Part I:

That’s what I’m supposed to do to my leg (right leg, near the ankle) for the next few days.  Rest and ice.  Compression and elevation optional.  No running.  I guess I need to somehow embrace the elliptical machine for the next few days.  I need to lose THREE more pounds to win the contest.  Yes, it’s still going on.  Yes, somehow, against all odds, I’m still winning.  (Does little happy dance)

This has been a fun week though, besides not being able to run.  Even though Chris gave me a hard time for going out with friends a bunch when he was gone, since we’ve been back we’ve been out every night!  We’ve been to Pi Pizzeria, 33 Wine Bar and The Royale, and tonight are having dinner at Franco and then meeting friends at the International Tap House.

We went to the gym together—I was working out with Mike and Chris was just spying on me (he claims that’s not what he was doing, but he made fun of my burpee form later so I know better.)  On the way home we saw this truck.

I was delighted. 

Part II:

One of the fun things about getting married is the gifts and showers, right?  My sisters are throwing me a shower at the end of the month and the invites are already out (and ladies, let’s rsvp, okay? Leslie is starting to worry…).  AND I’ve gotten (excuse me, I mean we?) a couple gifts.  I’m so excited (is it weird to show gift pictures on my blog before I send the thank you notes?  Rest assured thank you notes are forthcoming…we bought an obscene amount of thank you notes at Target today.)

I won’t say who the gifts are from, but the givers know, and I am loving everything so far.  You guys are amazing.

First gift from C & B, a beautiful wooden cutting board!  And a cocktail shaker, sweet…now I need a good key-lime martini recipe to make in it.  Anyone??

Chris heads to Vegas tomorrow for his "bachelor party".  I use the quotes because it’s still so far away from our wedding, but he is meeting up with 6 of his good friends and they plan to do a lot of golfing and other Vegas style activities.  I told him to NOT feel like he had to call, and in fact, to not call.  I’m awesome that way.  You’d think I was really low maintenance and not actually crazy. 

Remember to "like" Hannahviolin on facebook! 

And on a more serious note, my friends are still in critical need of your thoughts and prayers.  Here’s the link to Andrew and Alicia’s progress.  I think of them all the time. 

I just wanted to say that I love Steve Carell.  Why is he so funny?????

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-july-20-2011/steve-carell

Also, why is he so freaking weird?  He’s totally my hero.  I wish I could have as dry a sense of humor as he does.

This morning’s run was awful.  Stupid heat.  I am so over it.  I’m tired of getting nauseous and feeling like I’m going to faint.  We "ran" around the park, but I was a complete failure and made Jen walk too many times.  She claims she didn’t mind, but I know she thought I sucked as a running partner 😉

Maybe we should have worn the wristbands today? Or the new ones I got from the Budweiser store?

For some reason then I decided to run two miles on the treadmill at the gym.  I may feel this all tomorrow.  Not sure.  Either way I felt like more of a runner afterwards, rather than a blubbery fainting vomiting mess.  Grrr.

Sorry for the negativity.  Thank goodness tomorrow is August—I’m sure all this heat will be behind us!  And I know it’s hard to run in the heat, and I didn’t treat my body as well as I should have over the weekend, which definitely attributed to my running issues.  I know this.  I need to relax, drink less alcohol, eat more veggies, and drink more water.  I’ll do better then.  I will stop beating myself up.

Blogging before coffee leads to a lot of negative thoughts.  I must seem despondent to some of you!  I’m okay.  It’s been a tough week but I’m doing fine.  You learn to put on a good face, stand up straight, and fake it.  I think I’m pretty good at that.

That said, I met Jen for a run this morning and it was JUST what I needed.  It was the best run I’ve had all week—I didn’t start to feel nauseous until after 3 miles (heat nausea people) rather than the usual 2.  We had a great time chatting too, and I felt fantastic afterwards.  Then I was on twitter and saw THIS:

(sorry for no hyperlink, just a screenshot.  I need to do more research.)

I’m a running inspiration!  I was so flattered.  I suppose I would be better off if I didn’t compare myself to insane people like skinnyrunner and Mike and instead considered that running 4 to 5 times a week is probably pretty good, even if I’m not doing sub-7 minute miles or running 10 to 15 miles each time.  Then again, how many of you read my blog just waiting for the trainwreck?  I presume my neurotic personality is part of the appeal here…

Either way, thanks Maddie, for making my afternoon!  (#FF means “follow friday”, where you can recommend folks to follow on twitter.  I didn’t know that until very recently.)

Mike had to reschedule for tomorrow, so today is ending up being just a one workout day (no problem) which means I’ll have time to do a bit more practicing, once I get off the computer.  And Jen invited me to hang out with her tonight; we are meeting some other people in Maplewood.  I’ve got 4 new students to meet/teach first, so it should be a fun day.  And I completed my passport application.  I don’t know where we are going for honeymoon yet, but my passport expired, so now is a good time to get that ready, just in case.

So I am okay.

This is why I run.

http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/andrewandaliciakratzat

This was a funny race.  An 8k!  How long IS that even (around 5 miles)?  It was a small race, and I signed up for a couple reasons.  One, I hadn’t done a race alone in awhile, and I like to push myself to do things alone.  Second, my folks were visiting, and there was no way I was going to get up early to run unless I had put money down.  Third, it’s an 8k.  Automatic PR.  Fourth, free shorts!

Before the race, looking GOOD.  And by good, of course I mean tired.  Did I mention the race started at 7 am?  In Chesterfield?  I had to get up around 5 am.  Yet another example of my extreme hard-core-ness.

