i’m five years old today. government years, that is. at the flight operations meeting this morning, i got my five year service award–a pin and a certificate “in grateful recognition and appreciation of faithful service to the national aeronautics and space administration and to the government of the united states of america.” despite what your or my opinions of our government might be, i have to say it made me feel pretty good to see those words in print, even if it was just a dinky length-of-service award. i feel sort of proud. i don’t know if i would feel that way if i were in private industry.
anyway. that’s that.
last night buzz and i went for the first long run of my half marathon training! this morning i registered for the houston half-marathon, to be held january 18 in conjunction with the full marathon. that means i have a little less than 3 months to prepare for 13.1 miles, which is 5.6 miles farther than i have ever run before. my goal is to run the half marathon in january, and then complete a full marathon within a year of that (meaning any race up to and including the 2005 houston marathon).
buzz is planning to use the houston half as a final tune-up for the austin marathon in february, while if all goes well, i will try to run the austin half. last night we ran for just over 70 minutes, and though we didn’t measure the distance, we probably covered around 6.5 miles. last night was a slow distance run, just to gain time on our feet, since my goal finish time for the half marathon will probably be around 2.5 hours. last night was good as we ran around the trails and roads of the space center.
we left the gilruth at 5:15 and settled into what i call my “comfort pace,” which is just under 11 minutes per mile, and the pace at which i feel i could run indefinitely. we ran as the sun went down, and finished with a sprint in the dark back to the fence separating the space center from the gilruth. walk through the gate, and we were done. i felt good. i’m a bit sore today, and tired, but pleasantly surprised that i was able to cover the distance and time last night after not running for the past month. (i’ve been active with soccer, softball, adventure races, and greece, but i hadn’t actually run lately.)
it’s funny to me that i have become one of “the runners” around here, and in my group of friends, despite the fact that i am really slow and will never be winning any races. josh came in this morning asking me for advice on a sports medicine clinic, and i was able to provide it. i’m also the one everyone goes to for news on upcoming races. i’m also the one wanting to plan a race next spring.
it’s sort of crazy. if you’d told me 3 years that i would be running 70 minutes last night as my first long training run for my attempt at a half marathon, and that within a year i wanted to run a full marathon, i would probably have laughed. this whole process of becoming more athletic is fascinating to me. between running, soccer, and rock climbing, i’m starting to actually feel fit. i look at my legs and arms in the mirror and think “oh, that’s what it looks like to have muscle” or “oh, that’s what it looks like to have clothes that fit properly.” pretty cool.
last night i cooked owl cookies and brought them in to work today. i sent out an email announcing the arrival of the “world-famous halloween owl cookies” and have had a steady stream of visitors ever since. yay.
