Huntsville Half Marathon

I ran my third half marathon yesterday morning. The morning started early as we made the drive to the race. We were all sleepy and a bit cranky (Carter was very cranky) as we didn't get to bed as early as I would have liked due to circumstances outside of our control. Nonetheless, it was a beautiful morning at a cool 65 degrees--perfect. My goal each time I run a race is to improve my previous time so I set out to run an 8:45 mile pace, but I didn't know how the numerous hills would affect me. Not all the hills were steep, but there were at least two steep ones and all the hills were definitely more of an incline than I ever run on my regular routes. The lowest elevation was 357 feet and the highest elevation was 490 feet during the half marathon course. Our good friends, the Burches, were there with us again for this half marathon. I'm so proud of Jacob who swore after the Galveston Half that he would never run a half marathon again. Not only did he run it again, but I believe he smoked his time from the Galveston run!

Here we are with a thumbs up ready to run the race.

This week we got a Garmin to help me track my runs. It's expensive, but amazing! I love being able to see what pace I'm running at any glance of the watch. I can see my mileage, set a pace guy to run with, see calories burned, etc. And I love being able to analyze the data afterwards on my computer. Love it! I've always clocked my regular running routes with my car, so I could not deviate from my routes if I wanted to know how far I ran and thus be able to calculate my average running pace. Clocking the mileage with my car, needless to say, is not the most accurate. (One of my loops that I do my car clocked at 1.1 miles and my Garmin clocked at 1.05 which makes a difference when I'm running long distances.) It's just nice to know and to be able to run any direction I feel like and my Garmin will clock it. Have I mentioned yet that I love it?

Anyway, the race course was two 6.55 mile loops. (So those two steep hills I mentioned previously I had to run twice making it 4 steep hills.) The first half I ran really well and surprised even myself that I was doing so well. My slowest mile in the first half was 8:35 and fastest was an 8:14. The hills didn't bother me too much because the downhill more than made up for the uphill I thought. The second half of the race was a little harder. The hills seemed more unbearable. By mile 11 the downhills hurt more than the uphills because momentum would carry my body faster than I was able to go at that point. The second half of the race my fastest mile was an 8:23 and my slowest mile was a 9:11.

Here I am sprinting at the finish.

I was so pleased with the final results! According to my Garmin, my average pace was an 8:34 minute-mile which put me finishing 13.1 miles at 1:52:13. I knocked 5 minutes off last year's half marathon time. That is a significant improvement, and I'm finally out of the rut of running 9-minute miles! Running is invigorating, and I love seeing improvement. As always, a big thank you to the support of my husband who had to deal with two cranky boys for the two hours that I ran.

After the race

The best picture of me and my boys. Caleb is unable to look at the camera for a picture these days.

Pumpkin Time

Some cooler weather came our way, so what better time to visit a pumpkin patch? We went today for a preschool field trip.

The best picture we could get of my boys and me.

Jackets were a necessity with the cool wind! Each person got to take a pumpkin home after the field trip.

A train ride

Playing at the park while we ate lunch in a pavilion. Carter just went back and forth between the swing and the animals.

Petting the dogs

Kissing a goat

I actually got a picture with Carter looking at the camera and smiling!!

Looking at these pictures of Carter, he looks like the sweetest most lovable little boy--which he can be at times. He actually is quite the challenge, especially compared to Caleb. He's into bullying/hurting other smaller children with pinching, biting, and pulling hair. I'm having fun working through it especially when he doesn't understand the connection between the consequences and the undesirable behavior. A lot of his aggressive behavior has to do with the inability to verbally tell me what he wants. Hopefully this is just a passing stage and not here to stay!

Carter with his cousin Gavin.

The cooler weather is very welcome after the hot summer weather. We hope it is here to stay!

Cantaloupe

We haven't done as well staying on top of our garden this year, but we are producing some cantaloupe. This is the biggest one so far, and there are about 6 more growing right now. Caleb finds it so exciting to watch them get bigger and finally to pick them! We'll have to do better next year.

Running Update

A year ago at this time, I was training for a marathon. Carter was 6 months old, and I had been training for 2 months already. It was definitely difficult to work the training around nursing, but it felt invigorating to seriously train again after taking a 6 week break when Carter was born and doing some light running to try to get back in shape. Since my marathon on January 1st of this year, I haven't run any other races, but I have kept up the running to around 6 miles. Since the money can add up to run a lot of races, I didn't plan on running another race until November. I planned to run the Galveston half marathon again this year since I enjoyed the run last year along the Seawall looking out at the ocean. Unfortunately it was cancelled. The next half marathon race I was aware of nearby wasn't until March. I was kind of bummed. It's fun to work towards a race, but March was too far off.

A few days ago, I learned of a half marathon coming up in 3 weeks about 45-60 minutes away. Today I ran 13.1 miles to make sure I could do it, then I signed up. It's a month sooner than the Galveston race I was planning on, which cuts my training short. There's more I still want to do to shave minutes off my time, but I'll just have to make do.

I have made great strides in improving my running times. I've been able to run up to 6 miles in 8:45-9:00 minute-miles depending on the day while pushing my kids in a double running stroller. Today's 13.1 mile time was 1:54:35, 3 minutes faster than my half marathon last November, and the last mile was pushing the stroller as Matt had to be somewhere. The pace was 8:45-minute-miles. I'm hoping to run just as well in 3 weeks if not faster. The number one thing that might get in the way? Hills. The half marathon I signed up for I haven't considered in the past due to the hills. There are 2 large hills and other mild hills throughout the race. There are not many hills to train on around here that are close, so I have not done much hill training. In the next 3 weeks, I hope I can get a chance to run some hills but will have the difficulties of time (the closest hills are 20 minutes away so that's 40 minutes of driving time) and having to push my kiddos in the stroller. It's exciting to have a race on the calendar though and to have a time frame to push myself harder. Races have such a fun atmosphere, and I'm looking forward to it!