After our family reunion over Labor Day, the rest of the month was relatively quiet. Blake took Porter fishing and he was thrilled to have caught some fish for dinner.
We went on a razor ride up the mountain to enjoy the last of the good weather. It's starting to get a little chilly around here.
On the 23rd I ran my 5th half marathon since I started running 10 years ago. It was a bitter-sweet anniversary for me. 10 years ago this November Blake's brother Paul passed away unexpectedly. Since Paul was really into health and fitness his brothers and sisters decided to run a half-marathon in his honor. Blake and I started training in the fall and ran our first ever half-marathon in April 2008. That was the start of my running journey. This fall also marks the 1 year anniversary of Blake's dad's passing. There have been several times during my runs where I've felt their strength and close to them as I've thought about their lives and favorite memories together.
The weather was a balmy 40 degrees and overcast the entire race. I wore a jacket, but took it off at mile 3. As I started to sweat, it got pretty cold toward the end of the race. At the finish line, my hands were totally numb and I could barely even turn the key to start my car!
I felt great the entire race. I ran strong, didn't have to stop to walk at all, and I ran up this hill that I consider my "arch nemisis" (it's an incline at mile 10 that lasts for about a mile before you level out again...in year's past, I've had to stop halfway for a break) and passed people along the way. However, even with all that, I didn't beat my fastest time that I set in the spring. I finished the race at 2:09 and am super happy with my time, especially considering that I had been fighting a cold and my feet were starting to give me serious issues. I have an old sprain that was starting to flare up, so I started wearing a brace for extra support. Then my Achilles tendons and arches started hurting. So for the race, I was taped and braced up!
Now I'm looking forward to taking a break from long runs for a while to let my feet heal!
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