First Half Marathon-13.1 mi. DONE!!!!

I will do a full recap later, but I actually finished my FIRST half marathon. I ran the New Orleans Jazz Half. It was the 2nd Edition and it benefited the Children's Hopsital there. I am all for benefiting or helping kids. It was a beautiful day and the course was so nice! It was perfect PR weather for sure! I finished in 2 hours and 30 minutes. I was not expecting to finish that fast much less on my first half marathon! I am so excited about it.

I am a little sore right now on the back of my leg right above my knee and then the bones on either side of my knee are sore, but that is nothing that a hot bath and icing won't help. I will post with pictures sometime later this week. Here is a few after the race!

My sister-in-law Karen who helped me through this race!! I could not have done it without her! 

I hope everybody is having a great weekend!

Tight Tendons and HEAT

This past week was just around 2 weeks before my big race and I was already starting to get nervous. Not only was I nervous, but my legs were killing me. On Monday, I had went out for a 5 mile run and I could barley finish. I knew something was wrong, because my legs have never hurt that bad in my life! I tried stretching them, ice, foam rolling (which I thought I was going to die doing) and even asking Brian to massage them. NOTHING worked! I was starting to get really scared, because I thought there is no way I can run with my legs killing me this bad for 13.1 miles.

I ended up going to academy one day to get some more GU packs for my upcoming half marathon. While I was there I went to see what sales they had going on for the clothes and I saw a girl that I had met once before at the running group I go to sometimes. She is AMAZING. She just finished running in the Tri World Championship race in...wait for it....HAWAII!

She is a beast...in a good way. When I saw her, I knew she would know what was going on with my legs. I started talking to her and describing that my legs were hurting even when I was standing up and walking, not just when I flexed my muscles. She immediately told me that it was my tendons and not my muscles and that I needed to take a very hot bath (as hot as I could stand it) and sit in it for at least 15 minutes. Then to get out and stretch. We talked a little longer and then we both left.
I went home and did just as she had told me to do. I sat there for around 20 minutes and I could feel a difference already in how my legs felt. I got out and stretched while I was watching tv for a while.

Now, the true test was going to be whether or not come Sunday if my legs were still hurting when I started to run. I took off on Sunday and guess what.....

My legs were not only NOT hurting, but it felt GREAT!! I knew from then on that I was going to be taking lots of very hot baths to help relax my tendons.

In other news, the Cross Country team that I have been helping out with all semester is going to be competing in district this Wed. and I am so excited for them!

Here is some of the boys taking off! I wish I could go see them run, but I have to work like most adults. haha
This past weekend was the Women of Faith Conference in San Antonio, and I was able to attend this only by God. I was not going to be going at first because it was quite expensive, but a ticket became available and I was asked to come by somebody who has become a great friend. I was very excited. I was able to hang out and get to know some AMAZING women this weekend! They had so many different speakers such as Natalie Grant, Mary Mary, Michelle Aguilar (Season 5 winner of the biggest looser), Karen James (lost her husband in the Mount Hood tragedy) and many more! It was truly inspirational and I hope to get to go again soon. Here is a picture of some of the girls I got to hang out with this weekend. We took 46 people in all.

I hope everybody has an amazing week. I am off to finish cleaning my house.

Homemade Lemonade and a few spooks

The other day I decided to make some homemade lemonade. My mom has done this before, but I finally learned how to. I figured I would let some people here know how to make it. It mostly goes by taste, so if you do not like lemonade I would not try it. Also, depending on how tart or sweet you like it is based on how much sugar and water you put in it.
Here goes....

1. Start out with lemons. I bought around 12 lemons however I believe I only used 9. The more lemons you use, the more lemonade you get. The less you use...well you get the picture.

 You start out with one lemon and a knife.
Next....

 Cut the lemon in half.
After you cut the lemon in half you are going to squeeze the juice out of it. I would suggest not doing this by hand. I have a lemon/citrus juicer. I bought mine at walmart for around $4.00. I love mine, because not all of the seeds get into my lemonade juice and it holds all of the juice in the glass container.

 Make sure that you push down hard as you are squeezing the lemon juice out of the lemon. Once you think you have finished getting as much out as you can, squeeze the lemon half together and wipe the extra pulp into the juice as well.

