My first Half-Marathon.

Well, it was really a gorgeous day in Center City Philly yesterday, and the party atmosphere was almost too inviting. I spent maybe a little too much time socializing before the race start and when I turned to find my corral I had some difficulty getting across the fence! "Where do we go to get in?" I asked. "You climb under or over!" and three people picked up the orange plastic fencing and I slipped under just in time. Just in time to walk, of course, for the first minute or so, but at least I was in position. And dang if I didn't miss Mayor Nutter's pearls of wisdom before they let us go.

As someone who's run The Loop (around MLK/West River drive, across Falls Bridge & then down Kelly Drive back to the Art Museum) a few times, I was happy that the "extra" part of the race around City Hall was first, not last. Once we were on the approximately 8.4 mile Loop, I felt like, hey, this is just my Sunday Loop run with my Fairmount Running Club buddies.

Well, except there isn't nearly enough shade in the middle of Kelly Drive!! Crossing Falls Bridge somewhere between the 8 and 9 mile mark, I heard the bagpipe band and it really put a smile on my face. I thought, "It's the sound of the sun coming up!" Sure enough coming off the bridge and rounding the corner onto Kelly Drive, we were suddenly facing into the full sun. It was a warm day by then -- not HOT by any stretch of the imagination -- but I am a total baby when it comes to running with the sun pounding down on me! Waah!

My time was five and a half minutes slower than I had hoped for, something to work on in time for the next one in November. I wanted to match the first-time time of my friend, Paul, who told me his first half-marathon (when he was 14!) was 1:45. I finished in 1:50:22.

Paul's son Julian also ran his first half-marathon yesterday, and so Paul drove us both there and arranged for our post-race entertainment. Julian did awesome! He ran with a pace keeper, a friend of Paul's we ran into who happened to be running the race solely to help another friend keep pace. Julian was able to go along for the ride - er, run! When they ducked into the porta-pots along the way, Julian decided to keep going on his own. He ran a great race!

It wasn't the beach, where a lot of my fellow Tri-Dawgs (including Paul!) competed in a triathlon on Saturday, but it was a really fun race and a great day for it! Now I'm off to register for the November half-marathon.

[photo: Russia's Liliya Shobukhova, who won the thing in 1:10:21. Second place went to Beijing marathon Olympic silver medalist Catherine Ndereba of Kenya]

"Busy" takes its toll...

It's been forever since I've blogged. Too tired. To stressed. Too busy.

I've been so busy at work that I haven't had any "break time" to fool around and post anything. I get home in the evening hammered. I don't feel like even touching a keyboard after my day of troubleshooting technical issues related to my job as a college Electronic Resources Librarian.

But maybe I just feel busier than I really am, because I don't have myself well organized.

Since the beginning of a new semester I've been struggling with my newest cyclical demon... a change in routine. I've always thrived under the structure of a good routine, and these days I simply cannot function without one. And these days my routine requires changes often or it falls apart. My training needs require access to pools, running trails and bike routes, and this access changes seasonally. Before I started training again, I could get into the same routine for MONTHS and live life on an even keel. Not boring, necessarily, because my activities changed regularly, but my routine didn't have to.

But physical activities that rely on changeable things like pool & gym hours, work schedule, race schedules and especially daylight, require that the routine be adjusted whenever any of these things -- along with the kids' schedules -- changes.

And at this time of year, the day is shrinking at just the time I need it to expand!

I've changed my work schedule a bit to add an interval workout on a weeknight. That's one night fewer I can ride to work. I've been wanting to do this for a long time, but now, as we move from triathlon season to marathon season, the timing is perfect. (I'm not running a marathon this year though. Next year. This year I'll do one -- possibly two -- half-marathons.) It's also one night a week I can run with other people. Invaluable.

I'm back to swimming two mornings a week before work at the pool here at the college, in addition to a couple of other times each week elsewhere. Those two workweek mornings I'm unable to commute to work on my bike. I work until 6p.m. one -- sometimes two -- days a week. It's dark before 7:30 and I prefer not to ride in the dark, in case I get a flat, so that's two more days (some weeks) that I can't ride. That leaves only Fridays (reliably) for riding to work, until the daylight shrinks even more and I'm forced into spin classes to compensate. When that happens, my routine will change again.

My run schedule is also changing. It's dark in the early mornings and getting that way at the end of the work-day, too. Except for the weekend, running at lunch is once again becoming the best time, most days. That means I have to start packing lunch again, because there's no time to go to the café and go for a run. I should pack a lunch again anyway, because I need my siesta time on the days that I don't run at lunch! For that reason, I alternate days running and days having a brief, post-lunch siesta.

All this routine-busting has made my mind race when I wake up in the night. If I can't get back to sleep right away because of Dave's snoring, I am plagued by my unresolved schedule. I'm just sure I'm forgetting something or not managing something in the best way. I gotta be organized and efficient if I want to squeeze it all in.

And, I have to get a good night's sleep. So, I'm getting organized. It's taken me all day (10 minutes here, 10 minutes there) to write this letter to myself! I already feel better just writing it all down. Now I'll pull out the training calendar and get down to business. Before the end of today, before my head hits the pillow, I'll be back in control of the ONE thing in life I can control... my training!