We've hit the halfway point!!!

Yesterday Wil had to work, so I spent the day working in the back garden. He came home just in time to see my new creation -- an outdoor "living room". Yeah, it still needs work, but it was a great place to sit outside on the couch and watch the Seahawks game. As we sat there, we started to talk about our Sunday plans...

Would we run? Neither of us really wanted to... But we also just wanted to get the halfway point behind us.

I never did get a discount for the Tacoma Narrows Half in early August... but I had just seen an ad for a 10-miler -- the Over the Narrows Run, for a very affordable $15. We can easily add another 5K to that run for an improvised half marathon, right? After all, what I really want is to run across the Narrows bridge. This will let me do it twice. AND it's a fundraiser for the Rotary. What's not to love? Sadly, I had the date wrong -- it's September 1, not next weekend. So we really didn't have any excuses. We were going to have to get up on Sunday and run.

Wil got us up and moving -- I was sore from Saturday's garden work and felt a little whiny -- but up we got, and we left the house at 6am to drive to Green Lake. Less than three hours later we were back, having run our 20th half marathon -- halfway through the 40@40 project! There's something very nice and soothing about running laps around Green Lake. No traffic, no roads, and a series of repeating landmarks... The flower stump, the Bathhouse, the pool, the Aquatheater, the car... repeat. After the first loop we decided to listen to music (or Radio 4, in Wil's case), to pass the time more quickly. Things went well, but I'm not gonna lie -- I was happy to be done.

I"m sure this photo is much more flattering than I deserve. :)

Let's see, what else has been happening since I blogged? I got through hiatus week with three runs (M, Th, F) around Green Lake. I must have taken Wednesday off. :)  Then I got sick over the weekend -- so sick I took Monday off, missing the kickoff test for Boot Camp! Such a bummer. But I'll of course have last session's end result to compare it to.

This week I also ran twice, on Tuesday and Thursday -- and both runs were great. I guess, since I confessed this to Wil during the run today, I can record it here. I've been following the NHS Couch to 5K program, listening to the podcasts. Most weeks I just did the first two runs -- given that I have Tuesday and Thursday to run. But in the hiatus weeks I have done three runs. I"m now up to running 28 minutes straight, during which I run three miles. Not super fast, I know, but enough that I should be able to PR in a 5K -- one of my stretch goals for 2012. Yay! I'll say this -- the NHS podcasts are great -- decent pop music that all sounds like other songs you know, a host named Laura who sounds a little bit like my sister-in-law Rebecca, and not having to fiddle with a watch -- Laura tells me when to run and when to walk. Next week I'll run for 30 minutes straight -- pretty exciting. I've gotten a little faster, and a lot more confident. I think I'll finally be able to keep up with Wil on the long runs now! :)

Realized with a bit of a start that Wil's folks arrive in less that four weeks. So much to do! Really excited about their visit, and our trip to the Canyonlands in October! (And, now, an excuse NOT to do the Edmonds Half on the 16th of September... ha!)