Rasta Running

I decided to run in my neighborhood on Friday morning even though I was by myself since the weather was still really awesome. I didn't want to wait for Jodi to get off work and well, I wasn't sure I would have time later on in the day. So, I did some stretching and plugged in my ipod. I chose Bob Marley as my inspirational running musak; it just seemed to fit the situation.

I walked around the gazebo to get myself warmed up before my run. You can call me a dork, but I'm a firm believer (and Jilian Anderson, too) in warming up before any exercise. When I hit the sidewalk on my main street, I started my run. It's still slow, because I'm easing myself back in to this whole running thing. The music I chose was different, but good. I tried to picture myself running on the beaches of Jamaica, but unfortunately, that made me think of how hard it is to run in the sand, bogging me down. So, then I just imagined myself running on the streets of Jamaica with the palm trees and the blue Caribbean ocean on my left. Well, that whole vision thing works really well when your eyes are closed. However, running with your eyes closed in your neighbhorhood is like asking for disaster. So, the vision thing only worked alittle bit.

I did make it to the stopsign (my usual turnaround point) without stopping, but I had to walk as soon as I got there. One thing I forgot when I was complimenting the weather and running in this great weather is shade factor. Memorial Park is about 90% covered with beautiful big shading trees, but my neighborhood is about 90% not covered (or at least my run path). So, when I reached the long stretch to the turnaround point stopsign, I was hit with direct sun the entire way. It takes it's toll on you for sure.

Big news though...I didn't turnaround at the stopsign; I just kept on going by the Outlet Mall and back through another way into the neighborhood. It was all directly covered with sun. By the time I reached the stopsign where I would cross the street and head back into the neighborhood, my shirt was off and wrapped around me. It was becoming too hot (black shirts are never a good idea to run in...EVER). I managed to walk run, walk run the whole way back to the house. I'm not sure how many miles I did, because I don't have my really cool GPS mile tracking watch that I want so bad (hint hint, mother). I'm going to take an educated guess of 2 miles, but that's a rough rough estimate.

On my way back to the house, I saw my shadow. WHOA! Where did these love handles come from and why are they so big? I used to not have the love handles unless I wore low riders, but my little short running shorts were well above my hips even covering up my tummy. I mean they were just sitting there yelling at me, "Hey you! Have another pie. I need some friends." So, everytime I saw my newly lovehandles that I'm sure can be seen from space, I started to run again until I was tired.

All in all, it was great to go beyond my norm even if it's not the mileage that I'm used to. I really need to buckle down and get ready for this whole half marathon thingy.

On a side note: I participated in the Texas Women's State Formation Skydiving (Belly) Record held at Skydive Spaceland on October 2-3, 2010. There were 40 ladies on Saturday, but 38 on Sunday. We broke the original record of 30 Texas women on Saturday with 36 women. Then, we added some more. On Sunday, we had broken the record with 37 women and turned a point (sequential). So, we broke 2 records in one skydive. The very next jump, we added the last girl waiting to be on it and broke it again with 38 women and a sequential point (another 2 records). All in all, we broke 5 records in 2 days, which in itself is a record. I'm so very proud of all the ladies that participated, especially the SDH girls and our videographers. YAY us! Next year, we go bigger.