I finished the 1/2 Marathon 5 months after my ACL and meniscus reconstruction. It was faster than last year by a few minutes. I am very sore due I think to the downhills. I wasn't released to run downhills until Thursday, three days before the 1/2. Not much time to do any downhill training. I ended up walking more than I wanted to in the end. I was good until we stopped at mile 10 for 10 minutes. While my son was using the port-a-pot, I made the mistake of sitting on a bench to stretch. My knees did not like it. As Jo already reported in her blog, I have terrible blisters. I have never in my life had blisters on my feet. Today, I have 5 huge blisters on my feet. I must have been retaining water or something because my brace rubbed me in places that it never has, my shoes rubbed me, and my sports bra, well...
I love the run because of everything involved. Friday night we meet at my great aunt's (she will be 90) for bbq. Saturday we meet at my cousin's house for brunch. This year we got to go to Lion King. Then on to Celebration Station for my daughter's birthday party. Mix in hotel swimming for the kids and lots more cousins and aunts for a great weekend. Then of course the run on Sunday. This year my husband chased us on the course while the rest of the family sat in the bleachers and waited for us all to finish. We had a smaller number of runners due to injuries this year but we all had fun. We had 6 runners and over 30 supporters.
More stats coming later!

One week until the 1/2 marathon and I didn't get my eight in this weekend. I had every intention of doing it yesterday but...I decided to take a nap. I told my husband to wake me up in one hour. He sent my daughter in to do the dirty work and I told her I decided to sleep through the night. So I didn't get up until 6:00 this morning. I thought about running the eight today but just did four. Several reasons: 1) Eight is a long way, 2) I tried some new shorts-chaffed(sp), 3) I didn't start until 9:30 pm, 4) Like I said, eight is a long way!

I will be happy with four. I felt good. My legs felt good. My breathing felt good. The boys rode their bikes with me so that was nice. My wonderful hubby worked on putting up all the laundry. Although it was a wonderful favor to me, I think his real reason was that he was tired of sleeping on the couch since our bed has become the laundry pile. You know how some people spend countless hours taking throw pillows off the bed and putting them back on in the morning? Well, we do that with piles of laundry. Shirts, then pants, then shorts, then everything else. Every night and then every morning...no throw pillows just clean laundry. What a waste of time! Wonder if I could count that as a calorie burner?

Got my three in on Monday with the DH on his bike, the middle child on his bike, and the youngest in her Barbie Mustang. We ruled the road because of our numbers and our noise. My daughter kept worrying that the battery was getting low on the car so she quit early. After we ran, we had coffee on the porch. If you have insomnia, you should not have coffee at 10:30 pm. We stayed up late and got caught up on our DVRed shows.

Tonight I got in another three with the looming threat of severe weather. Again Kallie went with the Barbie car and she made it 2 miles before the battery died. Luckily we were close to my son's baseball practice so we loaded the car in the back of the pickup. I finished the run, stopped by the house and got warmer clothes, then headed back to watch baseball practice. We love baseball at our house and are always excited when it starts. This year I am worried about the expense because everyone has outgrown everything. Yikes.

On the house front...the bank as all paperwork and our realtor thinks they will set a closing date by next Wednesday. Thanks, cause we have had to pay two more months' mortgage waiting on this closing. I just hope it goes through cause my fingers have cramps from being crossed.

Better head to the ice bath before the lightning gets any worse.

I had an extra day off from school today that the kids didn't have. Go me!!! I did keep my daughter home with me 'cause she is a blast. We slept late, laid on the trampoline with a blanket, watered the garden, and went grocery shopping. We also made several "diet" meals to put in the fridge for the week.

My sister was in town for the weekend and we got a great run in with one of our cousins. We wanted to take a picture for Single Track but never got the camera out. We did 10 miles in the local cemetery. My thinking for Single Track was that we all go down different paths but eventually end our runs in the same place. Too creepy? We were glad to have the trees to block the wind and rain. Wind chill was 32 and it sprinkled on us some. Cousin's DH came when we had two miles left and got out of the car all bundled up in his coat. Please!

I was in shorts. He pointed out that my knee brace was rubbing my leg in a new place causing bleeding. I hope when I go back to the orthopedic surgeon this week I get to leave my knee place off. I have been released to do everything but downhills so I hope that he approves of those also. When I hurt my knee the doctor and physical therapist didn't think I would be able to do the half in April. Surprise! It's only two weeks away and I think I am gonna make it.

Last weekend was the longest run before the race. I am carb depleting this week to try to get a few more pounds off before the race. I know I will have to have some carbs before the race but I think I can do good for a few days.

The wind was blowing again today but I talked my son into going out with me anyway. We only had to get three in so that wasn't too bad. We ran on the roads for 1/2 a mile and then headed to the park trail. My husband was going to come pick us up in 30 minutes so we could go eat. That meant we had to run quickly (for me anyway) to get done in time.

We had made it almost around to our pickup location when my son decided to show me how well he could throw a rock at a moving target. We always try to look for a "prize" on our runs and today we had picked up a perfect skimming rock. He decided to use the rock to aim at a tree branch that had a bird on it. He moved in to throw pretty quickly and the next thing I knew he was flat out on his face on the ground. Right outside of the path there was a hole about a foot deep. He had stepped in it when he threw the rock and bit it. After I checked to see that he was alright, I almost died laughing. Of course he had broken his ankle and his hip and couldn't possibly walk anymore. I helped him up and drug him along for a little bit. He is very dramatic. When my watched beeped to tell us the walking interval was over, he was miraculously healed and off he went. After he had searched out the skimming rock that had gone flying across the park grass.

After supper tonight, we all went back to the park for some baseball practice. Our family lives and breathes baseball. This will be the first year my daughter gets to play so we have to get her ready for the pros before the season starts. I can't wait.