Hello all, I'm sorry it has been a while since my last post, but a lot has been going on. For the past two years I have been slowly but surely working on my Master's degree through UW, and this summer was spent finishing up my very last class. Now it was an online class, so I was able to still enjoy my summer and not have to be suck in a classroom for hours every day. However, it was an English class, so it felt like I was constantly reading books (6 full children's novels and over 20 different fairy tales) and writing papers (8 to be exact). Well, I just turned in the 8th paper last week, and scheduled my final for the following Tuesday, which just happened to be last night. I studied extremely hard, wanting to end my Master's program on a high note, and I was so nervous last night that I even arrived at the testing center over an hour early. Thankfully, they let me start the test early rather than just sit there and stew. So I got into the exam room, sat down, started to look over my 20 short answer essay test...and realized that I had studied all of the wrong things! :( I did the best I could, but I have a feeling that my professor is going to go to grade my final and think that I simply read the Cliff Notes for all of the stories (which I categorically did NOT do, I diligently read every single story assigned). There's unfortunately nothing I can do about it now, I just have to hope that I did better than I think, and at least get a high enough grade to have the class count toward my Master's so that I can finally be done!
Ok, on to happier things...as I mentioned in a previous post, in July, I celebrated my 28th birthday by running my first ever half marathon with my good friend
Leila. During the race I actually felt really good, even though the course was extremely hilly and 13.1 miles is a long way for most people to run. And as I continued to think about the race after I was done running it, I realized that I really enjoyed the 13.1 mile distance...I felt like I could keep up a pretty good pace without hitting the inevitable wall that happens during a full marathon. Ever since that race, I feel like all I've been doing is looking for fun half marathons to run. I've found several that look just awesome, and hopefully I'll be able to work a few of them into my schedule next year.
The first set of races that have caught my eye are several from the
Rock 'n' Roll Marathon Series. For those of us who enjoy running races in large part for the swag (finisher's shirts, medals, after parties), this particular series offers special finisher's medals for people who complete more than one of their races in a calendar year. This idea intrigued me, so I started looking at their "Tour Dates", and happily found that they are doing an
inaugural half marathon in Portland in May 2012.
I've always wanted to run the very first race of some kind, and it's a half marathon, so I'm sold...will be signing up for that one shortly! I kept looking through the list and discovered that, a month later, at the end of June (in fact, it happens the weekend after the school year ends, so it's perfect!), is the series's
half/full marathon in Seattle.
I have yet to run anything longer than a 10K in the Seattle/Tacoma area, and I've lived here for 6 years now, so this seems the perfect opportunity! These races both seemed perfect because I wouldn't have to travel far (it's only a couple hours to Portland after all) and I wouldn't have any expenses for hotels (since I know great people in Portland) so really, the only thing I'd have to worry about would be the race entrance fees. Done and done! But as I continued to look through the list, there was one race that, no matter the travel expenses, just seems too fun to pass up...and that's the series's half/full marathon in December that is in
Las Vegas...on the strip...at night!
How cool does that sound?!?!?!?! Running a half marathon along the strip in the evening when all of the casinos are lit up, with drunken gamblers cheering you on the whole way...count me in! And the best part is that, on top of the finisher's medals that I'll receive at each individual race, I'll also get the Triple Crown medal for running three Rock 'n' Roll races in one year!
So, all I want to know is...who's going to run these with me next year?
Also, what motivates you to run a long race?
No comments:
Post a Comment