I completed my first half marathon last weekend at the Resolution Run. Yeah! I didn’t meet my 10:30 per mile goal, but I did make it just under 11 minutes per mile (check out my running log on the right or the race results here for detailed info). Thanks to everyone who inspired, encouraged, and helped me build up to the race!
I was thinking about doing another half sometime in the next few weeks while I’m still in shape, but I don’t think I’ll make it. All upcoming races are out of town (Austin and Dallas), they cost a lot more money, and I’m running out of mental poop for this season. I’m ready to move on to some cross training, which mainly includes swimming, hiking, and biking. Speaking of “mental poop,” this brings up the topic of racing in general.
Before the break, I had an interesting question posed to me by Chris at a Christmas party. He asked me "why would you want to run a half marathon." At the time I answered "because of health reasons and because it's a challenge." I went on to elaborate about how running has helped me and my allergy problems, how many foods I’ve added back into my diet, how using races help inspire me to keep running. But afterwards I got to thinking, there’s a billion reasons to run a half marathon. And I don’t think that any one reason can stand alone.
I love the feeling of complete exhaustion after a really long run. My lungs feel heavy and relaxed, I feel sleepy, I’m hungry, so then I eat a good meal, shower-up, and take the most spectacular nap ever.
I love how deep I sleep while at night while I’m training. No dreams. No waking up in the middle of the night. When I do wake up in the morning, I’m ready to tackle the day instead of sleep some more.
I love the alone time to think about things. All kinds of things. I can think about curtain colors, the color of the sky, or my coloring face as my heart beats hard and fast. Long runs are great for reformatting the old hard drive.
I love when other people run with me. Although it’s hard to find someone who runs at your same pace and who wants to run at the same time, but when you do find someone, it’s fun! Especially on long runs. I used to sing to Trina (although badly) while we were both training on Burma Road over the summer.
I love running long distances because it’s like reading a book that I just can’t quite put down.
I could go on and on and on about my reason for running long distances like half marathons. There is no one reason for me, and I’m sure that my reasons are a little bit different than other people. It’s a hobby, but a passionate one. You’ll rarely find someone out there running 13.1 miles because they “just” randomly felt like running. Anyway, I’m sure this won’t be quite satisfactory for skeptics out there, but if you equate running long distances to some other hobby or exercise that your passionate about, you’ll get it.
Below is my first ever successful gluten-free, egg-free, milk-free, corn-free cookie recipe that I developed after craving cookies like mad. I hadn’t been running for very long (this was about 3-4 years ago) and I hadn’t added so many foods back into my diet, so I’ve got a few funky ingredients in this recipe. The trick is to make the cookies small and bake them slowly so they don’t burn (so you might have to adjust the temperature a bit). Make sure to flatten the cookies and, also, don’t try to add more baking soda or powder in order to get the cookies to rise more. More rising ingredients will make them taste like metal.
Cinnamon Almond Cookies
1 cup almond flour
1 cup sugar
1 cup potato flour
1 cup coconut milk (canned)
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp vanilla (optional)
Coconut oil for pans
If you can't purchase almond flour at your local health food store, just buy some raw almonds (make sure you get them without other oils) and use a food processor to grind them up as small as you can. Add all of the dry ingredients together first, then add the wet after. Grease two pans with coconut oil. Take a teaspoonful of dough for each cookie. Flatten each cookie once they’re on the pan.
Makes about 30 little cookies or so.
I was thinking about doing another half sometime in the next few weeks while I’m still in shape, but I don’t think I’ll make it. All upcoming races are out of town (Austin and Dallas), they cost a lot more money, and I’m running out of mental poop for this season. I’m ready to move on to some cross training, which mainly includes swimming, hiking, and biking. Speaking of “mental poop,” this brings up the topic of racing in general.
Before the break, I had an interesting question posed to me by Chris at a Christmas party. He asked me "why would you want to run a half marathon." At the time I answered "because of health reasons and because it's a challenge." I went on to elaborate about how running has helped me and my allergy problems, how many foods I’ve added back into my diet, how using races help inspire me to keep running. But afterwards I got to thinking, there’s a billion reasons to run a half marathon. And I don’t think that any one reason can stand alone.
I love the feeling of complete exhaustion after a really long run. My lungs feel heavy and relaxed, I feel sleepy, I’m hungry, so then I eat a good meal, shower-up, and take the most spectacular nap ever.
I love how deep I sleep while at night while I’m training. No dreams. No waking up in the middle of the night. When I do wake up in the morning, I’m ready to tackle the day instead of sleep some more.
I love the alone time to think about things. All kinds of things. I can think about curtain colors, the color of the sky, or my coloring face as my heart beats hard and fast. Long runs are great for reformatting the old hard drive.
I love when other people run with me. Although it’s hard to find someone who runs at your same pace and who wants to run at the same time, but when you do find someone, it’s fun! Especially on long runs. I used to sing to Trina (although badly) while we were both training on Burma Road over the summer.
I love running long distances because it’s like reading a book that I just can’t quite put down.
I could go on and on and on about my reason for running long distances like half marathons. There is no one reason for me, and I’m sure that my reasons are a little bit different than other people. It’s a hobby, but a passionate one. You’ll rarely find someone out there running 13.1 miles because they “just” randomly felt like running. Anyway, I’m sure this won’t be quite satisfactory for skeptics out there, but if you equate running long distances to some other hobby or exercise that your passionate about, you’ll get it.
Below is my first ever successful gluten-free, egg-free, milk-free, corn-free cookie recipe that I developed after craving cookies like mad. I hadn’t been running for very long (this was about 3-4 years ago) and I hadn’t added so many foods back into my diet, so I’ve got a few funky ingredients in this recipe. The trick is to make the cookies small and bake them slowly so they don’t burn (so you might have to adjust the temperature a bit). Make sure to flatten the cookies and, also, don’t try to add more baking soda or powder in order to get the cookies to rise more. More rising ingredients will make them taste like metal.
Cinnamon Almond Cookies
1 cup almond flour
1 cup sugar
1 cup potato flour
1 cup coconut milk (canned)
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp vanilla (optional)
Coconut oil for pans
If you can't purchase almond flour at your local health food store, just buy some raw almonds (make sure you get them without other oils) and use a food processor to grind them up as small as you can. Add all of the dry ingredients together first, then add the wet after. Grease two pans with coconut oil. Take a teaspoonful of dough for each cookie. Flatten each cookie once they’re on the pan.
Makes about 30 little cookies or so.
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