Brushing the blogwebs off

Yeah yeah, I know..I have been a complete slacker with the blogs the last couple of months. I could come up with many excuses, but I won't even bother going there. It's not like I had a mob of people demanding a new entry. I did have Thon and Richard bug me, but despite their Italian-like methods of motivation during runs, I wouldn't call them a mob.

Instead I will just give some updates on what's going on in Mikey's world. I continued my assistant coaching duties with AustinFit, which involved the 22-miler 3 weeks before the marathon. I was signed up for the half-marathon, so this was a lot more than I needed to do. However, it was cool to be able to do that much distance just 2 months after the Dallas Marathon. I fared pretty well on the run, but I have developed a slight knee issue over the past few weeks.

Besides AustinFit, I did run a lot with Hava to help her train for her first half-marathon!! She decided to give it a try in December after watching Thon, Carrie, Amy, Venus, and myself finish the full marathon in Dallas. I am not going to lie, I was somewhat skeptical. Not because I didn't think she could physically do it, but I wasn't sure if she REALLY wanted to do it. And if you aren't mentally ready for the discipline required to train correctly, then you are setting yourself up for failure. Of course, I didn't say this to her, because I really wanted to see her accomplish it! So I set out to create a custom training schedule for her on an excel spreadsheet. It had her slowly building up to an 11 mile run 2 weeks before the race. I also mixed in speed workouts, which I thought would help her run her 11-minute planned pace comfortably.

Well, it didn't take much time for Hava to erase my skepticism. She woke up almost every scheduled morning to get her training run in. She did her leg weights religiously to keep her knee pain at bay (ok, she slacked off a bit a few weeks before the race, but whatever). I became a believer very quickly, and I was getting excited at the prospect of having a "running wife"!!! We did one speed workout per week, and she never failed to impress me with her ability to complete the workouts and finish strong. Most of her weekday runs were in our neighborhood, which is full of hills, so had all of the right training to get through the hilly AT&T Austin Half. And what made me even more impressed is that she did all of this training with a good amount of distractions, primarily travel required for work. Her 11 mile run two weeks ago was tough for her. She got through it, but it took a toll on her body. I wasn't too concerned, but I know Hava might have lost a little of her optimism at that point.

My younger sister Susan and her boyfriend Kyle were also planning on running the half with us. This was to be Kyle's first half-marathon as well. Similar to Hava, Kyle has come a LONG way to get to this point. In fact, just a few years ago he was extremely overweight and could not run a mile. Then he met my sister, who also used to be overweight but changed her life a few years ago and got into excellent shape..including finishing the Freescale Marathon in 2005. She was a huge positive influence on him. Of course, I give him just as much credit for putting Susan in a better place in life mentally. They are an awesome couple and were made for each other. Patiently waiting for Kyle to put a ring on her finger (no pressure Kyle). Bonus for me that he is a fellow Aggie!

Ok, so back to my Havalah. We all went to the race expo last Saturday and had a good time. We picked up our packets and shopped a bit. Hava was SO excited and optimistic. Once I saw that, I knew she would do just fine. She was both physically and mentally ready for the race. Barring anything unforseen, my wife was on the brink of finishing her first half-marathon! That evening, Hava and I headed to Richard and Stephanie's place for an excellent pre-race potluck. We had a great time, although Hava kept on having to hear people say how hard the race was going to be because of all of the hills. Luckily, it didn't seem to effect her attitude much! We then went home and prepared for the race..and then went to bed early.

We woke up at 4:45..it was a dry and cold morning, perfect marathon/half-marathon weather! We did our pre-run rituals, got dressed, and headed out to the starting line downtown! The race was set to start at 7, so we eventually made our way to the starting line around 6:45. Hava was bursting with excitement, which was really nice to see. We couldn't hear anything at the front of the starting line, but at 7 there were a bunch of fireworks set off and we slowly made our way to the front. It took 5 minutes just to get to the starting line!!!

We were off!! My goal was to make sure Hava didn't run too fast at first. I knew she felt great, but I also know from experience the resulting troubles of letting the adrenaline and excitement dictate your pace. As I suspected, I had to reign her in a few times. We still went a little faster than I thought we should go, but I still felt comfortable that she could maintain the pace. Susan and Kyle slowly pushed ahead, although at one point they got behind us temporalily because they stopped at the first water stop (we didn't). My parents came in to support all of us, so we got to see them first at mile 3. Hava was so excited to have them out there, it was really motivating to see them supporting us. The course wasn't too bad at first, it was flat to uphill, but mostly gradual uphill.

Hava was doing really well, by the halfway point she still felt really good and was staying hydrated and fueled (with her favorite Jelly Belly Sportz Beans). The first steep hill was at mile 7 near the Mopac Bridge. It is a short hill, but very steep. I know Hava was a bit nervous about the hills, but I repeatedly told her that she was prepared for this. We got to the hill and I told her to take nice and short steps and control her breathing. She did just that and we greeted by my parents at the top of the hill! Once again, it was very motivational to see them, especially after getting to the top of the first difficult hill. The remaining 6 miles were basically up and down hills. Hava stayed pretty strong, although a few of the hills took a lot out of her. However, she recovered very quickly, which I reminded her was a direct result of all of her hill and speed training. We split off from the Marathon on Windsor and eventually got to the second-to-last big hill. It looked tough, and as we ascended we saw a lot of people walking up the hill. I looked at Hava and said something to the effect of "You are better than that..you will not stop running..you trained for this!". I don't remember the exact wording, but I temporarily became a drill sergeant. Turns out she was laughing in her head about my words and tone, but guess what, she made it to the top without stopping. And once again, she recovered quickly. Most importantly, we left all of the people that walked in the dust!

Before we got to the last big hill, we were greeted by Thon right around his house. He ran with us for a couple of minutes and gave Hava some encouragement. He told her how strong she looked....he was not just saying it to make her feel better. She DID look strong!! I was so proud of her, even before she finished. We got to the last big hill around mile 11 on Enfield, it was not only steep, but long. I told her that she just need to make it through this hill and after that it would be a lot easier to the finish. Once again, she didn't fail to impress and charged up the hill.

Around mile 12, I told Hava that once we got to Congress that she should crank up the speed if she had it in her. Once we passed around the capitol, Hava turned on the afterburners and started to run a sub-10 minute mile. And as the finish line came into site, she started to speed up even more. My garmin was registering an 8:50! At one point, I even lagged behind her because she surprised me with a burst of speed. I caught up to her a few feet before the finish and we finished together..final chip time, 2 hours and 17 minutes.

Hava averaged a 10:29 pace, 30 seconds faster than what we thought she would do it in!! Most importantly, she thoroughly enjoyed the experience!! Kyle and Susan finished in 2:10, which was a PR for Susan and an excellent finishing time for Kyle as a first-timer!! As for me, I had the best half-marathon experience I have ever had. It was really nice to just enjoy the run, the people around us, and watching Hava not only achieve her goal, but achieve it with style!!!

How's that for a comeback blog? Congrats to all of my friends who finished the half or full this past weekend! And thanks to Thon and Richard for being out there to support all of us!