San Antonio Half: Week 1

Distance: 4.05 miles
Time: 43:48
Route: A.R. Teague Parkway

Today was the official kickoff for San Antonio. I haven't run 4 miles in awhile and since I took the week in Vegas off, I was a little worried about this morning. I didn't sleep very well last night, so I got up before my alarm and off I went. I was a little cranky and just felt kind of blah about the whole thing. It was still dark out when I got to the trail, but it was already 81 degrees. Hello humidity! I popped in the tunes and off I went.

I let my mind wander during the run and realized that this is one of the things I love about running. I can just let my mind go and not harness it in. It's funny how random some of the thoughts can be. Before I knew it, I was almost at my turn around. I made it a point to NOT check my Nike+. I didn't want to know my time, I just wanted to run this morning. I started to get a little fatigued around mile 3, so I walked for 30 seconds and picked it back up. After my brief walking break, I heard a song that I haven't heard in years that I had forgotten that I had downloaded. It made me smile and kept me going. As I was running a long, I saw a white snake like thing on the trail. As I got closer, I looked at it and it was a puka shell necklace. I almost picked it up, but decided against it. It reminded me of Mark and made me smile again.

It was a great run. I missed my running buddy, but I have some catching up to do before she gets back in two weeks. I have decided to run the half instead of the full in San Antonio. After New Orleans, I kind of self-destructed as far as fitness and health go. I was very burned out and it wasn't fun anymore. I fear that if I go for the full again, the same thing might happen. Plus, when you start getting into the high mileage weeks (14-16-18-20 miles), it stops being fun and starts to become more burdensome and more painful. I've already done a full and I don't have anything to prove to anyone by doing another. I think I'll stick with the halves for awhile. I also signed up for the USAF Marathon 5K. Mark is doing the whole thing, but the 5K is the day before his race, so I figured that I'd do the 5K. It'll be fun and this way we both get to run.

Week one is done. Many more to come, but it's good to be back on track again.