The weather was nice.  It was hot and humid, of course, but nothing worse than I expected.  I got to the store to pick up my number, and then hung out in my car listening to NPR and waiting until I wanted to use the toilet again.  (Porta-potties, unfortunately.)

The race was pretty small, around 200 people, and it wasn’t chip timed, which was not a problem, in my opinion.  We all lined up and off we went.

The roads weren’t closed for the course, but the traffic was pretty non-existent at that hour on a Sunday.  The only thing that concerned me was I had heard talk of a hill.  The course was an out and back, which means that we ran one way, and then at some point would simply turn around and head back.

Everybody seemed really fast and it seemed that absolutely everybody was passing me at first.  Finally things started to settle down a bit, and I was able to "settle" into a pace that left me JUST short of breath but able to carry on. 

So…that hill.  I realized I knew the route.  And it was coming up.  An incredibly steep downhill.  The sort of hill that would terrify me to drive on in inclement weather.  Basically straight down.  And you know what that means.  We’d have to run back UP the hill in a couple of miles.

I ran SLOWLY down the hill.  I was afraid I would lose my footing and break my legs.  Or my head.  I got to the bottom and there was a water stop.  The volunteers promised it was flat for awhile, and they were correct.  In fact it was flat until we got BACK to the hill and had to go up it.  I decided in advance I was going to walk the hill because I figured I would just die otherwise.  It was hard enough walking it!  I was huffing and puffing, but I did actually pass a few people.  Pretty much everybody was walking the hill.

Finally I got to the top and was ready to push forward for the home stretch.  Whoo!

I kicked it to the end and passed a couple of people.  I felt pretty good as I’d only taken the one walk break.

I finished in 52:33.  Not bad, and especially not bad for the pretty extreme humidity and heat (though I’d been training in it, it was over 85 by the finish) and with that ridiculous hill.  Literally I felt like I was hiking.

I was 10th out of 14th in my age group (30 to 34).  Not bad!  (Remember, I’m still new to running, so beating anybody at all is still a victory for me 😉 )

A bit sweatier afterwards…

They had water and gatorade, bananas and bread afterwards.  A nice spread really.  As usual I had to sit down after the race, but I guess I didn’t push it as much as sometimes because it didn’t take long until I was ready to get going.  I sat in my car a bit and let the a/c cool me off before heading off.

Schwag!  Shorts and a "finishers award" of an insulated water bottle filled with gatorade.

I’d run it again.  I like the smaller races sometimes…parking is easy, packet pickup is easy, and you really feel like part of a tiny community.  I love that feeling of superiority over people who are sleeping… 😉

Awhile back Jen asked if I wanted to do the O’Fallon Firecracker 10k on July Fourth.  Naturally I agreed as I am always up for racing.  When it got closer to the date I was less excited as it had been so HOT plus the race started at 7 am.  We realized we needed to leave around 5:30 am.  Not super great.  Nonetheless, still plans were made for our first 10k, after which we would feel {slightly} less guilty for overindulging at my barbecue.

When my alarm went off, I was not super thrilled to be a “crazy runner” as some of our friends have started calling us.  However, I got up, got dressed, got my breakfast and coffee and got ready to go.  And realized it was pouring rain.  Well, at least it wouldn’t be hot.

It took us about 45 minutes to get to the race.  It was being held in O’Fallon by the River City Rascals Ballpark, which I assume is some sort of minor league team.  And I don’t feel like googling that, but you go right ahead.

We picked up our t-shirts and race numbers.  The race was well organized plus there were real bathrooms, always a plus.

Oh, and I should mention that we sort of wore costumes.  We thought people would be decked out, as it was the Fourth of July.

We were wrong.  There were only a handful of other people wearing anything even remotely resembling a costume.  A shame, in my opinion.  After all, isn’t part of the fun of racing being silly and ridiculous?  Or am I missing something?

We got our picture taken by somebody else also, “for the website.”  I found it later on facebook (Big River Running’s page), and realized what is holding me back from being a real celebrity. (hint: it’s not my legs!)

Had I been wearing my sunglasses that would have been a fantastic picture.  Maybe we can photoshop them in?

I also found this other picture:

Those were the other people in costume.  Seriously.  O’Fallon, I’m disappointed in you. (Then again, what did I expect?  This is why I live in the city.)

Or maybe it’s because I am CRAZY.  That face is just frightening.  I’m only including this photo because I look ridiculously thin.

The rain had basically let up, and we lined up for the race.

We ended up in an area where it seemed that none of the men were wearing shirts.  Strange.  And I blame Jen.

ANYWAY.  The race got started, and off we went.  Our goal was to finish in under 11 minute miles, to not walk, and to get to the end without any crying.

The rain came and went, and we were both completely soaked.  But we kept going.

I won’t bore you with too many more details, but basically it went pretty well, though after about 4 miles Jen went on ahead because I was too slow (I insisted she go on ahead, of course!).

At the end of the race we entered the ball park and rounded the bases.  This might have been more fun if it wasn’t just a big mud trap!  I wanted to sprint but kept having to slow down because I was afraid of wiping out.

I finished in 1:07:18.  Just under the 11 minute mile goal (yay!) and without ANY crying, by either myself or Jen.  (Yes, I’m referencing the Go! St Louis fiasco.)

Afterwards I needed to sit down.  I guess my phone camera was a little foggy from all the rain.

There was a good spread of free food afterwards alone with some samples of stuff.  Overall it was a good run and a good race, though a little boring.  Would I run it again?  Probably not, as the course just wasn’t that interesting, but I’m glad we did.

My first 10K!

227 out of 287 for the 10k.  41st in my division.  1:07:18.