[photopress:dayquil.jpg,thumb,alignleft]  Of Recovery: So, I was sick all week.  After three days of being homebound, I’m back in the office and feeling depressed about all the catching up I have to do…..so I decided to update my blog.  Like how that works?   Anyways, I’m about 90% recovered, but I may be checking myself into a substance abuse treatment center following my 5-day DayQuil/NyQuil binge.  The NyQuil knocked me on my ass at night and the DayQuil made me blissfully loopy, so I basically spent the past 5 days pretty buzzed.    They didn’t do jack for my stuffy head, sore throat, coughing, aching or fever, though.

[photopress:rodeorun.jpg,thumb,alignleft] Of rodeoruns: I contemplated all week about the Rodeo Run 10K tomorrow, and I’ve decided to go ahead and still run it….though, “run” may be a generous description given my current state.  I just want to finish without passing out somewhere along Crawford.  Maybe I’ll fill one of my Amphipod flasks with some DayQuil and finish the race with a nice runner’s high. 

[photopress:rodeo.jpg,thumb,alignleft]...and pimpin cowboys:  About an hour ago, the Rodeo Trail Ride passed by our building - saw horses and buggies (carriages? whatever they’re called) passing by.  Most of the guys on horses were wearing normal, typical “western wear,” but there was one guy all pimped out in a knee-length white coat, white boots and, I swear to god, white cowboy hat.  Awesome.   Welcome to Houston.  Anyways, I had completely forgotten that today was Go Texan Day, so I’m the only one in the office that isn’t wearing something involving denim, snakeskin leather or lasso fringes.  I’m pretty pleased about that, though.

I’m running the 2006 Park to Park Run tomorrow morning - a 5-mile run from Minute Maid Park to Hermann Park.  I’m stopping by the Hermann Park Conservancy Office to pick up my registration stuff today, as I drive zoom back and forth between meetings.  I haven’t run all week though, so tomorrow’s race will be interesting.

 My HARRA Spring Ironfoot dreams are already dashed, however, since I didn’t make it to the Buffalo Wallow 6K last weekend.  Oh well.  I’ll just have to set my sights on the Fall Ironfoot Series.

 I can’t wait till Power in Motion starts. 

I waited too long to register for the Surfside Half Marathon (which reached its max capacity this week, I think), so I’m doing the Park to Park 5 Mile Run instead. The Park to Park is part of the HARRA Spring Series (and one of the Ironfoot requirements) so it’s all good, yo.

Hi. I’m back. I didn’t intend to be away from escapevelocity for so long, but hey. The past two weeks have been mostly about catching up on work and life stuff I’d put off till after the Marathon.

It’s only been two weeks since the Marathon, but it feels longer than that. I snuck in a quick run and it felt great - there was a slightly different sense of confidence that wasn’t there before. It was either Holden or Edwin who said (at the Expo) that after completing 20, 25 and 30K races - as well as a Marathon - running shorter distances feel much easier.

My 2006 Running Goals:

2005 was all about discovering the Houston running scene, building endurance and facing my personal challenge of completing a Marathon.

2006 is going to more about speed. Speed, speed, speed. Last year’s target was the Marathon finish line - this year, the target is the clock.

• Run a 5K under 30 minutes. Target race = Stepping Stones 5K, Sunday April 30th.
• Run a 10K under 60 minutes. Target race = ??. Need to find one. The Bayou City Classic in early March is too soon, methinks.
• Get a Spring Ironfoot award from HARRA. Since it’s unlikely I’ll ever win awards for speed, why not get something for perseverence? heh.
• Get used to running in the Houston summer heat/humidity. A grim necessity, but heat stroke ain’t no fun. Yuck.

I registered for the Spring session of Power in Motion, which starts on March 1st. Sponsored by HARRA, Power in Motion is the program that introduced me to the Houston running community. When I first registered in Fall 2004, I selected the “New to Running” option. Today, I selected the “Can continuously run 3+ miles” option. woo hoo! Each season, Power in Motion trains towards a certain race - this season, it’s the Stepping Stones 5K on April 30th. I hope to make my sub-30 min goal at that race.

It’s over, and I’ve done it. I crossed the finish line waving a Korean flag that my family had given me along the course, and as expected, burst into tears at the end. I’ll never forget the feeling of crossing that finish line….months and months of training, pre-dawn training runs, staying in on Friday nights…it all paid off today at 12:50pm.

And to top it all off, today is my 1.5 year anniversary of being a non-smoker.

Surprisingly, I’m feeling good physically. I felt worse after the 21-miler. My knees are sore, and my left hip feels like it’s had all the cartiledge ground down, but I think the adrenaline from running (and the 6 painkillers I took along the course) has helped kill the pain.

Anyways, I’m off to take a nap. I was falling asleep during lunch.

Well, I’m packing up to head out to GRB. I’ve had my carb-loaded breakfast (oatmeal with honey, banana, a little chicken broth with rice, toast with peanut butter). I woke up in a panic three times during the night - midnight, 2am and then 3:28am - thinking that I had overslept and missed the start of the race. Talk about a recurring nightmare.

Funny that the last time I woke up at 3:28am, when my alarm was set to go off at 3:30am.

I’m all slicked up with BodyGlide, and am going to slab on a few layers of Icy Hot when I get to GRB. I’m not sure if I’ll take my MP3 player with me, to help get through the tough spots….it’s just one more thing to carry. hmmm.

Gonna have a post-Marathon celebratory lunch at Farrago’s with friends & family. White chocolate bread pudding, here I come!

I’ve got butterflies in my stomache. Gonna get some last minute stuff together, then I’m out.

nightmares

• I woke up this morning in a panic. I thought it was Sunday morning instead of Saturday, and that I had missed the start of the Marathon. The first time, I went back to sleep….only to jump up again an hour later in the same panicked state. I tried going back to sleep, but I was too wired. It was 8:30am.

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