A Blogger is Born

So I have never been big on this blogging stuff. I am not creative, I'm not that funny, and I was never good at thinking of random topics to write about in english or writing classes. BUT, I want to give this a try. I have been keeping running logs and journals since I started running and I think this would be a great way to talk about my running and all the random adventures I get into between (and during runs). I'm going to post on my training, racing, tell some of the random stories that I have accumulated over the years on the road, post runner-friendly recipes, and discuss running-related topics that are of interest to me.

Since I started running races about 4 years ago I have had so many random things happen to me....a trip to the emergency room from heat stroke (maybe I'll talk more about the "butt tent" later) during the 2007 Chicago Marathon, fat ladies in minivans smoking Virginia Slims who yell at me for crossing the street ON THE CROSSWALK, packs of killer birds after me at 4am outside my apartment, my parents nearly calling me in as a missing person (no joke....they were about to send out a search party) because I was gone for so long on a run - I guess I need to start runnning a little faster, wipeouts on the ice, running friends, hungover runs - which have been some of the best, last minute race plans (more on that in a minute), and pretty much anything else you can imagine has happened to me or has happened because of my running.

Right now I am training for the Austin Marathon. This is a new development because until a few days ago I was only registered to run the half marathon. On a whim though, I decided to run the 3M Half Marathon a couple weeks ago with a friend and the race went really well. I PR'd by about 9 minutes.....and so I decided that instead of running another half marathon so soon I would just go for the full. I have been running enough miles and am in pretty decent shape - much better shape than I was for my first marathon for sure! Even so, this might turn out to be not such a good idea, but we'll see haha.

I finished an 8 miler today at about an 11 minute pace, which is what I'm planning to run the race in next week. The run felt good, my legs felt good, and I finished it confident that I will be able to finish the race next Sunday. It will probably end up being my slowest marathon yet, but that's ok with me. I want to run Austin and enjoy it. That might sound crazy if you aren't a runner, but Austin is such a cool race with wonderful spectators and great course entertainment.....last year I was chasing a time goal and was miserable by the end. This time it is going to be a 26.2 mile jog!

After Austin, my race plans are going to revolve around the 2009 Chicago Marathon where I am going to try to run in under 4 hours. I'm going to run the Cap 10,000 in Austin at the end of March and try to find a half marathon before August to run so I can qualify for a preferred starting corral in Chicago.

So there's the first post of my very own little blog. Much more to come soon!