HALF READY

The destination last Sunday.

I'm not quite sure if I'm ready to run a fast half marathon or halfway to being ready to running a fast half marathon. Thus, I am "half ready." Take that as you may. I have no doubt I'm able to run *a* half marathon without major issues, I've done that the last two weekends... the real question is just how fast can I run it?

In case you forgot, my next major event is coming up quickly... the 2015 Indianapolis Mini Marathon on May 2nd. I leave to fly in Indiana in a week. Yikes! This event is a reunion of my teammates from my Strangers to Solemates team from Ragnar SoCal last April. The main point of the trip is to have fun, so I'm not going to put a ton of pressure on myself to hit a certain time. Next week I'll have a more detailed look at that race and my expectations going into it.

Sunday I did another 13.1 from my house. This time, instead of doing Fanno Creek again, I went up the powerline parks to the Nike Campus to run around Hollister Trail a couple of times. I think this may have been my first time back at Hollister since December 7th, 2013 (a day which did not go down in infamy). I keep wanting to think I'll like Hollister but I never really enjoy my time there. It's a nice trail, but if I'm there I've either driven myself there and ran it in many, many loops (loops suck) or I've killed myself over a number of hills to run there from my house.

Sunday, I did the latter. I ran from my house to Nike via the powerline parks. These parks are just hilly for the sake of being hilly. Originally, this route was by design, it would be more of a challenge than my 13.1 miles in Fanno Creek the week before. The execution was poor however, as it hit 80 degrees on Sunday and I left my house at 2pm. Yeah. Couple that with only 16oz of luke warm water and I didn't have the best time.

I felt okay until about mile eight. It was midway through my second (of three) laps in Hollister. I was getting bored with the run already and the heat was starting to affect me. I had done some drinking that night before that might have contributed to being a little dehydrated to start, then my normal bottle of water just wasn't cutting it. The third lap and the trek home were a real mental battle. At one point I had to stop and lay down under a tree because I felt like I was going to pass out. I walked up a steep hill. However, I kept moving forward and finished.

Despite what felt like a breakdown on those final miles, this "half" ended up being faster than my one the weekend before on flatter ground. This includes the quarter mile of walking up the big hill on the way back. So all told, it was a pretty good run! Thankfully I was able to stop by a school with water fountains and get some water (I had run out) around mile 12.8. That put a spring to my step for those final tenths of a mile. I ended up being about a half mile away when I hit 13.1 and very gladly walked the remainder home.