Tuesday, April 28, 2009

First Post

So I finally started my own blog! I've been reading a lot of blogs lately and finally decided that it was time to start my own. I'm not sure what I'll write about- probably just the boring things that are going on in my life at the moment. Currently, I've become obsessed with running- running marathons to be specific. I guess I will give a little introduction of my first attempt at being a marathon runner.

It's weird to say that I am a runner at all, because I definitely was not a year ago at this time. But this Summer, my sister and I thought it would be cool to run a marathon together. I live in Seattle so she decided t come visit me here from Oklahoma over Thanksgiving to run the Seattle Marathon. I ended up getting bronchitis and strep throat in the months leading up to it, so we switched it to a half marathon instead. I still had minimal training because of my illnesses- my longest run was 5.3 miles- in September! BUT I managed to finish it, and I even ran the whole way! My time was 2:31. Not bad for my first time and minimal training. It must be because I'm so young! I was really excited because my first 7 miles were exactly 11 minutes each (I know this thanks to my Garmin). So I figured if I trained some more, I could run the other 8 at that pace, and I got excited to run another one and improve my time.

So then, I actually started to legitimately train. I ran 4-5 times a week and probably averaged like 15-20 miles. My sister thought it'd be cool if I visited her in Oklahoma to do a half marathon there on April 26th and I agreed. So we registered and bought the plane ticket. My training was at its peak at this point- about the end of February. I had run a 10 mile run, and my pace was 8:51. By this time I had learned that I could run a lot faster then an 11 minute paced mile for my next half marathon.

March came and I went to Cabo for spring break and took some time off from running. Then it was April and I was like 'oh crap- I'm running a half marathon in less than a month'. So I started running a lot again. On April 7th, I ran 6 miles at an average 9:12 pace, which was the longest I had run since that 10 miler. So I was feeling ok because I hadn't lost all my training from the beginning of the year.

And then...that night...after feeling confident about the coming up race...I broke my foot. I rolled it on the sidewalk while walking. I was with some friends and I kept telling them about the race I had to run and they assured me I'd be fine. I limped on it the next day- it didn't hurt that much so I didn't go to the doctor. Then my sister told me I should get it checked out just to see if they could do anything to quicked the recovery process. I went in, had an x-ray... then the doctor tells me I have to wear a boot for 5 weeks. 5 weeks! The marathon was 15 days away! And then I started crying right there and pretty much was in shock and cried the rest of the day.

But, alas. It is now 3 weeks later and my foot is doing ok. I still visited my sister this past weekend, but we defered our enrollment until next year. Instead we went to an exotic animal farm and played with a baby lion! It was very fun, but I wish I could have run the race! Next year though.

I have some ambitions for the future, but I'll talk about those in my next post. Thanks to anyone who read this!

7 comments:

  1. Good start for your blog - I'm honored to be the first to comment! I trained for the Chicago marathon (2007) while living in Seattle, so I am REALLY familiar with the Burke Gilman. Good luck and I hope your foot heals soon.

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  2. Hi! Thanks for checking out my blog! That's how I started blogging, too. Reading other runner's blogs really inspired me. I think a full marathon is definitely in your future! Sounds like your foot is healing nicely? Hope you get back on your feet very soon. :-)

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  3. Welcome to the world of blogging! Glad to hear the foot is feeling better. Runners are a friendly lot and bloggers too so welcome to the club! I'll get you on my blog roll because now that you've mentioned running a marathon, you have no choice but to go through with it!

    Joe
    www.fitnessgeek.theschulmans.org

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  4. Welcome to blogging, it's such a great way to find advice and a family of supportive runners (even if it is only virtually).

    Gu...let's see...it took me a LONG time to get used to the consistency. But I actually really like the PowerBar brand, it's more liquidy (if that makes sense). Double Latte PowerBar or Vanilla Bean Gu are the best, in my opinion. Double Expresso by Cliff Shot is also tasty.

    Good luck healing that foot!

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  5. Great start! Be careful with the foot. I injured my foot and tried to run too soon and ended up doing more damage. There are lots of marathons out there so you have plenty of time to recover and train. You also live in a great running area so enjoy!

    All the best!

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  6. Welcome to blogosphere! Thanks for the comment on my blog. Glad to hear I'm not the only one not racing but sorry to hear about your foot. But you have a great attitude and marathons are not going away any time soon. Heal up and they'll be waiting for you :-)

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  7. Can't wait for the Seattle marathon this Thanksgiving!

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