It's Been a While

Hello everyone.

It's been a while, hasn't it?  Two and a half weeks to be exact and even then my last two posts were just regurgitated memories.  Maybe you were wondering what I've been up to in the past two and a half weeks.  Here are a few bullet points before I go into some running stuff:

• I was cat called by a young teenage girl in my work parking lot.  I don't share this with pride.  The parking lot was empty because I had to leave a few minutes early.  While walking through the parking lot I hear "look at him!"  "oh, what I would do to him, mmm MMM!".  I avoided any eye contact.  It was extremely awkward.  Later I was told  by a friend "hey, you've still got it!"  I've got great friends...
• I finished my semester of college.  My course load isn't immense since I split the semester up into two different online classes, but I was still feeling the pressure.  Intro to psychology was the class.  B was the grade I earned.  Earned is a relative term.  I don't feel like I did much to earn it.  If I did the amount of course work for this class in an actual classroom setting I would have been close to failing.  So is the life of an online student...
• There was a single deer on my run yesterday.  It still frightened me.  They're so weird and all muscle.  
• I rode my bike on a local trail a couple times, and there were geese on said trail.  Geese frighten me too.  I'm a city slicker in every sense of the term...
• The Boston bombing has still been fresh in my mind.  I joined the local running community and purchased some shoe laces saying "We will run, We will remember" "4/15/13".  I also ordered a t-shirt from my favorite band from yester-year: the Dropkick Murphys.  All of the proceeds went to a fund for the families hurt from the bombings.  
  
  

  

  New laces

• A couple people made comments about my weight loss for the year.  One told me I looked like I lost a lot of weight and the other told me I looked too skinny.  This is said with a little more pride than the teenage parking lot girl.  I'm down 33 lbs this year and I did it with eating right and exercising.  All of my clothes are beginning to be too big for me.  I noticed the clothes but I looked at myself and didn't see the weight loss.  Until something else happened....
• I shaved my beard.  It was my first hot run of the year and I wanted it gone.  It was a good 14 to 15 weeks in the making.  Shaving the beard did let me see myself slimming down: 
  
  

  

  Beard-fore and after

  It may not have looked great but gosh darnit it was mine.  The longest beard I've ever grown.  I think I'm going to start letting it grow after my last big race of the year until the spring of the next.  
• The times were released from my first triathlon: 1:27:57 total.  17:05 for the swim (including getting dry and bundling up, which not everyone did) 56 out of 62.  Bike was 43:52.  Good for 23 out of 62 (This was very exciting to me!)  T2 was 57 seconds.  I didn't have to change anything.  Because of my brick workouts leading to calf issues I took some time to stretch first.  My run portion was 26:02 which is 40th out of 62.  If you would like to read about my first triathlon click HERE!!
• On Saturday I went to an all day bachelor party for my good friend Aaron.  I joined him, my friend/running partner/small group leader Scott, and some other friends and went to an Indians game (which they won) and ate in Little Italy (which was my first, and not last, trip).  I ate.  Lots. 

So those are the highlights from the past couple weeks.  On to a little bit about running.

The Cleveland Half Marathon is next week, and I'm pumped.  I feel like I am, today, in the best shape I've been in in my entire life.  This is the first big race I haven't been on any training plan.  Having done a few half marathons before I know how to not increase the miles too quickly.  Plus I was training for a triathlon since the beginning of the year so my cardio has been way up.  I'm still actually swimming and biking during the week.  I only make it to the pool once a week, but even once a week is making me feel more confident.  

For this race I have only been running two to three times a week but my times are going down.  Another plus is every run has been enjoyable and not monotonous.  The race will take place next Sunday.  Friday morning I'm going to go up to the expo with my oldest daughter Savannah for a day date.  Probably stop and get donuts on the way... Mmmmmm... Donuts.....

ANYWAY

One last item to share.  I finally took a step of faith and started the running group at my church.  Starting this Saturday we are meeting once a week to run together.  We are going to meet up for a quick five to ten minute study, some prayer, and then hit the streets together.  God put this on my heart a little over a year and a half ago.  I spoke in front of my church fam on Sunday.  I was nervous but feel like I got the point across well.  A good amount of people came up for information afterwards.  Also, a couple people want to start something to raise money for Active:Water, which is awesome.  I've invited anyone and everyone to the group runs and team Active:Water Canton will also use those Saturdays as our training runs for the Akron Marathon races at the end of September.

It's easy to get caught up in all the equipment, blogs, running clothes and shoes, big name races, and PRs.  Those things are not bad at all.  I mean I'm blogging RIGHT NOW.  I just want to remind myself of why this journey of running started in the first place and never lose sight of it.  

Thanks for reading everyone.  I've got another post set up before the race.  

Ya'll come back now, ya hear!