Upon finishing my first half marathon

This is all about my running so feel free to skim unless that's your thing. I signed up for the Crawlin' Crab 5K over six months ago, but wanted to try to push myself a little bit. I can run a 5K but much further than that and my blood sugar will plummet. I couldn't imagine the rolling suitcase of snacks I would need to take with me for a longer run.

It didn't take much for Kimmie to convince me to sign up for the half marathon in addition to the 5K. It was called the "shell yeah" challenge and I would get a fancy medal if I did both in two days. I convinced myself I had six months, so I could figure it out.

And then Rich got sick. Memorial Day weekend I was only set to run five miles in my training schedule and from that moment hardly any running got done. As the summer wore on, though, I really needed something to bleed stress.

Dan at work convinced me to get a new Garmin watch that had lots of fancy features in it. It was a small fortune which pained me to spend, but I love this watch dearly. Dan (and Curtis) also convinced me to try Galloway's run/walk method to gain distance without the nasty side effect of hypoglycemic death.

And suddenly everything became clear. The reason my blood sugar was tanking was because I was over-exerting myself. My poor heart rate was way too high and that was trashing my everything. So now I run for a minute and walk for 30 seconds. Or sometimes I run for 30 seconds and walk or a minute. It all depends on what I'm trying to accomplish that day. I went from barely being able to finish a 5K, to running 10 miles around my neighborhood with no ill effects.

And this past Sunday, I finished my first half marathon. It took me three hours, seven minutes, and 28 seconds. I totally don't care about my pace because I finished with a blood sugar of 125 and never went low on the entire course. I also have no knee pain at all.

Running is supposed to be about improving your pace, but I don't really care (or at least I don't care very much). That's probably for the best because I was just reading that one can only hope to gain 3-5% in speed over a 16 week training cycle. That would mean my next half marathon would be eight minutes faster over the entire course. That's hard to get excited about. Nevermind that one porta-john stop could add those minutes right back.

So my metrics are all about my heart rate for the moment. I would like my running heart rate to be lower so that I can run for longer. That will improve everything.

I have noticed that my body is responding well to all this running. I have hip muscles now. I think they're called iliopsoas. I also have what I have defined as a "was butt". It might be the tensor fasciae latae but it's that little plum-sized dimple on the outside of your butt when you flex it, where you used to have butt until you flexed it away. I'm no medical professional, so I'm sticking with "was butt" for now. I did find a classical example.

That lady on the right must have just finished a half marathon as well. They all just recently stripped out of their sweaty sports bras and shorts.

As for me, I am continuing my quest for a righteous "was butt", some sculpted hip flexors, and calves you can bounce quarters off of. Oh, and my feet are ridiculously strong now too, which I didn't even know was a thing. I'm doing the Harbor Lights 5K and half marathon on November 22-23 and I also signed up for the Shamrock 8K and half marathon in March. Wish me luck!