Can you believe November has come and gone???!!!??? I'm not ready for 2020, but apparently it's coming! LOL I know.. I know... I keep saying how fast the year has gone by. Maybe it's the fact that when we are older the years seem to zoom by or maybe time was always going by fast but as a kid you were waiting for those big days.. like turning "16" or "21"... or getting that first big job... or getting married... etc. Whatever the reason is for time to zoom by I don't have a clue..but I know that it has for me!
I had not planned a race for Thanksgiving weekend, but I had a long run of 13-15 miles on tap and figured what the heck. It's always easier to run with many people verses all alone. So the day before Thanksgiving I registered for the Stennis Half marathon that would be the Saturday directly after Thanksgiving. Why not work off some of those holiday calories also! :>)
Thanksgiving at mom's was fun and FILLING. I was going to go run the 5 mile Hobble Gobble race in Hattiesburg that benefits the ARC that morning, but decided I better go help mom. I did register for the race to benefit the cause. I LOVE the ARC. Mom does 90% of the cooking for Thanksgiving. Oh we've offered to all bring stuff, but she likes to make her recipes and to be honest, we all would rather her food most of the time. :>) So I skipped the 5 mile race and ran 5 miles at home and then went to moms to help her cook. See I'm the good child (1 of 5).. hee hee .. I am there usually early to help and late to clean up. I can't say the same for the others.... God love them. :>) and I DO LOVE them! I have the best Siblings!
I wore my Thanksgiving socks for my run and then me and mom had to do a snap chat filter for our picture while we were cooking.
This is 13 of the 15 Sellers' grandkids. I LOVE how even though they range in age from 29 to 3, they LOVE to be around each other. I hope they always keep family close!
Now to the half marathon... Well let me just say if you've ever done Stennis then you know how BORING it is. The whole route is inside the Stennis Space Center facility. You don't run around any neighborhoods, etc. So there is no CROWD support to cheer you on AND if you are doing the full marathon you do 2 loops of the same boring route. I knew I was NOT doing that. However, I had a couple of friends that did! Penny did her 25th marathon and it was also her very 1st marathon a couple of years ago. All I can say is she's my hero! Her and Michelle! Michelle stuck with Penny and did the marathon also. Oh and I will say that if you need the long miles, Stennis is a cheap race to register for. I think the full marathon was like $45... you won't find that around! Most are like $100 + ... It's also put on by a good group of people... The Gulf Coast Running club. The food afterwards is always good and plenty of beer.
As for me.... I did the half! I had overdressed thinking it would be cold like it had been for several days. I was thinking the high may get to 50. Well, I should have checked the weather because it got to 78 degrees on race day! UGH. I really wanted to try to run all of the 13.1 miles and see how my body felt. I started out pretty good and maintained between a 9 and 9:30 pace until mile 6 when I had to make a bathroom stop. Then I got back on track, but by mile 8, I was toast. I had on long leggings and I was so HOT!! My face was covered in salt from sweat. My body was starting to not feel so good. I was aggravated because the week before I did 18 miles and felt awesome. But race day was a different story! Oh where oh where did winter go???!! anyway, I slowed down and did my jog/walk intervals and decided it wasn't worth it to push it. Besides it's only been 4 weeks since the Ironman race. I ended up with a time of 2 hours 21 minutes. Certainly not a PR, but a decent time. I was glad it was over and I felt so bad for Penny & Michelle who were starting their 2nd loop. Here's a group picture of several of us before the race started:
All the bibs said "marathon" but the half marathoners were blue and the full marathoners were white. Notice in picture above... some white bibs and some blue.
Did I mention that Stennis was my very first half marathon way back in 2010? Just so happen this picture popped up on my memories on FB:
That's me in the middle. Serina to your left and Renee to your right.
That's me in the middle. Serina to your left and Renee to your right.
These two girls, Serina & Renee, had talked me into the half. I had never done distance before in my life. Serina had done several with her parents. Serina and I first met at a 5K race. She's the type person that once you met her, you are friends for life. And she can talk you into anything!! Literally after this race in November, 2010, I did my very fist marathon the following February in 2011. And I've been going ever since. Stennis half was my 38th half marathon in just 9 years!
So what's next? my 39th half marathon in Memphis with my Daughter at St. Jude! :>)
And.... I must be letting PEER PRESSURE get to me!!!! I've been registering for some races to do with friends and I just entered them into my training peaks calendar and OMG I have 4 marathons coming up! I didn't think about the dates really when registering. I was just happy registering and thinking about going running with some friends. One friend, Brittney, will be doing her 1st marathon at Louisiana so you know Krista talked me into going and supporting Brittney. :>)
Gulf Coast 12-15-19
Louisiana 1-19-20
Mercedes 2-16-20
Big Sur 4-26-20 (can't wait for this trip to California with my MOM!)
I know one thing... I WILL be doing my jog/walk program so keep this old body from overdoing. :>) I've been looking forward to some races with friends so looks like I'm going to get just that. :>)
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