Time After Time

What? Activity on CTK? You can believe your eyes folks.

Instead of a long-winded recap of the past 15 months, let's just hit the running highlights:
(which is apparently still kind of long)

BMW 2-mile (September 2015)
An old favorite. This was so long ago I don't remember anything about it. It probably hurt because I wasn't training regularly but managed a 13:38 (not a PR but also not a worst-PR).

Rock 'n Roll Savannah Half Marathon (November 2015)
I hate Rock 'n Roll races. The bands are sparse (if they are even playing at all), they're overpriced, and this one in particular had horrendous organization. It was a girl's weekend with college friends so I was roped into it. Highest weekly "training" mileage: 22.4 (stellar). Time: 1:47:03 (no goal in mind, 8:10 avg)

2015 Total Miles - 779.26
Not quite the 2k+ years I've had in the past. Killing it.

GHS Swamp Rabbit Half Marathon (February 2016)
This race is touted as being "downhill"... after you run up a few hills in the first 5 miles, sure. The hills are average for the area, just don't advertise your race as being "downhill".

I trained through the winter with a neighbor who wanted to do a half after a few years hiatus. We ran most of the race together but I eventually left her to finish in 1:53 (didn't have a goal).

iRecycle Half Marathon (March 2016)

Ran this with My Team Triumph as an "angel". I thought we could totally go sub-2 while pushing a stroller... haha. Respect to all the parents out there. Finished in 2:02:33 (9:21 avg).

I wore my Boston jacket as a disclaimer:
"I might be out of shape but I swear I ran Boston 6 years ago!"

Ann Arbor Marathon (April 2016)

You guys. YES. After a 5 year a marathon hiatus I finally got back to the start (and finish) line. It helped that I had a friend living in Michigan to "train" with and ultimately run with on race day. 

My goals for the race were: A) don't die, B) just finish, C) sub-4, and D) sub 3:45.

Note: a 3:45 is an 8:34 average (math skills, A+). I did 0 speedwork, and 99.4% of my training runs had an average pace around 8:50/mile. Since it had been 5 years, every long run felt like a "first" again and I was always nervous about them so I just focused on getting the mileage and not so much the pace.

Bought that jacket the day before the race. Isn't that what they recommend?

On race day it was 25deg (feels like 14) and flurried from mile 13 on. Imagine my excitement for snow in April. It was her first marathon and my first after my extreme hiatus / serious back injuries so we both had our share of nerves. We had a plan to start conservatively (9:00/miles) and get a little faster as the race went on, which we stuck to until the part where we were supposed to get faster.

Around mile 21 or 22 my entire body from my nose down ached, especially my hip flexors. I wanted to get it over with and started pulling away from my friend (apparently I'm not a good race companion). There was a long (gravel) hill at mile 25, which was as pleasant as you might imagine, and I persevered to finish in 3:48:06 (8:36 avg). Good enough for 19th overall female and 3rd place in my old lady age group (small race). Finding post-race food was more important than collecting an age group award, so I have no idea what the prize was.

In the months after Ann Arbor I naturally slacked off and then it got summer-in-SC hot so I had to slack some more, but I recently signed up for another race (in November) so it's time to get back in the swing of things. In my mind I will totally post occasional training reports in an attempt to actually do some running-workouts, but don't hold me to that. It has been 15 months since my last update afterall...

What highlight(s) did I miss in your life these past few months? 

Shoutout to Tom G for a little motivation to come out of retirement.