New River Half Marathon

So I did my second half marathon. This was tougher than the first because it is some hilly country around the New River. Since January, I've trained a lot of miles and found my overall speed to have improved. So I had expected to improve my time for the event. I saw the profiles for the steep hills in the route description but it's hard to judge from a diagram. Within the first 2 miles we turned across the river and up onto a ridge. The road continued up, and up, and up. Finally dropping down to follow the river again. We found another small hill to climb about half way and then faced the final hill at about 8 to 9 miles. That one wasn't as tall as the first, but by then you could feel the incline. There were lots of folks who simply dropped down to a walk on the hill, and that might have been a smart strategy. I ran the hill as best I could, and then sped down the gravel road to the little town of Todd. At that point I knew I had only 4 miles to go at best. My plan was to save myself until the rest stop, then increase the pace little bit by little bit until I crossed the finish. But the hills took something out of me so just maintaining along the long straight was difficult. I put off my increase in pace later and later. Finally I passed a young lady who had slowed to a walk and encouraged her to start back running. We ran together to the finish. I didn't try to push the pace and wound up with a time 3 minutes over my last time. I am a little torn about whether it was worth driving up to Boone for this event. I did learn a little bit I can use for our event though.

Mom

Mom

May 13, 2012 at 10:44pm

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I've spend a little time searching through quite a few references for a quote that I felt might have made a witty point about mothers in general and mine in specific, but I didn't find one. On this Mother's day I remember her. It is obvious that she gave me life. By giving that life, she imbued me with qualities which are inherent but also made a great effort to convince me that I was capable much more than I knew. She gently but firmly attempted to convince me that "I could do anything." It took a long time to internalize that lesson, but eventually, I realized I was capable of so much more than I first believed. It shouldn't have taken me so long to take her word for it. She was smart and capable. She was a professional who everyday handled life and death and carried out her duties thoughtfully, thoroughly, and compassionately. But compassion didn't overrule her judgment. You got the treatment you needed whether it was a splinter to be removed or reprimand. So I supposed if she hadn't believed in me, she would have told me. She was a good listener. She listened to my woes as I traveled the teenage years. And listened again to a young parent's worries. I'm sure she anguished along with me, and happily celebrated when the occasion permitted. My cousin Oakie copied a letter from her Dad that mentioned his being "in her corner." I very much knew Mom was in my corner. Just like Bev is in our girls corner right now. And just the same way all of you are in the corner of all our collective progeny. And so am I. So on this occasion when we remember Mothers, I remember mine fondly. And I remember the many in our family fondly too. Happy Mother's Day.