half) Marathon

I have run quite a few half marathons. After this past weekend, the exact number is 7. I have run in Surfside, Dallas, Galveston, New Orleans, Las Colinas, and San Antonio but had not yet run in Houston. Well, I decided this year to try the half in Houston and I loved it! Look at the sweet sign one of the kinder moms made and had my kids sign! Love them!

Saturday, Carolina and I headed down to George R. Brown. We picked up our packets, explored the expo and then got to watch the end of the Olympic marathon trials! So cool! We saw Meb Keflezighi, Ryan Hall and Abdi Abdirahman clench spots on the Olympic team for the men and Shalane Flanagan, Desiree Davila and Kara Goucher claim spots for the women. What an amazing thing to watch!!

Later that day, my mom came into town and we did a little shopping, attended a wedding shower and went to see New Year's Eve (such a good movie!) before eating a pasta dinner and calling it an early night.

Sunday we were up by 4:45 (no lie..) and headed out to meet Carolina to drive downtown. Carolina and I before our 5th half marathon together.

This was a HUGE race, but was so well organized! I loved getting to see all of the fun signs and the crowd support was amazing! It definitely made a difference in my running. As did the perfect weather conditions. I beat my previous times and finished in 1:50:25 (which beat my last race in San Antonio, that was a hot and hard race for me, by 8 minutes!).

I'm on the far right just about the cross the finish line

My official time said 1:50:25..I either started my watch too early or stopped it too late

After finishing the race, Abdi Abdirahman (remember the 3rd place finisher in the Olympic trials) moseyed by in his official Olympic team jacket, so we chased him down for a picture! : ) (Yes that is a starbucks in my hand. I was so jealous of all of the spectators that had starbucks along the way, so I had to get one right after we finished...love my Skinny Vanilla Lattes!)

We went to mile 22 to support our friends Lauren (who rocked the full marathon in 4:03!!)
and Warren
and ended up seeing even more people we knew to cheer on. What amazing runners they are!! I cannot imagine (nor do I have any desire to find out) how hard those last 13.1 miles are!

We were starving at that point, so we drove around looking for a place to eat lunch and happened upon District 7 Grill where we enjoyed a wonderful brunch of egg sandwiches, migas and waffles..we had to refuel. : )

And to top off the great weekend, I'm off from school today due to MLKJ!