I am going to Seattle this weekend to be with my brother and his family and celebrate my niece Emma's life. I didn't give it a second thought. I am going.
The Cap City Half Marathon that I have been training for is also this weekend. I had a little regret that I will be unable to do this race. It's really fun, and you get a big honkin' medal. It's the spring race I had been training for.
But if you have followed my blog at all or heard me whine, my training has not been going well anyway. A sinus infection kept me from running for 10 days, and 10 days is enough time to affect your conditioning. I haven't been the same since and I've even wondering about whether I would be able to finish respectably.
But I was still a tiny bit bummed. There are plenty of races, I thought, consoling myself. And I'm not really ready anyway. And then my husband, Mr. Boston Marathon as I sometimes like to call him , spoke up. I love my husband. Once in a while he really says the right thing. We joke that there's a cue card man standing off to the side to help him, and when he says the wrong thing, the cue card man is nowhere to be found. You see, I can't explain what the right thing or wrong to say is. It's just WRONG or RIGHT. It's so obvious to me. I don't know why he doesn't get it.
Anyhow, he said: "You know, the Flying Pig has a half marathon. Why don't you do that?" The Flying Pig is the name of the Cincinnati marathon and takes place in May. It's not that far from Columbus.
Yay! I can run the Flying Pig half! And have some time to catch up on my training! The full marathon is notorious for the hills; but my husband assured me the hills were in the second half of the marathon, not the first 13 miles.
And then I read the half marathon course description: "I think that the Flying Pig Half Marathon course can be divided into four sections; 1) The Warm up Bridges 2) The Climb 3) Walnut Hills 4) The Slide Home. " First off, two of the sections have hill-related titles. Anything called "the Climb" already freaks me out. Second, the first section starts off with this lovely introduction: "The Flying Pig Half Marathon has a challenging course. The first section running the bridges between Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky serves as a warm up for the hills to come." The hills to come? Yikes! Nope. I don't think so.
New plan.
Cleveland also has a half marathon in conjunction with its marathon and it is later in May. It's not as hilly; my husband has run the marathon a few times and enjoys it. This has potential! The only problem is the main hotels are all booked, and I don't sleep well at all in a hotel. I've never even traveled overnight to a race before. Still, I am going to look into it further. I can't help it. Races are fun, and while I'm aiming for the Columbus Marathon this fall (the whole thing!) that seems so far off. I need to have an interim goal to keep me going.
I ran outside at lunch today at work for the first time and it was just exhilarating. I wasn't sure where to run downtown, but found there is a bike trail that follows along the Scioto River. A friend ran with me and showed me the way. It was a beautiful day and I had a runner's high all afternoon. Cleared my head and felt great.
The search for the half marathon continues.....
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