Monday, June 11, 2007

It's On!

Today is the day!

This morning J and I got up at 6am for our very first run of my very first day of training for my very first full marathon. It was short and more than hot, but I survived it.

3.38miles/32:38 (9:39 pace)

Good thing too, I need some structure in my life, I have been a major slacker lately.

I haven't really done any running in two weeks. Last weekend I spent Thursday through Sunday in Fort Lauderdale photographing the NASSM conference for J. It is an annual Sport Management Conference that is hosted every year by a different university. This year J and his collegues from UM hosted it and my job was to come to this fabulous beach resort where it was held and sit by the pool, drinking Pina Coladas and every now and then, photograph a meeting or lunch. But since it was the first day of hurricane season, it rained for four days and looked pretty much like this the whole time.

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Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

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Needless to say, I ended up taking a lot of pictures. Although Tropical Storm Barry made a short visit, the weekend was a huge success! And lucky for us, Sunday (the day we were leaving) the sun came out and we got to hang out for a few hours at the hotel's amazing pool.

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Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

I did manage one treadmill run at the hotel gym while I was there. I hadn't run on a treadmill in almost a year and was a little apprehensive. For a long time in my life, a treadmill was the only way I could run. Once I finally got the courage to really give outdoor running a try, I became addicted and felt clausterphobic running indoors, so I gave it up all together. This run was actually OK though. It was a nice change for my knees and it felt good to start at a pace that I used to finish on as my sprint in the past. My average time on a treadmill run in the past was about 2.7/30:00. This time I ran a 3.1/27:10. It's amazing the difference a year can make.

It's also amazing the difference a couple of weeks can make. I have worked out twice in two weeks and feel like I have gained about 30lbs. Other than the treadmill run, the only other exercise I have gotten has been random dog walks and a long 6 mile walk on South Beach with J this past Saturday morning. I brought my camera and spent the first 2 miles shooting a lot, which J looooves by the way (sarcasm), but I picked up the pace for him the last four miles. Of course, the waffle breakfast we had at Big Pink afterwards pretty much cancelled out any health benefit to our walk. Here are a few shots since I know how much you guys like the beach.

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Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

Here are the rest if you are interested.

So yeah, I haven't gotten much excercise in and pretty much ate whatever I wanted and drank a lot of beer, but whatever. I know the next six months will be very long, hot and miserable, so I'm ok with it.

By the way, the weather here has been out of control. I know I complain about it a lot, but be prepared for a long summer of me whining incessantly about the humidity. I am apologizing for it now. There was a "feels like" temperature of NINETY DEGREES the other night at 12:30 PM!!! AT NIGHT PEOPLE!!! There was NO SUN! CONAN O'BRIEN WAS ON FOR THE LOVE OF GOD!!!

Sigh.

6 comments:

Irish Blue said...

I so need to come visit you!

Good luck with the training. I was up at 5:30 too. Sleep, dear sweet sleep, I miss it!

Sonia said...

Woohoo for the first marathon training run!! Getting up at 6AM will cut some of the humidity, its a great idea. Is your husband running the marathon too? Has he run one before? A partner will definitely keep you from missing runs!

I feel you about not working out for a week and feeling like you've put on a million pounds... grrr

Great pics! Too bad about the weather but you have the beach close by anyway where you are...!

Laurel said...

Yeah, he is running it with me. He has done the Miami Marathon twice and the Sarasota and San Francisco Half Marathons so, he's good to go. We are training to run Columbus together since it's my first, then we will both do Miami with separate training groups.

You would think 6am would cut the humidity, but down here it doesn't. It only cuts the heat from the sun. But I'll take what I can get.

I need to come run in Canada for a few months ;)

Erlina said...

congratulations on the start of training! so glad you're aiming for full, so I have someone to "virtually" train with. I'm aiming for my first full on Oct. 14, and I need to get in gear. After my half marathons earlier this year, I've been a total slacker. Good luck with the training!

Michelle said...

Cool pictures!!!

I totally don't envy your hot, humid weather! If we get to 70 degrees in the summer, it is a very warm day!

Jolene said...

I loved these pics! We were just in SB! We stayed at the Whitelaw (just off 10th & Ocean I think), ate at the Colony, walked the whole beach to get pics of the different lifeguard booths, and drooled at the Hotel Victor. It's a great town to just hang out in...provided it's WINTER. I got all steamy and sweaty at 7am in December. So I can empathize. I don't even know how I'd run 2 miles in Miami in the summer, much less train! So kudos to you for getting it done!

 
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