Running Update

Bill and I started running at the beginning of this year. It's been a great change. We've both lost some weight and generally gotten in better shape, we feel way better, and it's been fun to train the last few months for the half marathon we're running on Halloween.

Bill just ran into a hiccup. Whoops, no pun intended, lol. He thinks he sprained his ankle on his Thursday run and, not realizing that, ran again yesterday and totally aggravated it. So now he's hobbling around hardly able to walk and hopefully we can get him healed soon. Such a bummer.

Hurricane Joaquin didn't make landfall this week like some expected, but it did contribute to a crazy rainstorm that we've been in for the last three days. We're basically floating away. Our yard and carport are under inches of water. Thankfully it rains a lot here, so everything we have outside is pretty well rainproofed. I haven't had to move much of anything to keep it from getting soaked.

Despite the rain, I had a nine-mile run scheduled yesterday. It has only been in the 60s, so the rain is way colder, but I got myself out and going in between conference sessions yesterday. It happened to be a Clemson game day as well, so despite the crazy rainstorms the tailgaters were out in force. I generally run around the university because it has the best roads and trails, so I wound my way through all the revelers, got a few high fives and shout outs along the way, and got my run done in about a nine-minute mile.

Bill and I have seen our mile times significantly decrease in the last month. We found a multivitamin that has made a huge difference, and we're in such better shape after nine months of running, so that was actually a slow run for me, which was nice. I didn't want to be fighting my lungs and exhausted legs at the same time as dealing with all the rain, so I took it slow. Nine miles still feels like a long distance, so I was a bit worried. I can't describe how nice it feels to be back feeling like I can actually run fast. I haven't been at that place since before we got married, so it feels amazing to finish runs closer to eight-minute miles than nine and some even faster. The last half marathon I ran was in 2008 and I ran it in 1:39, which is sub-eight minute pace. After so many years of pretty weak efforts at running, due to a combination of grad school and three kids, it feels amazing that I can imagine getting back to that kind of pace again. I had wondered if I just had gotten past my prime for those kinds of times. Turns out that's totally  not the case and with a combination of a serious training program, better nutrition, quality supplements, and efforts to get decent sleep (haha!), the speed is coming back.

And just for kicks and giggles, here's what I looked like after my run yesterday. I was completely soaked.