Who knew Fairview had so many hills?

This past Saturday I ran my first half marathon in 7 months, The Showdown Half in Fairview, TX. And there were many differences between this one and the first one. Some were good differences and some were bad...

1. I was definitely less nervous about this one. But I still didn't sleep all that well the night before. I dreamed about forgetting stuff and getting stuck on the course. (neither of which happend, by the way)

2. I was NOT in as good a shape as I was for the Rock 'n Roll one. I didn't train the way I should have and did pretty much none of my mid-week runs. And I only trained to 8 miles. And I felt every bit of my lack of training on pretty much every mile.

3. I carried my own water this time. It was so much better than having to depend on aide stations.

4. Because I didn't train past 8 miles, I miss judged my food. I was crazy hungry by the end of the race. Not good. But definitely a lesson learned.

5. Heidi and I stayed together for most of the race. In the Rock n Roll I went ahaed and finished about 10 minutes ahead of her. Not this time, we finished together. She might have even beat me. But it was good to run together. We pretty much kept each other going.

6. This was a much smaller race. It was easy to get to, easy to park, and easy to grab lunch right after. I LOVED that part of it. Not sure I will ever do a big race again (okay, I MIGHT do another one, I just really liked the size of this one).

7. Greg met me at the end. I loved seeing him at the finish line after I had just ran 13.1 miles AND he gave me a kiss even though I looked gross and I didn't even want to touch me.

8. I finished 30 minutes slower this race. That's not good BUT it has given me motivation to get in more training (and maybe loose a few pounds between now and my New Years Day half)

9. Hills. I hate hills. I pretty much stay away from hills on all training runs and I don't look at elevation maps before races because its never been an issue before BUT I was mistaken this time. Who knew Fairview had so many hills? I do now. Because I ran EVERY. DANG. ONE. of them on Saturday.

Elevation for Showdown Marathon

 And since I was fooled on this race, I thought I would look up the elevation for my next half in two weeks...

Elevation for Chosen Marathon

AND now I am officially scared for the Chosen Marathon in New Braunfels. Maybe I will 'injur' myself between now and then and I can just cheer Evie on rather than have to run it myself? It's not like I get a medal at the end. Hmmm...

I have made the decision to not run the Dallas Half (which I had sort of set my sights on before Saturday) and drop my training all the way back down to 6 miles before training up to a New Years Day Half.

In other news...

I am still in grad school (and beginning to have lots of assignments due)
I am still a high school teacher (and beginning to drown at work)
I am still dating Greg (and it just gets better)
I am still trying to loose weight (this will be a life long struggle)
I am still hanging out with my fantastic friends (although not nearly as often as I would like)

That's all for now...

Love Always,
Cynthia