Back in the Saddle Again-Part 2

This one's for you, Mary!

Yes, I've been terrible-terrible about posting. I feel really badly about that.

Or, I would feel badly if I had really had the time, or something worth posting about.

So...to catch you up: I was a big huge pansy during the frostbite series. I ran the first race, during which it was about 43 degrees and it rained. A lot. The other 4 races? Weeeeeellllllll, I didn't so much make it to those. My philosophy was that if there was snow on the ground, I wasn't getting out and running in it, because I would then run the risk of falling and seriously injuring myself. If I got hurt, then I wouldn't be able to run the Go! St. Louis Half Marathon, which is the reason I had signed up for the Frostbite in the first place. Kinda seems silly.... So, yes, it was a waste of $35. Yes, I did not receive my t-shirt. Yes, my husband is a bit frustrated with me. But, I didn't get hurt, and I didn't go running in the snow like a crazy person.

Speaking of snow...We had about a jillion snow days this semester, which put a massive dent in our rehearsal schedule for the musical. So, we had to postpone it. Then, the postponement (for reasons I do not want to get into) became a cancellation. So, now I'm working on a set of one-act plays that we hope to pull off in the next 2 weeks. EEEEEK!

Now, back to the running: This past Sunday, Caleb and I ran the Go! St. Louis Half Marathon for our second time. We ran in record-breaking heat, and it was miserable! I did not run as fast as I had hoped at all. I did quite well for the first 6 miles, but after that, it all just kind of fell apart for me. Between the heat, all the extra fluids I had to drink while running (can you say "sloshy stomach"?), the extra 10 pounds I'm lugging around, and my still kind of bum knee, I was 14 minutes slower than I was aiming for. Last year I finished the course in and hour and 56 minutes. This year it was 2 hours and 10 minutes--14 minutes slower this time. I was bummed.

Caleb was bummed, too. He had hoped to place in his age division, and he missed out by 1 minute.

We came home and we did a whole lot of Monday morning quarter-backing. We've figured out how we need to adapt our training, what we need to do, and now we're signed up for another half later this spring. We will be traveling up north for our very first destination race!!! Be looking for an update in the coming weeks!

PS-I would post a picture from Sunday, but I took them on my new smart phone. Evidently, a smart user was not part of the phone package we bought, and I have no idea how to get the photos from the phone to the computer (unless it's facebook, which happens to be on the phone). So, you can look at the official race photos here. Just select Go! St. Louis Marathon and Half Marathon (10 April 2011), and type zustiak into the last name box (not the bib # box). Then you can select me or my husband. (But if I were you, I'd pick me, because I'm cuter than Caleb.)