Austin Half Marathon

I've been offered an elite entry into the Austin half marathon on Feb. 20th. I'm pretty excited. It's suppose to be a beautiful and fun course. This will be a perfect race for me leading up to the exciting Shamrock Marathon which I plan to participate in (March).

Granny Linda

My grandmother died today. Respiratory failure. At the end, she was tired and ready to go home. I believe that she was looking forward to meeting GOD and to even see her son who died over 20 years ago. She was an amazing woman. Kind and beautiful, you saw the American Indian in her features. Black hair, dark eyes, natural tan skin........yes she was beautiful.
But she had a hard life. She grew up with very little and had to share that with 2 other siblings. Married young and had 5 boys. Once again, money was scarce and times were hard. She worked hard to make ends meet which was difficult considering the man she married made life even harder. Let's just say.............he made life more difficult for her then life had to be.
She believed in hard work. She spent her entire life working in the fields, working in a factory or caring for others. 7 days a week all hours of the day.
She ever knew any other life. I'm not sure if she every had the opportunity to be happy. To know true happiness. 'm hoping she's happy now.
My mother told me that she's sure that my grandmother found happiness in me. This is something that definitely brings me comfort.
She was so young. I always thought I had time to take care of her. I wanted to take care of her. Now I will never have the opportunity.

Make it Hurt So Good

Oh my gosh it was freezing tonight at track. I thought I was going to freeze to death. Usually at this point normal people go inside b/c they don't enjoy being cold. But no, we (the crazy runners) are outside running in circles (or on a street) enjoying the cold weather and complaining about the weather. Also, our poor coaches are standing on the sideline freezing their butts off and listening to us complain. Why in the world are we complaining? We are so lucky.
We are so lucky that we are able to enjoy such activities as running in a circle on a cold night. We are so blessed that we are healthy enough and we are "free" enough to spend our leisure time doing whatever it is that we love.
If I said it once, I've said it a thousand times. I love running. I'm so blessed to be able to run.

Surf n Santa

Today was my first attempt at fast running since I hurt my hamstring about 4 weeks ago. Starting the race I was a little worried, I just didn't want my hamstring to hurt so much that I would cause more damage to my hamstring. So the goal was too take it easy and just let the pace go where it needed to go. The race went well. My hamstring didn't start hurting until Mile 3 and the pain never became unbearable. So I decided to just keep the pace at 6mins and to just have a good time at the race.
I crossed the finish line right at 60 minutes and 14 secs. Not a bad day considering I'm not at the top of my game. I did have my pride hurt (and they know who they are). All in all, a good race and a good day. Not a bad way to spend my Saturday morning.