Hello world!
This is my first BLOG post in more than 2 months.
During this time… I ran the:
- Disneyworld Wine & Dine Half Marathon in late October… my ‘comeback’ race following my ruptured Achilles tendon repair;
- Shiner TX Half Marathon in November… just because I could and I wanted to do better than the Wine & Dine Half Marathon;
- Texas Half Marathon in Kingwood as a final tune-up half marathon before January’s Houston Half Marathon where I am scheduled to pace the 3:30 half marathon.
I truly had plans to write a post immediately after my Wine & Dine comeback race. But I didn’t… basically because- and I’m being 100% honest here- I simply didn’t have any motivation to do so.
I was expecting really good things from my Disneyworld half. I was envisioning an ‘easy’ sub-3-hour half in a running environment I truly loved.
That didn’t quite happen.
My final Disney Half Marathon time: 3:20.
UGG.
While I looked ‘happy’ crossing the finish line, that wasn’t what I was feeling inside. I knew I could have done better… but I was one very nervous runner knowing I had finally run the race I had on my calendar literally for a year. (Talk about build up.)
I should have been content simply running a race after working so hard to recover from my injury.
But I wasn’t.
The cure… register for another race.
Looking at the race calendar, I had a few options, but the one that caught my eye was the Shiner Half Marathon on November 22nd. Having run this event several times, I knew it was a very challenging, i.e. HILLY, course. No matter… I had to prove to myself I could better than a 3:20 half.
I told my Galloway coach of my plans and he quickly altered my training schedule to account for this event.
I ran this event… and I was feeling good throughout… adjusting my run/walk ratios to take the many hills into consideration.
The result… 1 very HAPPY RUNNER officially finishing at 2:49:59! That’s a full 30 minutes faster in just 3 weeks!
Relaying this happy news to my Galloway coach via text, I received the following 2-word response:
“Recovery Complete!”
If you can’t tell, yes… I was truly very happy to make this time happen on this very challenging course.
I took the time to bask in the glow of this event.
Time for the holidays… Thanksgiving… Christmas… family time. All very welcomed but sometimes such times interferes with your training schedule. Several long training runs missed…
I quickly realized I needed another half marathon before I paced the 3:30 Houston Half Marathon on January 11th. That’s where the Texas Half Marathon in Kingwood on January 1st comes into play.
I have 2 goals for this race:
- Get in the additional training miles needed; and
- Finish sub 3-hour.
The result: 2:39 finish!
That’s a full 10 minutes faster than the Shiner half and 40 minutes faster than Wine & Dine.
Recovery complete in deed!
To say I’m stoked about my 3:30 Houston Half pacing gig would be a tremendous understatement!
And so starts Race Week # 4!
Running has a way of kicking you in the rear when you least expect it. Nice to know I can still kick running’s rear too!
Next article: Post Houston Half Pacing!
LET’S RUN!
Let’s talk: Feel free to email me: RupturedRunner@gmail.com
Ruptured Runner 
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