 Last, this is the tricky part. This is where your particular taste buds will come in. I like my lemonade a little tart, so you may do yours different.

I start out by pouring all my fresh sqeezed lemon juice in a pitcher.
Then I add 2 cups water.
Once I add two cups water, I add 1/2 cup sugar.
From here, I use my taste. If I think it is to tart, I add 1/2 cup of water.
If it is not sweet enough, I add 1/2 cup more of sugar.

I would not add more than a 1/2 cup water and 1/2 cup sugar at a time, because you do not want to get it to watery. I did this once and when you put ice with it (if you like that) it becomes more watered down and does not taste that good.

 Just a little warning. I used around 9 lemons (cut in half) and this is the little bit of lemonade that I got out of it. If you want more lemonade then this, then you will need a lot of lemons.

  I just finished drinking my delicious glass of homemade lemonade and sporting my new hair cut! Not sure how I feel about it yet!  It was one of my best that I have made so far! Not such a good picture of me. I had been cleaning the house since I got in from school.

 And just because they were too cute waiting for a treat. These are my sweet puppies. Well the one on the right in the little fairy costume is mine. The other one, the pumpkin is Brian's dog. :0)

 I also got one of my favorite Halloween movies. I remember watching this show whenever I was little and I loved it! I found it at walmart where they had a Halloween section showing. I am very excited about watching this movie when it gets closer to Halloween.

As for running. I have ran once this week. It is hard not to get burned out when you run 4 days a week and then again on Sat. I am starting to only run 2 days a week since I have my stamina up pretty good. I do not want to overwork it to much before my first half. 8 miles this sat. and then 6 on the following and then it will be close to time for my first half marathon!!!!

I hope everybody has a great rest of the week and weekend!

12 Miles and Tapering

Good Evening!! It has been a crazy week for me this week. I have been running with a cross country group, subbing and helping my parents update a house! Along with trying to clean my house up and make it look somewhat organized!

This past Sat. I went out to the Cross Country meet which the guys and girls dominated in and I am extremely proud of them! I rode with a friend of mine that I grew up with that I have not seen in years! It was a lot of fun and I am glad that I got to hang out with her! After I got back home, I headed to the lake and I changed into my running clothes to head out for 12 miles! This was my longest distance yet, and I was extremely nervous about running it.
I started running after lunch and it was so NICE outside! It was windy and the sun was behind the trees, so I barley sweated at all.

Throughout my run it was great, BUT there was 10+ hills going one way, so going back and forth, there was 20+ in all. It was miserable! I had to walk quite a few times because of how many hills there was. I ran 3 miles out and back and then refueled and did that again! My amazing husband was nice enough to go out there with me on my second stretch, but he was my water boy. At about mile 9 I called to see if he could bring me some Gatorade, because I was getting pretty dehydrated. After that mile, he want to mile 11 and waited for me, and then did the same thing at mile 12. I was so grateful for that.

Something weird that happened to me on this run, that has never happened to me before, is that I started chaffing on my legs! That has NEVER EVER happened to me before, even when I ran in high school. I do not know if it was from the cool/dry weather or what. Brian brought me this handy dandy tube of stuff and I lathered it on and went about my way. this happened about mile 4.

I have only used the Body Glide Anti Chafe and Body Glide Anti Pain and both of them have been fabulous! I also use it on my feet to help prevent from blisters and my feet drying out. I bought mine in a two pack.
I was almost finished with my run and about mile 11.5 I started getting this killing pain in my side. I was not sure what it was from, because it was definitely not because I was not in shape. It felt like somebody was really stabbing me. I asked my dad (he has trained for a full marathon) and he told me it was my body trying to get air. I was not quite sure what that meant, but after I talked to my sister-in-law Karen I understood a little better. She said that it is my diaphragm contracting and if you are not used to running that long of a distance (10-13 miles), then your body will do that to you, until it is used to it, and it stretches out. Hopefully that does not happen in my half marathon though!

I only have 3 weeks left until my half marathon day and I am getting super excited about it! I only have 1 really long run left and then two easier ones after that and then it will be time! Woohooo So Excited!!!!!

I need to finish putting out a few decorations around the house! Have a great night/day everybody!

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