Aesthete Runner

Greetings from Vegas! While this post was written prior to my departure, I still wanted to capture most of what my training week 3 looked like.

On Saturday I completed the F^3 Lake Half Marathon and have finally thawed out! In all seriousness, I really enjoyed the race and while cold, the weather was tolerable. For those wanting the quick story, I did not PR but had one of my most consistently paced races to date. Read on for the full details of race day.

I cannot believe that after almost 20 weeks of training, the marathon is over. The post-marathon blues have set in and I feel a little sad that this major goal has come and gone after thinking and dreaming about it for so many months. There are never enough words to really summarize what it is like to run a marathon. It is one of those things like child birth that you can really only understand after you have done it, but I am going to try my best to put my experience into words that I can share.

Yesterday was the Waterfall Glen Xtreme trail race and I had a great experience as usual. This is the third year I have run this particular race, and it continues to be one of my favorite local races to run each year. Sure, it is always hot and humid in July, but the weather yesterday was pretty great for a summer race and the course was nice and dry. Three years ago the course was flooded and extremely muddy, so any year where the trail is dry is a plus. I walked away with a 3 minute PR from last year's time, and the first time I can claim a sub-2 hour time at this race. There were about 200-300 less people this year, so we arrived at the forest preserve and found a parking spot very easily. Upon reaching the starting area, I was pleasantly surprised that there was a small line for the porta-potties, and they were in abundance! The little things that make a runner happy... Because the trail is actually 9.5 miles long, the race begins and ends with a cross country trek across t...