Turkeys, Trots and Little Tots!

A lot has happened since, last weekend.  I travelled to St. Louis to be with my family (mom, grandmother, cousins, aunt, aunt’s BF and my brother) for Thanksgiving – which, in and of itself, is a bit of an adventure.  My family (who I love dearly) always finds something to complain about.  I find myself incredibly happy in my Arizona life, and going home sometimes reminds me that others may be unhappy in their choices.  I have a beautiful family who finds fault in one another – I worry that I am that person, too.  And, I don’t want to be.  This realization hit me on Thanksgiving morning as I ran 6+ miles around Fairview Heights, Illinois’ barren streets.  (That is NOT a town of runners!)  Maybe this year we can all learn to appreciate each other – after all, we’re all pretty brilliant and relatively attractive!  So, I think that’s going to be my goal – to appreciate my family more.

In Chillier STL area -- with fields of nothing behind me.

Additionally, while away in St. Louis, one of my best friends (seen in last week’s bday photo) had her baby girl, Lyla!  As soon as I got off the plane, I rushed to the hospital to be with Anne and the baby!  So amazingly adorable!

Lyla would not move her hands from in front of her face...alas.

However, the birth of Lyla also meant Anne would not be available to “Sherpa” for me on my 16 mile run on Sunday morning.  It made me laugh when Anne apologized for this fact – and as she reassured me that she’d be able to assist the following weekend (on my 18 miler).  She is amazing – I hope she thinks I am anywhere near as good a friend to her and she is to me!

That being said, I mapped out my route for Sunday morning to include 3 loops: 7.5, 4.75 and 3.75.  When I don’t have Anne as my water/Gu Sherpa, I am relegated to sticking close to my house – which is in the foothills of Ahwatukee.  This means LOTS of hill training.  This route included 8 miles of uphill climbing – but I knew I was up for it.  The STL Marathon did a lot to boost my hill-confidence.

Saturday evening I was at a friend’s house sitting by the fire, eating ‘smores and sipping a delicious scotch.  I had the smallest amount of scotch, as I feared it would affect my run adversely.  That, in combination with the ‘smores (and no dinner), was definitely a potential recipe for failure.  But, sometimes you need to have fun and think less about the 16 miles the following morning.

In truth, the 16 miles felt great!  I was out the door before 6am and took on the hills like a champ.  By the time I finished the first, long loop I knew I was on the path to success.  Stopping for water and Gu always gives me a little anxiety because I want a good time – but I know that without them I will putter out somewhere around mile 10. 

I finished the second loop strong, as well.  It’s an incredible feeling to know your last loop is under 4 miles – so every time my watch beeped, I smiled.  In fact, my housemate Claire said that as she passed me on my run (en route to church), she saw me smiling away – I think that was somewhere around mile 9 – so nothing is really bad at that point. 

At mile 14, I started to hate the hills and wanted to take a break from them by walking.  I slowed down and looked at my watch:  2:25.  It was the first time I had looked at my watch all morning and I realized I was just over a 10 minute pace – with the hills, and the stoplights and the water stops.  It was exactly what I needed to keep me from walking any of those last two miles.  In fact, I busted out a 9:38 in my last mile to finish with a 2:43 overall time.   Felt good – felt really good.  

Now…on to this being less critical thing.