Final Week

Hey All!

Today is the last Sunday of training! I can hardly believe I am going to be racing next week. It is exciting and nerve wracking all at once.

You may have noticed I failed to post last week, and the reason has to do with the late posting of the previous week's summary and also some unfortunate events which took place when I got home from Colorado. As you may have realized, Patrick and I live in different states. It is rough. Therefore, for the past few months we have been planning for him to move to Chicago. Unfortunately, due to some circumstances which are out of our control, the move will not be possible right now, and we are not certain about when it will happen. Furthermore, he is unable to be here for the half-marathon.

As you can imagine I am quite upset about this development, especially since the whole running thing is more his passion than mine. I am disappointed to be running by myself now. I honestly debated dropping out with him... Not to worry, I am not a quitter. I am human however, and my emotions took hold for a minute before I realized giving up now would mean ignoring just about every one of my values. I have worked very hard to achieve the level of running fitness I have, and I still have the physical ability to do well. Patrick will run, at home, during the race time and we will simply make the best of a shitty situation.

Shay
When I was able to overcome my emotions, and muster the energy to get back out there and train I had... well actually, I still have kind of a rough week... physically. I don't know if I am still just hurting from running twelve miles and then not sitting down for another 3 hours, and THEN sitting down for 5 hours, and THEN sleeping on an air mattress in the wilderness, and THEN going for a 6 mile hike (photo evidence below) within 24ish hours OR if it was just an off week. Either way, my calves were killing me throughout the first three runs.

From left: Brandi (my lovely stepmama), Patrick, Dad, Brother Grayson, and Me

Luckily, yesterday's 8 mile run went flawlessly and I felt AWESOME. I would like to think my body just finally got with the program but I also used an ice bath with epsom salt on Wednesday after 5 miles, so there's that.

The incredible view from my 9/19/15 evening run (8 miles)

Patrick

As Shay has mentioned I am unfortunately unable to make it to Chicago to attend the race. This was a big blow to both of us, especially after working all summer toward this goal. I am happy however, Shay has decided to continue with the race and I have no doubt she will do great. This is especially evidenced by how bad she kicked my butt during yesterday's run. Similar to Shay, I have had a rough week running wise, as well. My run started out great yesterday and I was running at a pace of about nine minutes per mile, for the first few miles. However, this quickly waned when my hamstring began to tighten up. This has been something I have been dealing with this week in general however, at this point in the training I feel that anybody would have their fair share of minor injuries. As I look toward the last week of training I do feel a certain amount of pride in what we have accomplished, I think of how hard it was to accomplish a few miles and now we talk to each other and say today is only five miles like it's no big deal. So…even though I will be unable to make it I am glad to have this experience and glad I was able to see the growth in both Shay and myself, throughout this process. Here are some shots from beautiful Colorado during my run yesterday: