AAAHHHH!!!!

Ok, I am so sorry I've been so bad about posting on here. There has been so much craziness going on that I just couldn't sit down and write it all.

So let me bring you up to speed:
First of all, the race is in 5 days!!! Can you believe it?? I certainly can't. It feels like the last 3 months have flown by!!
The last 2-3 weeks have been full of drama and a little lacking in the actual running. Let me explain...

3 Saturdays ago (the 7th), we had decided that we were going to run Town Lake (which apparently, is now officially Lady Bird Lake, as I was reminded by one of my kids), which we were thinking is about 8 or 9 miles. We weren't really sure because we had never actually ran the whole thing, just the main part of it where everybody runs. But we had plenty of time, so we decided we would just wing it.

When I woke up Saturday, I had a bad feeling. You see, as a child, I was known for having extremely high fevers, like 104, 105ish kind of fevers. I don't get them quite that high anymore, but they still get pretty high. And because I have had this my whole life, I can tell when they are coming on. Which is the feeling I had when I woke up Saturday. I took my temperature and it was normal, just like I knew it would be. And there wasn't really anything wrong with me except that I just knew it was coming. But I was DETERMINED to do this run, since the last few weeks had been a little slow with all of our injuries/ailments. And what was I going to say anyway? "I feel fine and I have no fever, I just feel like I MIGHT get one later, so I'm just going to stay home..." Nope.

If this had been a normal day, I would have just gone ahead and taken some aspirin so I wouldn't get the fever when it decided to creep up on me. But it is a really bad idea to take a pain reliever before you run, because if you injure a muscle or something, you need to know it. So I didn't take anything, just hopped in the car with Sara and headed to Austin.

We got to Town Lake and started running. We actually made it a mile and a half or so without stopping, but then I started to feel it. My body just started acting crazy. I was so hot, I felt like my skin was burning. And I was so dehydrated, my hands were swelling and I was getting a little dizzy. At this point, we were at what we thought was pretty close to the halfway point. There is a water station, complete with little paper cone cups and water dispensers. I drank probably 15-20 of those little cups and also put some water on my head. That helped some and we ran for a little while before I started getting sick again. Anyway, this continued on the rest of the run (which eventually became a walk/crawl/just trying to get back to the car without dying). So, needless to say, this was not a very good run. And to top it all off, somewhere around mile 2, we nearly had heart attacks when this random Confederate army convention decided to set off a giant cannon like 100 yards from us. That was fun.

Long story short, we ended up mostly walking about 7 miles and I spent the next 5 days at home sick. Blah.

By the next weekend, I was feeling a lot better, and we REALLY needed to run, so Sunday, we headed back to Town Lake, and we actually had a a great run. 12 miles with little to no problems. Of course, we were super sore from head to toe, but nothing out of the ordinary as far as I could tell.

WRONG.

Monday, I could barely walk on my left foot. Again, I just thought maybe it was sore from the run and since Monday was our off day anyway, I just iced it and figured I would run on Tuesday. Well it never got better, so I finally went to the doctor on Thursday and he took x-rays. He didn't see anything on the x-ray, but he said sometimes with stress fractures, they don't show up right away. He also said that it could be tendonitis or maybe a sprain. Either way there was not much he could do. He said just to rest it and do some low impact cardio until it felt better.

Now we are sitting at 5 days until the race and my foot is still hurt. It does feel better, but I don't think I can run 13 miles on it. So, PLEASE pray for healing. It would be so disappointing to have worked so hard for so many months and not get to finish what we started. I am still confident that I can run on Saturday - I just need things to feel a little better.

Well, that was a long post. I promise we will keep you updated this week and of course after the race. Hope everyone is having a great day!!
Janell

Athletic Afflictions

Sara here... I have a big fear that after I write this, people are going to begin to question whether or not I'm truly dedicated to running this half marathon. So I want to give the disclaimer that I am VERY annoyed by what is happening and no matter how I'm feeling on March 28th-- I WILL be completing that run, even if I have to do it in a wheelchair! Now- not to worry, things are not that bad, but I have a bit of a "calf strain" - whatever that means. This happened a week ago today- last Tuesday, when I was running on the treadmill. After a mere mile, my calf completely tensed up and freaked out. Both of my legs went numb and I had to get off and stretch and figure out if I could return to the treadmill without causing my biggest fear to come true- falling off the treadmill and sliding backwards in the middle of the gym. After a few minutes, I decided I was going to be fine, the feeling returned to my legs, so I started walking and worked up to running- but as soon as I started running again there was this SHOOTING pain in my right calf. Over the next few days I tried to run, but the calf pain has prevailed. It wasn't hurting when I was walking, only when I tried to run. Now, a week later, the pain is there even when I'm walking. SO, I'm a bit concerned. I've been icing it, and I'm going to swim tonight to try and work out the muscle some- but needless to say I have not run for a week and I'm real concerned about what's going to happen. It's not hugely painful- just enough to keep me from running. Okay- that was a really long story, but I just wanted to give an update.

SO this has been holding back Janell- because running without a partner is SO LAME! But today she is going to be back on track- she's going to run and I'm going to swim and we are still going to dominate the Bearathon... meaning we're going to finish before they shut it down : ) It's funny that even after 2 1/2 months of training, I still HATE running. I swear I do it for the ice cream on Mondays. Here's an example exchange between Janell and I today while we were at work:

Janell: Hey are you coming over to watch the After the After the Final Rose Bachelor with me tonight so we can continue to point and laugh and crybaby Jason?

Sara: Yes, of course. I'm going to go swimming- are you going to run tonight or what?

Janell: Yeah I'm gonna run- you have fun swimming!

Sara: Oh I will- you go Janell- RUN YOUR HEART OUT! WE'RE NOT GIVING UP! Maybe we should have Blizzards for our last Bachelor episode?

Janell: Oh yeah, we for sure need Blizzards I'll pick em up- what kind do you want?

Sara: Butterfinger, natch. 

Janell: Too bad we're not as excited about running as we are about Blizzards

I've decided that for any future challenges and trials in my life, I'm going to have to make the reward come from Dairy Queen if I want to have any hope for success. 

So that's the status of your favorite marathonists... we'll keep you posted!

OH- and if you are some sort of athlete or know anyone who knows about injured calves and have any medical advice to share PLEASE feel free to comment! Because as this is my first experience with a sports-related injury, I'm clueless! 

Pressing On

Well, with just over a month left before the big day, Sara and I are starting to get a little nervous, I'm not gonna lie. Are our bodies really going to cooperate with us and run 13.1 miles??

Last night, we had to run 5 miles. We couldn't run together because of some prior commitments, so we ended up running at the Y at different times. I'll let Sara tell you about how her legs spazzed out, but it was not good. And my knees were not having it either. I ended up stopping after like 3.5 miles and walking the rest. Granted, we did run like 8 miles on Saturday, so maybe they were still a little jacked up from that, but I feel like it is too late in the game to be having these kind of issues.

I knew this running thing was a bad idea...


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I'm pressing on, pressing on, all my distress is going, going, gone.
And I won't sit back, and take this anymore.
'Cause I'm done with that, I've got one foot out the door.
And to go back where I was would just be wrong
I'm pressing on.
- Relient K

Eating cheesecake is kind of like running...

Ways eating cheesecake is like running:
1) Sugar gives you a high, running gives you a high.
2) Ok, that's all I got (I actually did sit here for a while and try to think of some others, but to no avail...)

I wish that was a longer list, because apparently Sara and I were much more agreeable to shopping and eating cheesecake than doing our measly 3 miles last night. In fact, there really hasn't been a whole lot of running taking place this week. Let me back up:

Sunday night, Sara came back from Temple and we had a great run (can't remember if it was 4 or 5 miles). Monday, of course, was The Bachelor and Blizzards. (By the way, we were a little concerned about what we would do with our Mondays in two weeks when The Bachelor is over, but luckily we saw a commercial during the show and decided that after March 2, Mondays would officially be dubbed Dancing With The Stars-Dairy Queen Mondays). I can't believe that Jason got rid of Jillian...RIDICULOUS!! And, not to get too far off on a Bachelor tangent, but if you want a MAJOR SPOILER for the finale, you should go to realitysteve.com. WARNING: DO NOT go there if you don't want to know EXACTLY what happens. And don't blame me if you ruin the surprise for yourself.

Ok, back to our week. Tuesday I woke up feeling super sick and ended up not going to work. Instead, I threw up and watched the entire 3rd season of The Office. Not a bad day, once the throwing up stopped, but I definitely wasn't feeling like running that evening. Sara killed her 5 miles though, even though Subway and Sonic were taunting her across the street. Wednesday we decided we needed a good cry and a counseling session over our Starbucks drinks instead of a good run, but we were confident we could knock out the 3 miles on Thursday.

Our original plan Thursday was to run right after work, then go shopping for a dress for my former roommate's wedding in a few weeks. But when we talked after work, we decided it would be dumb to run first, because then we would have to shower, and that wouldn't leave much time for shopping (And so began the excuses...). So we would run when we got done. What we did not expect was that we would arrive back at Randy and Sharon's just as they were serving dessert, which just so happened to be an amazing cheesecake with a berry glaze (made from a recipe they got from their last cruise). So before you make fun of us, just think about what you would do in that situation. CLEARLY, we chose the cheesecake. We probably still could have ran, but we stayed and chatted over our dessert, and then it was like 10 something, so I just went home.

