today, i kick ass.

last week the ass kicked me, or something.

we’ll start with today: i ran the chicago distance classic half marathon. my time was 1:56:49. i’m pretty ecstatic to have run a sub-2-hour half. last year my time in the chicago half marathon was 2:11:01. which means that i took FOURTEEN minutes off my time. i rule.

rankings:
2513th overall (of 8720)
723rd of women (of 4461)
200th of my division (women 25-29) (of 1175)

as for last week, i ran my first 16-miler. i was doing it alone, along the lake front, which isn’t terribly inspiring. 16 miles is a long way to go by yourself – i get bored. and hot. anyway, i was really dragging the last four miles. my heart and lungs felt great – i could go along at a 10-min mile indefinitely – but my legs just started to ache, and then turn to jello. the inspiration off running a new long distance apparently just wasn’t enough.

for months i’ve been saying (truthfully) that i can’t really even comprehend how long a marathon is. i just can’t wrap my brain around the thought of 26 miles. so i’ve been not thinking about it too much and just slogging thru the miles, doing my prescribed training. for some reason, 16 was the magic mark. last sunday i stared the marathon in the face. and you know what? it scared the hell out of me. at the end of 16 i was dragging my ass in…how am i going to do TEN MORE miles above that? the answer is, i don’t know…so i’ll just go back to putting my head down and slogging thru the week’s miles, and hope that when i next look down that road, it’ll somehow seem more possible.

on the upside, for my 18-miler in two weeks, i’ve decided to do this 30k race. nothing like some redwood forest trails to distract one from the pain.