half-marathon eve

My ankle is still hurting a little bit today. I thought I had an ankle brace in my arsenal of joint supports left over from my dancing days, but I couldn't find it. I did find an ACE bandage sans the clips to hold it on, so I used some safety pins to secure it. It immediately felt better with a little bit of support. I'm getting ready to make a Starbucks run and I think I'm going to run in Target and check out the ankle braces. I need something more streamlined to wear with my tennis shoes.

In other news, the weather forecast is holding steady. We're still looking at clouds in the morning and temperatures around 60. I can deal with that :) Storms are expected in the afternoon, but that should be well after we finish because we're so fast!

weather update!

The F-cast has changed a little bit since yesterday. In a good way. I may even start to think of the "F" in F-cast as Fun instead of F*&$.......... Now we're looking at a high of 74, a low of 62, and only a 40% chance of precipitation! Woot! Even better news is that the hourly forecast is now available and the outlook for 8am on Saturday is cloudy and 56 - that sounds like nice running weather to me!

In preparation for the possibility of rain, I've been doing a little bit of shopping. I am currently the owner of 2 rain jackets - neither of which I really like. Mostly because I'm cheap and I bought one at TJMaxx and the other at Marshalls. Don't get me wrong, these are 2 of my favorite stores, but you don't always get exactly what you're looking for. You don't pay 3-4 times as much either :) Anyway, one jacket is an Adidas wind jacket, which is a little too small and possibly not water resistant. The other is a Marker (some ski co.) rain jacket, which is a little too big, but it's made for the rain. I'm going to check out the TJMaxx and Ross stores near my work at lunch today and see what else I can find. Hopefully I won't need any rain gear at all on Saturday (please, please) and I can take them all back!

I realized that I haven't posted my pace lately and I don't know why because it's been damn good. In an effort to be nicer and congratulatory to myself - my pace for the past 2 weeks has been under a 9:00/mile in every run, culminating with last night's 8:26/mile :)

F-cast

Forecast for Saturday, March 28, 2009: Rain/Thunder. High 73. Low 59. Precipitation chance 70%.

Dammit.

my stats

My chiptime was 2:06:36, which means I ran a 9:40 pace. I truly did not expect to finish that fast and I am thrilled with my time!

Related news - the results were finally posted from the 5K that I ran in October. My official time was 28:58, which means my actual time was at least a few seconds faster. I also ran 6 miles that morning prior to the race. I'm thinking that I could finish a 5K at a pretty good pace if I was fresh. I'll get a chance to test that theory in early December!

i did it!

And it was awesome! Details to come :-)

my bags are packed, i'm ready to go

This is it!! We're getting ready to head out to the OBX for my first half-marathon. This is never something that I thought I would be able to do, much less WANT to do. I feel excited and ready.

To anyone reading this thinking "I could never do that," remember that up until about a year ago, I had never run one mile straight in my life. And I'm old, so that's a long time. *if you're old like me, you probably caught the song reference in the post title :-)

The weather looks good, we've got a free place to stay, my parents (and all 4 of our dogs!) are coming, and I've got an awesome group to run with. It's going to be a great weekend.

p.s. although it does suck to load your car in the pouring rain.

I got my race bib number!! I'm so excited!!

gearing up

Since I ran such a blistering fast pace on Wednesday night, I decided that I would take my five mile run easy tonight. It was C-O-L-D out there, but I suppose that is good practice for the half-marathon. Tonight I ran wearing what I will most likely wear at the race. Capri length running pants (tights?), sleeveless shirt made of wicking fabric under a long sleeved shirt of the same material (with built in mittens!), and a down-alternative vest. I felt pretty comfortable, but still a little bit chilly. This weekend I plan to look for a warm ear wrap headband thingie (that's the technical term) and also a neck wrap thingie - like this. What can I say, I like to be warm.

I am guessing that the temperature on race day will be............OH CRAP..............I don't have to GUESS the temperature. The race is next weekend. Which means the weather forecast is available! Oh my gosh, I can't believe it's that close. OK, so I just checked the weather forecast and so far it looks good. The high the day before is 65 and the low the night before is only 51 - that is freaking awesome! Back when I was guessing, I thought we would be running in the 30's to 40's, so the idea of the 50's is absolutely fab!! So it looks like I might not need the ear and neck warmer thingies. I'll probably buy them anyway "just in case." Plus, I just like to buy stuff. That is how I ended up with a brand new pair of running shoes in my car - oh wait, make that TWO new pairs of running shoes - that I'm not even wearing. Gah. That is a story for another day.

My next run (and last long run before the race) is a ten-miler on Sunday. It's a group run (yay!) and afterwards we are going out for second breakfast! I think the thought of pancakes will be an inspiration for us all!