My First Half-Marathon: The Air Force Half Marathon 2013

Well, I didn't die. Not that I really thought that I would, but 13.1 miles does get long after a while. Luckily, I had my dad running alongside me the whole way, and it was worth it. Now I even have the 13.1 sticker on my car as bragging rights!  Here's my tale of my first half-marathon.

Way back in high school, I started running. Really, it was probably more around 8th grade when I realized that I needed to lose the baby fat. So I started running. Dad was an encouragement in this. I also ran track for 9th and 10th grade, doing the 1 and 2 mile runs. I really didn't like the competing part; I just liked how it felt to run. You know, when you get into the groove and have your pace, and can really feel like your body is getting a good workout.

So when track ended, I still ran, mostly between 1-3 miles, all the way through the current day, over ten years. I've never been too concerned with going a long way, though I have gotten up to around 4 miles some summers. (Hiking is another hobby, and long hikes of 10+ miles weren't uncommon in the California Sierras). Over the years, I thought it might be fun to do a race, a 5k or something, but you always have to pay, and who wants to pay? Plus I didn't have desire to win, I just liked to run.

Finally this year I told dad that if he paid I would run the half marathon with him. Dad's a running veteran, doing the full marathon twice and the half marathon twice too. I started running again to build my miles up in April/May, just doing about 2 miles a couple of times a week. We were still putting a lot of time into fixing up our house, and I work of course, so I can't devote too much time. As June came around, I started really pushing myself to up my miles, and was running 4-5 mile "long" runs once a week, with 2-3 mile runs a couple of nights in between. This pattern continued into July and August, building up my long runs usually on the weekends, with a little lesser distance during the week. Really, I only ran every other night. I figured my body needed to rest and I needed to feel like training wasn't consuming me. By the end of August, I had ran 8 mile long runs twice. As September started, I ran two 10 mile runs the two Saturdays before the race, with my mid-week runs anywhere from 3 to 6 miles. So I had run 10 miles twice before my 13.1 mile race.

On race day, I think I felt pretty good. I say that because I couldn't feel much. I don't mean in the way of pain; there were just so many people that all you really thought about was not running into people on the course!! Honestly, that first 10 miles when pretty quick. Around the 10 mile hydration station, they passed out bananas, and I ate half of one. At each other station  (there was one about every mile and a half) I drank about 4 ounces of Gatorade and sometimes water also. This got me through, though after that 10 mile mark I was definitely starting to tire in my legs and lungs. While before we had done a 30 second walk through the hydration stations to drink, we started to take a few more walk breaks, maybe about every mile (one of these was before a hill-ugh!). One big positive overall was that it was overcast and cool, so at least we didn't have the heat to deal with. I was actually sprinkling when we started.

Running up the home stretch, we saw our family off to the side, and I jogged over to give my hubby a kiss, then dad and I held out hands together and high as we crossed the line. Next came the food tent. Oh yes, I just said the food tent. Here we had water, chocolate milk, bananas, bagels, and pizza to replenish our energy, we took some and sat down to eat before we caught up with the rest of the family.

So overall, it was good race, and my only complaint was that I didn't actually feel myself get into the groove. It's not that I felt out of a groove, but just that there was so much external stimuli that I wasn't as self-aware as I usually am on my runs. I missed that part. (But maybe it's sort of a good thing?) Still, having live bands, people to cheer you on, and plenty of water made it a great race.

I saw two signs that make me laugh. One said, "Ladies, run like Anthony Wiener is chasing you." The other said "No you can't stop, no you won't stop, but Miley Cyrus should STOP!" But of those cracked me up. I'm thankful for all the supporters, even if they weren't for me individually.

So that's the story of my first half-marathon. If I would do it again, or ever try a marathon, remains to be seen. The time to train is the biggest setback, but it was worth it, especially because my dad and I did it together.

 Mom and dad

 Justin and I

My sister and her husband and kids came up too!

Applesauce

Growing up, I have distinct memories of making applesauce with mom and my sister. The sweet smell of the warm apples and cinnamon were reason enough to spend all that time washing, cutting, and boiling the apples down. Mmm! If you have never had warm applesauce, you don't know what your missing. Even if you try to heat it up in the microwave after the fact, it's just not the same as when it is fresh.

So, to my delight, I had a good friend offer to let me pick some apples from their tree. I took two five-gallon buckets worth, and mom and I worked on washing and quartering them, after removing any spots. Then the apples are put on to boil with a little bit (1/2 cup or so) of water in the bottom of the pan. They have to be cooked on low and stirred frequently so they don't burn. When the apples are tender, I just ran them through the Victorio Straino, and SHEBAM, applesauce!! I added about three cups of sugar and 1/4 cup cinnamon for flavor. Maybe I put in more... I didn't exactly measure... just kept tasting until I liked it!

From start to finish, it took about 3 1/2 hours. I still need to divide them out into freezer bags, but the (worst, most time consuming) part is done. I can't wait to enjoy it throughout the year!

 

 

Done with canning... hopefully!

Well, I would like to say I am officially done with canning for the year. I tore up the remaining green bean plants and tomatoes this weekend. The beans were getting rather buggy and unproductive, as were the tomatoes. All in all though, I am pretty happy with my results. I canned about 5 dozen quarts of beans, 3 dozen pints of tomato sauce, 10 quarts of tomato juice, and 2 dozen pints of cinnamon rings (from cucumbers). While I would have liked to freeze corn, the animals got to my few rows and it just didn't happen. I still might do make applesauce, as I found out that a good friend has some trees that I can pick from. Whew, though, it is a big commitment to can! The best part about it, amidst all the hot mess, is that I know exactly what is in each can, and don't have to worry about additives and preservatives. So it is worth it!