Snowball's Chance in Hell

A Snowball's chance in Hell is what I was endearingly calling my chances of achieving my somewhat unrealistic...or possibly more accurately, UNTIMELY goal of 1:44:00 at the 3M half.  Untimely not only in that 7:54 pace is very fast for me, but untimely in that this "last chance" opportunity landed right smack dab in the middle of my distance training.  I wanted to have my Cake and Eat it too.  I wanted to continue my training for the 50 mile trail race and go ahead and try to race 13.1 miles on the road 7 days after running 35 miles.  Oh yes, this race also falling the week after my highest total mileage week of my life.  In my heart of hearts I knew my odds were similar to the snowball above, however, I still had hope....I felt that if the snowball was packed tight enough it might just have a chance.  Funny, huh? I remember once a year ago someone at work on the business end of things made the statement...Hope is not a strategy.  I remember at the time standing there with my bald head thinking that that was kind of rude to say that in my presence.  Anyway, it is clear to me now that since surviving Cancer and Cancer Treatment, that I believe it is.

Needless to say, I was not rested for the race, and indeed did not feel rested during the race. 
This is pretty much how I felt for the most part of the race:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNwwzmpbgDQ&feature=youtube_gdata_player.

My friend Lisa who was attempting to keep me on pace was sort of like the rope.
I ended up with a time of exactly 1:47:00.  Exactly 3 minutes slower than the time I needed to qualify for the New York Marathon.  Despite being significantly off of the qualifying time I was still happy I did the race.  This time was still my fastest half marathon, and I do think it was a good work out. I'm mean hey, I ran 13 miles without stopping, walking, or eating a sandwich!

With the half marathon over, it was then time to move on and return focus on bringing the miles back up for the next week and completing my 40 mile run which would be my longest training run for this training.  On my last blog I began to elude to some of the issues that being an ultrarunner can cause in a persons life and family.  I attached a utube video called "I'm an Ultrarunner".  Turns out very few people looked at the video which i thought was hilarioius.  At that time I did not mention that when I showed the video to my husband, he actually thought I wrote the thing.  I did not write that one, but it got me thinking. On the video "I'm an ultrarunner", the problem that the main character is having, is finding time to have breakfast with a girlfriend.   My friend and training buddy Lisa and began laughing at some of the even more ridiculous intimate problems that doing all this running and at the same time having a family can cause....and out of that I ended up making this video.  Please do not feel sorry for anyone.  This is funny.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/LWpTgBghGGo" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>


http://m.youtube.com/?client=mv-google&rdm=20#/profile?user=powerhowell&v=LWpTgBghGGo&view=videos

Apologies for the lack of true links or embedding.  As you can see, i'm having to find all sorts of ways to trim time at this point.

This past week was back up to the big mileage.  I completed my 40 mile run.  My 2 training partners were there the whole time as they have been.  We lucked out greatly with the weather. It was supposed to be storming during the first half of the run, but instead the big storm ended just before we started at 4:30 a.m. and the temperatures were in the 50s-60s.   I had no major issues, other that feeling pretty tired starting aroung mile 17.5,  and getting somewhat emotional....near tears twice.  The first time when I started thinking about my friend Cindy who was taking my kids off my hands so I could rest after the run, and the second time when we jogged past a man hiking on the greenbelt with his special needs child.   I made it home before 2:00 and thank goodness I had planned for the kids to be off having fun with some friends.  Thanks Again CINDY R.!!  How will I ever re-pay you for all you've done for me and my family over the past 2 years!! 

This plan allowed me to actually take a nap and rejuvenate in order to have fun with my family later that evening.....AND to prepare for our annual Super Bowl Party the next day!  Am i Crazy? Well, i think that's been pretty clearly described.

Superbowl Party was great.  I'm not sure if UT won or not but we had some really Great Food and some really great company!

Football and Football helmet Cake Balls!! Yes, I said it...., Vanilla Beat Chocolate!

Me and my 2 Cindys

Adriane: Cakeballer Extraordinaire, and Jenn: Beetballer!

Now i cannot get this text off of  Caption, so i'm gonna wrap this up.  I've not made a decision regarding my port.  I will decide by the end of today.  The doc said i would really only have to not run for two days.  I forgot to ask him how long it would take for the incision to heal so now that's my hold up.  25 days until Nueces 50 miler.