Where's the Beach?

Half Marathon number 10 is in the books with a shiny new PR! Saturday I ran the CASA Half Marathon . This was the 2nd time running this particular race. It's a smaller race, but for a great cause as it supports the CASA Women's Shelter. It's still a new race, and is continuing to grow, and for good reason. It's truly a flat and fast course. I earned a PR last year at the race actually. Because of my marathon training, I initially wasn't sure if I would go into this as a race or as a training run. The day of, I knew I was racing 100%. It was in the mid- to upper-40s at the start with overcast skies, but very little wind. My plan was to just go with how I was feeling, find a pace and try to sustain it for as long as possible. I know many runners start out slower and increase their pace. I tend to be pretty consistent with my splits throughout. I did a super easy 1 mile run to warm up before heading to the start. I wanted up closer to the front, but not the very ...

I wanted to thank everyone again for the congratulations on my CASA Half Marathon . If you ever want to sleep very very soundly, run your fastest half. I slept 12 hours Saturday night. That was even after having had a catnap around 3:45. I imagine the other way to sleep that soundly is by running a full. Sunday was a very lazy day for me other than running a few errands. Basically, the rest of the weekend was a no hair and no make up weekend for me. The only reason I got out of PJs was to leave the house. By Monday, my hamstrings and inner thighs (odd right?), and piriformis were hating me from the race. I knew I needed to get my legs moving to work out some of the stiffness. I also desperately needed a massage. And I do mean desperate. I actually do not like massages at all. I know, I know ... crazy. I don't know what most people's post-race recovery is like, but I'm usually pretty wiped out and the muscle soreness starts to set in big time by day 2. I also know that...

If you recall, I posted last Thursday about not feeling truly prepared for this half marathon. We had been having very cold temps that seemed to be negatively impacting my running. My last training week was slow and felt very difficult overall. Luckily, the temperatures for the CASA Half Marathon had started to go up. Race start was 39 degrees with a "feels like" temperature of 36. The problem was that it was heavy fog and the winds were starting to kick up. This means damp and raw basically. The CASA Half Marathon is a small race. It's one I had not done before. I decided to sign up for it on the tail end of the PR high from the Soaring Wings Half . Sometimes I think there should be a law that states you must wait x number of weeks after one race before signing up for another. Seriously, runner's amnesia can bite you in the butt. But, I signed up for it. I was going to run it. It was a flat course, so I was kind of looking forward to that for a change. But, I ...