Amanda turns 21

If you’ve read my blog, you know that I mentor a young mom named Amanda. She’ll dealing with a lot of issues related to her job, her family, money, etc but last night I tried to make her 21st birthday special and took her out to dinner at The Melting Pot.

Amanda, me & Hannah enjoying our chocolate fondue dessert

This week I ran

21 miles!

3 miles on Monday, 4 miles on Tuesday, 4 miles on Thursday and

10 miles today!!

In addition to being the farthest I’ve ever run, it’s the first of my long weekend runs that I’ve done without stopping in the middle.

This week has been extremely cold. During Thursday’s after work run, it was 15 degrees (0 with the wind chill) and even with my layers, I was freezing for the first half (my fingers were numb!)

Today it was sunny & a balmy 40 degrees. I wore my cheap Walmarts compression socks under tights, a turtleneck, fleece, hat, and was too warm to wear my gloves. I drank water before I left and carried gummy bears in my pocket so I would not have to stop.

I decided to chunk my run into four 2.5 mile segments so it wouldn’t seem so daunting. Also my Ipod/Nike plus seems to die after 3 miles.

It worked well. I left my car at work and ran my usual route (on the sidewalks) that it is flat. At 2mi, I took a right turn and this was the worst part. It was very hilly and steep hills (so I walked here) but eventually I turned right and it was flat again for the rest of the way.

I ran past the park (where there was the tulip fest in May) where I’ll be racing next Sat. and then turned left where there was a race earlier (see photo below) and a crafts fest (Winter WonderLARK on Lark Street).

Santa Speed Sprint this am

Darn! I should have left my house earlier. I stopped and turned around at 5 miles and headed back the same way.

They were offering free trolley rides today around the city. When I saw it, I was tempted .

Again, the street with the hills slowed me down and I switched from the sidewalks to the road during the last 2 miles. (That concrete is hard on the feet!)

And I survived…it took me roughly 1 hr 50 but I didn’t stop my ipod when waiting to cross the street. That’s a 11 mile pace which is my target for my first half marathon..