So, needless to say, the week has not been great as far as running goes...actually it hasn't been great period (minus the cheesecake). Sometimes you just need a week like that. But we will get it back together for our long run this weekend (8 miles). Even though we are running separately, I think it will be a good run. Wish us luck!!

Break through!

Sara here! Alright folks- sorry about the long delay in posts. We HAVE been running diligently of course- keeping mostly on schedule :) but just haven't had too many exciting events to share really. On Tuesday we had to run separately, which is always sad- even SADDER when you get to the gym and realize that you are about to have to run five miles, by yourself, and your ipod is broken... which as I'm sure you've gathered, is what happened to me. But I was determined! I had five miles to run and I was NOT going to stop. So I watched Deal or No Deal while running which is a show I usually hate, but was surprisingly nice because you don't really need to hear the words for that show, so that took up 30 minutes of the hour it took me to run. For the rest of the hour I pretty much stared out the window at the Subway and Sonic across the street- what's wrong with these gym people? WHY would they allow there to be a window facing that way? I mean to be honest, I spent probably 3 of the 5 miles trying to figure out how I could justify stopping by Sonic on the way home for some tots and a cream slush. But I guess the food fantasies did help the time go by faster, so I can't really complain. In the end, I DID run the five miles without stopping which is a feat I had not yet mastered! So I was pretty pumped!

Yesterday... Janell and I both had pretty rough days so we debriefed at Starbucks instead of running... but we're making it up tonight. Tis but 3 miles... no problem! (NEVER thought I'd be saying that!) We are just over five weeks away from the race. It's becoming real. Not gonna lie- pretty nervous about it. But instead of focusing on how long 13 miles really is, we've begun to occupy ourselves with what new fit activity we're going to do after the Bearathon is over. (Thank you Baylor for your incessant use of "bear" and "paw" in all your events). We are thinking about going the triathlon route. NOT like the crazy ones where you do like 40 miles of biking and all that, but a shorter one. You know- just spice it up a bit! I mean we've obviously mastered running (HA) so what's swimming and biking? We'll see... I'm pretty sure we aren't going to MOVE much less swim or bike for at least two weeks after our race at the end of March. Perhaps we'll take up knitting instead. No way to know.

So that's the update for now... we'll let you know of any more injuries, star sightings, or additions to our ipods as they arise :) Happy Thursday!

And...we're back!!

Ok, I promise I am going to get going with this blog again. I had no idea how much time and energy it would take to handle a tiny little blind dog. I have cleaned up more poop and vomit in the last 2 and a half weeks than anyone should ever have to. But enough about that...

The running is going ok. As you already know, Sara had bronchitis for like the last week and a half. I chose to support her by also pretending like I had bronchitis and pretty much taking a whole week off from running. I mean, you're never supposed to leave your partner behind right? (Dang that just reminded me that I pre-ordered the Fireproof movie and I STILL haven't gone to pick it up...whoops!) So needless to say, when we picked the running back up on Tuesday, it did not go wonderfully. We were supposed to run 5 miles, but we managed only a measly 3.6 or so. But we knocked out our 3 miles last night like champs! And then I went home and ate like half a bag of Barbecue Lay's, which was probably a good idea. Oh well.

This weekend we have to run 9 miles!! I am a little nervous but excited about that. We might go to Town Lake. One time I saw Matthew McConaughey running there. If I'm lucky, he'll be there Saturday - that'll give me some motivation to run. :-) We also have tickets to see Legally Blonde tomorrow. I just found out that the girl who plays Elle got hurt, so the woman who originated the role of Elle on Broadway (Laura Bell Bundy) is going to be performing tomorrow!! So excited!

Ok, before I go, I want to leave you with this picture.

This was in Austin. Apparently, someone hacked into the construction signs. HILARIOUS! I wish I was that smart.

Bronchitis.... not the best motivation to run

So this weekend I contracted a somewhat severe case of bronchitis. I have had a pretty high fever off and on the past few days and have felt like a few trucks ran over me... repeatedly. As you can imagine, I have NOT kept up with the marathon training... we were supposed to run 7 miles on Saturday and like 5 on Sunday but I decided the best choice would be for me to lie on the couch (after I returned from the D-Now I was doing.. pretty sure I was NOT the most effective leader while hacking up my lungs!) and sleep/stare into space for two days. So now I'm behind at work, behind with school stuff, and definitely behind with running. I'm back at work today, but I don't think I'll be able to run today cause I still feel a bit like I'm swimming through life and can barely laugh without going into a coughing fit! BUT THE BRONCHITIS WILL NOT CONQUER ME! I WILL OVERCOME! **insert inspirational music and Sara/Janell running montage**. Just wanted to give all of our faithful blog groupies a bit of an update. My goal is to be running hard core again by Thursday or Friday... so we shall see!!