Akron half marathon

This past Saturday, I ran in the Akron half marathon.  Other than the ironman in July, it's the 1st long race I've done in awhile.  I really, really enjoyed it!  What a great race!  I would highly recommend it to anyone who is thinking of doing a half marathon.  The organization is great and the perks are nice.  The course is really pretty with lots of crowd support and volunteers. 
Mark and I got up at 4:30 AM in order to get there in time for the 7AM start.  We got there at about 6:15 AM which was plenty of time to find parking (we parked at the Children's hospital, which is only a block or two from the stadium finish).  And plenty of time to find a good place at the start.  The race start of 7AM is for everyone - marathon, half marathon and relay runners.  So it was very, very crowded.  I'm not sure what the total participating in all 3, but the half marathon had about 3700 runners. 
My goal was to do the race in 1:50 or better.  And at mile 5, I thought I was on pace to hit about 1:45 - I felt great and was clipping along at about 8 min/mile or less.  Then I had to make a porta potty stop.  And unfortunately, since there wasn't a porta potty in sight, I had to stop and walk.  And unfortunately, after that stop, I had to make 3 more.  I'm not sure if it was the power bar not agreeing with me, the red bull, or the burger and fries I had the night before.  But something wasn't sitting well.  Anyway, I ended up with a 1:51 time.  So, I was happy with that as I was running well except when I wasn't running.  ha ha. 
All in all, though, it was a lot of fun and I felt good (most of the time).  It really made me realize how much I love to run.  Although triathlons are fun, my real love is in the distance running events.  Mark was laughing at me, as I came home and started looking up other half marathons.  I haven't decided what's next - but I think an early spring half marathon OR marathon is in the works.  Any ideas? 

I'm getting lazy ...

I haven't posted in over a month.  Wow - I'm getting lazy.  Ever since the ironman, I've pretty much been doing whatever I feel like.  No structure in my workouts - just run if I feel like running and bike if I feel like biking.  I told myself - as long as I get a workout in 6 days a week, that will be ok.  But it hit me last night - I have a half marathon to do on Sept 25th.  I better get my butt in gear.  So I ran about 9 miles today.  And I felt good.  My pace was about 8:45 per mile.  No pain - no injuries - feeling good. 
I spent a week in northern California at the end of August with my 2 sisters - we visited old Sacramento, wineries, San Francisco, Lake Tahoe, Muir Woods, Alcatraz, etc.  It was so much fun and good to spend time with my sisters.  And I ran every morning.  Just for the joy of it.  No logs to fill out - no miles/time that had to be done.  I just ran.  And it was so nice.  There was a trail across the street from my sisters that I ran every day.  Some days I continued on a little farther.  But it felt good to just be out there running and feeling good.  It's funny how I remember vacations a lot from the running I do on them.  We went to upper Michigan one year on vacation and the thing that stands out vividly in my mind about that trip is the long runs in the morning, with woods on both sides of me and mountains in the distance (it was up near ski country).  And now that I don't have the pressure of the ironman looming in front of me, I'm really starting to enjoy running again.  I wish Mark could run with me though (he's been injured since the ironman).  But until he can, I'm enjoying the solitude of running in the late summer here in Ohio.