Race Report and New Goals

I guess I never posted a report about the Lady Speed Stick Half-Marathon at the end of August.

It went faster than I thought. The hills were pretty relentless; we agreed, my DD and me, that we would walk up some of the hills and walk through the water stops. We did that consistently. We probably walked more than either of us thought we would, but it was a really tough course. Also it was not hot, but very humid. We finished in 2:22, which is just a minute slower than my first half in April. Since the first one was on a completely flat course, I felt pretty good about my time on this one. We must have been running faster, since we walked so much more!

The best thing about it, besides finishing :-) was how quickly I recovered. I was sore for a day or two, but back to full running within 3 days. I take that as a sign that my fitness is improving, even if my time was not faster.

So I started looking around for my next challenge. We are doing the Disney Wine & Dine Half Marathon in November, so I am training for that. But I began to look beyond.

One of the women in the Lady Speed Stick half was talking about running the 50 half-marathons in 50 states challenge. There's no time limit to this--you can spend your whole life working toward the goal, and I find it very intriguing. It combines my love of running with my love of travel and seeing new places. So I think I am placing this challenge on my bucket list. Info can be found here:
http://www.halfmarathonclub.
com/

Someone on another list I am on challenged members to consider the 13 half-marathons in 2013 challenge. So that's 13 x 13.1 in 2013! Can I do it? That's a pretty big chunk to bite off, and may be too much for my age and my knees, but I might make the attempt. Once again, there's no time limit on the events, so you can walk them if you like. I have time to change my mind about that, but it is turning, turning... My recovery after the last half has encouraged me to think that it might be possible. :-)

I look back on this and think, what happened to the fat girl who was afraid of physical challenges? So glad she's gone...