wanderunner

Much to catch up on! Two weeks ago (literally the weekend after getting back from the cruise- and a week of no running) I ran in the Little Patuxent River Half Marathon, in Columbia, MD. This course gave me a run for my money- I knew it was going to be on a trail, but I think I underestimated the trail race aspect of it. There were some points I was literally hiking up steep hills, and on the downhills, I was trying not to let my clumsiness get the best of me. The trail was speckled with rocks/roots/mud, and I had zero desire to trip and fall and hurt myself. I originally had a goal of 1:49, but a few miles in, I totally decided that wasn’t happening, LOL. I ended up coming in at 1:55:33. My PR remains the 1:53 I ran during the SF Marathon, but I did beat my time from my first official half about a year ago, which was 1:58. To be honest, I think I could’ve pushed a lot more during this race, which illuminated something I already knew: I need to work on my mental game :D. However, given that this was a true trail race, and I managed to squeeze out a second-place age group finish, I was pretty satisfied with the day 🙂

Last weekend, we stayed at Mera’s favorite place: her Uncle Gus’s house! We were dogsitting for our friends who were out of town for a wedding, and since they have a backyard and two big dogs, we figured it would be easier for the three of us (me, Mera, and Jason) to stay over there. I love watching Mera play with her uncle. Basset hounds are the best.

I also got in an 18M marathon pace workout while we were there. Jason and I ran to the Mount Vernon trail, my favorite place to run in the DMV so far. He turned back at around 4.5 miles, while I had a 4 x 2 mile workout ahead of me. I was pretty happy about my splits- and even happier that I miraculously didn’t get sore afterwards. Must be all the protein and strength work 🙂

My last item of the day is this amazing winter salad I made last night. For some reason I felt the need to double the recipe, so now Jason and I have enough winter salad to feed a football team.

Happy Tuesday!