Running Machine

This past Wednesday-Friday was my 2nd trip to Pine Cove with my 5th graders! The kids had a great time and so did the teachers! It was definitely a lot of work, and I crashed as soon as I got home on Friday. I love getting to spend this time with my students, and it is always good to get away from campus for a few days. I am powering through for the next 2 weeks until Thanksgiving Break!

Saturday I slept in until a decent hour, had some oatmeal and a spark and headed over to my friend Rachel's house. We have a good running buddy system. I am directionally challenged, so she always plans and navigates our running routes, while I have the app that tells me how far we've gone and how much farther we need to go. Once I got to Rachel's, we hopped in the car to hit up a trail in Plano. 

Then something incredible happened... We ran 10 miles... without having to stop to walk or pee! It was crazy!!! When we had to run 8 and 9 miles, we had to stop several times to catch our breath. This time we took it at a slower pace, and took a snack! We were starving by mile 7 or 8 in the last few long runs, so we packed a cliff bar and split it at mile 6 so that it would digest before the hunger set in. This is definitely why you train! 

Today was our weekday 5 mile run, and I see Rachel several times throughout the day at school (she is our music teacher) when I dropped the kids off at music I said to her in total seriousness, "Rachel, it is so cold outside.. let's just treadmill it up today," Her response was, "No, Megan. It might be this cold on half-marathon day and we need to prepare." I groaned and walked away, even after school when I had to shiver at carpool duty, I went and told her, "you don't understand! It is freezing!!!" she wouldn't budge and I was forced to change into my winter running clothes. Once we got moving I was fine.. Running Buddies are totally the way to go! I couldn't be where I am today without her! 

Over the summer, we had taken a big break from exercise in general, and we decided to go for a short jaunt around White Rock Lake. We hadn't run in several weeks, and only did about 4 miles running and walking. We were enjoying the scenery and were thinking that walking the rest of the perimeter of the lake would be a good idea. WRONG. As it turns out, the perimeter of that lake is just about 11 miles. We had run/walked 4, and had to walk 7 more! It was extremely hot August weather, we didn't have water, and there were no other people around! It was one of the most dreadful things I've ever done. I thought we would never make it back to the car. Well we are rearranging our training schedule to accomodate our Thanksgiving travel plans - we plan to do our 11 mile run this weekend, and we are taking on White Rock Lake!! We will conquer that bad boy running, and will then hit up a Deep Ellum Restaurant called Cane Rosso and eat all of the calories we burned. It is crazy how the Half-Marathon is only 3 weeks away!