Whew — what a weekend! Katie and Joel are visiting and the Astros are playing and life is crazy and busy.
I spent Friday night relaxing and watching movies, and stayed up far too late, but ah well, that’s how it goes. Katie and Joel couldn’t leave Atlanta until 6 or so because Joel had an interview, so they drove through the night and arrived around 5 a.m. Saturday morning. After letting them in, we all crashed. I got up and went to my soccer game, and by the time I got home around 12:30, they were up and about, if a little sleepy. Ah, I remember life as a college student. Crazy hours and crazy road trips.
We grabbed lunch at Jason’s Deli and headed downtown for Game 3 of the NLCS. (When Katie told me they were officially coming for the weekend, the Astros hadn’t yet won the NLDS and I thought my weekend might be pretty open. But the Astros beat the Braves, and suddenly I had three baseball games in three days on my schedule.)
Saturday’s game was awesome. Chris flew back for the weekend for the games, and Jason and Betsy and Edgar were all along as well, and Katie and Joel had standing-room-only tickets but managed to find seats right behind us, and then of course Clemens threw seven innings and gave up only four hits, and two runs on two solo homers. It was a pitcher’s duel until the Astros tacked on 2 runs in the 8th to make it 5-2, and Lidge closed it out. Woohoo!! Katie and Joel and I then had dinner at Mely’s and went to bed fairly early.
Yesterday morning I was up far too early again to run the 20K downtown. I really was not to the point in my marathon training to run 20k (12.4 miles), but I did it anyway, and survived — barely. The first 10 miles were ok, and I passed the 10 mile mark in about the same time as in the 10-miler race two weeks ago, despite having only run 3 miles in the past two weeks because I was sick for much of it. But after mile 10, I totally hit the wall. I don’t think that had ever happened to me before — seriously.
I could not get my legs to move any faster. It was a struggle just to keep jogging, and not slow entirely to a walk. My legs have never felt so heavy. My knees ached, and my hips ached (never had that happen before). I finished the run in 2:29:45, for a horribly depressing average of 12:05 per mile. Yes, 12:05 per mile despite the fact that I really did run, er, jog, the entire way. I didn’t walk at all, and the fastest jog I could manage was 12:05 per mile!! Granted, that average was raised by a good 20-30 seconds per mile by my struggles in the last 2.4 miles of the race, but still. UGH.
I really have got to start running more regularly or I’ll never make the marathon. Now that my cold seems to be disappearing, that shouldn’t be a problem.
I came home from the race and Katie and Joel and I had lunch in Kemah. I met Jason to head to the ballpark for Game 4 while the Techies headed over to the Galleria area to visit with some family friends of Joel’s that live in Houston. Game 4 was incredibly nerve-wracking, but turned out wonderfully in the end — a 6-5 win for the Astros. The series is all tied up, 2-2, with Backe pitching tonight! I’ll be in the stands!
The only thing I won’t be able to do tonight is yell. The race yesterday, or more likely the combined effect of my screaming through two NLCS games already, have made me lose my voice. Yup, I sound horrible today, like a teenage boy whose voice is breaking. Sometimes normal things come out, but sometimes I sound like a horse. If I whisper, it’s usually ok. I can’t even remember the last time I lost my voice, but it is sort of funny and frustrating at the same time. Woe is me. How will I cheer tonight??? I guess I will just have to wave my rally towel even more.
Anyway. I’m off to head home to get Katie and Joel so I can give them the NASA tour before they end their quick weekend trip to Houston and head back to Atlanta.
