Baystate Half 2018

I'm sure you've been dying to read this update, and here it is.  Not even a week late! Amazing. 
So I did run last Sunday, as I said I was going too.  Turns out I ran more than I anticipated, making it to around 7.5 before I started walk/running.  Pretty good considering 6 was my max and even that was a one time only training run.  Of course, I still had to stop at every porta-john on the course, but that's just something I'm going to have to embrace, for now, I guess.  The course itself wasn't too bad and the weather turned out pretty nice considering it was cloudy and drizzly when I woke up.  Wind was only an issue on the back side of the course on the Esplanade and on the bridges.  Other than that, it wasn't too noticeable.  Ryan and X came for the end but it was too cold for X so they ended up waiting in the car for me.  At least they made it to the end, last year, Scott and I went to meet Ryan and Brittany and arrived after they had finished!
Speaking of finishes, I suppose you want my stats now.  I'm going to give both Garmin and official stats because they're widely different.  Of course, every bathroom stop I paused my Garmin because I like to know runtime, not time elapsed.  And I'm sure you're all aware that the course time doesn't stop for you.  So my course time was 2:45, official.  My Garmin time was 2:26.  I guess I took 20 minutes worth of bathroom breaks! If there's one thing I would like to improve on now, it would be that.  20 minutes is almost enough time for another whole 5K! Unfortunately, I'm not really sure there's much I can do in the way of eliminating bathroom breaks, except let time pass.  At the end of the day though, I'm just happy I was able to finish the race and that I can reasonably expect to be able to continue running longer distances now. 
In a weird coincidence, this half was 11 weeks after his birth.  The Louisiana half, which was the last half I ran, I was 11 weeks pregnant.  For comparison, I ran Louisiana in 2:30, also with bathroom breaks.  But I was a bit more in shape then, considering I had been working out all summer and had just run a trail marathon back in November.  So that one was probably easier, though it didn't seem like it at the time.
So I was a bit sore the day after, but who wouldn't be.  It took a long time for me to not be sore after running a half and then I went 5 months without running longer than 4 miles once or twice.  So that's going to be something else I need to build back up.  Since I didn't want to run and make the soreness worse, I decided to at least go out walking this week.  We went all over the place this time, the bike path, the battle road, you name it, we went there.  Two of our walks were over 4 miles, the others were shorter.  Still, I feel better walking since I haven't been able to get to the gym.  Plus, stroller time is the only long nap X takes, so it's either go out walking while he naps or sit at home and listen to him cry every 30 minutes when he wakes and probably won't go back to sleep.  I'll choose to walk every time in that case. 
But now I need to make a choice.  Sign up for another half or just run for recreation.  Both seem like good ideas on any given day.  The biggest influence is the weather, which could ruin both choices.  If I run for recreation, I know I won't go when it's too cold, windy, snowy, etc.  If I have a half to run, I'm more likely to go out and run. However, I wouldn't want to run in that weather, so I just don't know.  Sometimes it's just hard to make a choice. 

On our way to the start

I will take a porta-potty picture every time.

Starting line---brrrrr

Finished. X is not impressed

Inspiring messages on the bike path. 

Only 5 days until Halloween.  So we wear our costumes out to stay warm.

My legs, my poor little legs

They're sore.  I don't know. That's it really.  Ran a 10K on Saturday, mostly hills, because Gloucester, calves have been sore ever since.  Welcome to running.  I tried stretching, foam rolling, shakeout runs, more working out even, but still, they fire on.  I guess this is my life now.  Oh well.  But for real. I bought new shoes to see if I could eliminate the blister problem that my good old Hoka's were causing.  Plus, I found a New Balance warehouse that was close to the house and was having a 30% off everything sale, so why not?  I wore those lovely new shoes for the 10K and surprise, got a blister.  Then in a moment of clarity, I realized that I could feel the insole back under my toes, which is not where it belongs.  After the race I looked at the shoes and the insoles had slid way back leaving a nice little gap of at least 6 inches.  So I deduced that the blister problem isn't actually from the sneakers, but from the insole sliding around.  As a crafty person I figured a quick fix would be some super glue, so I got some, glued those suckers down, and 4 days later went for another run.  I used the same shoes, took them for 8 miles on the Battle Road just to see how well the glue held up.  Seems to have done a decent job, no blisters in sight. Sadly, I think the Battle Road causes my knee to hurt, something about whatever it's made out of, so that after 4.5 there was a mix of walk/running again.  Which is too bad because up until that point, I was actually doing well on this run, making good time and not being too hot, which is a change from the usual.  But now according to science, the heat dome is coming, so it's back to turtle pace I guess.  Well, turtle pace for me anyways.


Let's see, nothing else really happening here.  I did not run the woods yesterday because we took a day trip to White Lake instead.  Next week is my camping week, so I probably won't be running the woods then either, but that's to be determined.  We have tickets to see the Impractical Jokers next Thursday night, so I haven't decided if I'm going to come home Wednesday afternoon or Thursday morning.  Depends on the weather up there I suppose.  Other than that I've just been reading and coming up with ideas for crafts that I'm not actually making.  Oh yea, a groundhog ate all of my pumpkin and watermelon plants that were just starting to flower, so I'm kind of mad about that.  I just wanted to have a few nice plants.  Now I'll have to wait until next Spring AND make sure I get some chicken wire to keep the things out.   Although I read that groundhogs will chew through wood and wire too, so who knows if that's actually the solution.  For now I'm just going to be annoyed about it anyways.

Ok, done with that.  Here are your pictures for the week.

Woods run from last week.  Temperature provided for your entertainment.

Obama Face Swap.  Obama now looks like Kenny. 

Ohh hey new shoes.  

10K start

10K finish

Cousin face swap.  These are the only pictures I have right now, sorry!