Milestones, numerous.

My two AS Ironman awards, in their place of honor-
flanking my Alison Bechdel book collection!

Greetings from the land of the late winter/early spring cold. I've been feeling a little off for over week now, but things got bad enough to keep me home from work this past Monday. Today is sick day #3, aka: the day I'm not well enough to work a full day but I am well enough to catch up on things at home. Things like blogging. So, here I am!

Since my last post, I achieved several milestones in my running life:

Ironman Award #2: On Saturday, 2/25, Andrew and I attended the annual Annapolis Striders awards banquet, where I picked up my second consecutive Ironman Award. I got this award for running all 8 races in the 2011 Champ Series. It was really exciting and gratifying to "graduate" from the first-time Ironman group into the (much smaller) multi-year group. It was also inspiring to pose for a group photo with people who have earned the Ironman 5, 10, 15, and even 26 years in a row!

B&A Half Marathon #3: This past Sunday, 3/4, I ran the B&A Trail Half-Marathon for the 3rd time. The 2010 B&A Half was my first half-marathon, and I am excited to report that the 2012 B&A was my tenth! I really hoped to PR in this race, but that wasn't in the cards. As I've been saying a lot the past few months, all of the recent changes in my life really threw off my winter training. I just wasn't in the shape I would have liked going into the race, and I finished a little behind last year's time (2011: 2:18:55; 2012: 2:19:46).

My 10th half deserves a good picture... but this is the one I got! 

BUT- there were bright sides: (1) I got to run the whole race with my awesome running coach Susan. Susan had a major injury a little over a year ago and this was her big comeback race. Seeing her get back out there was very inspiring! (2) I followed up the race by doing a bike/run workout with the Wonder Women tri-training group. I wound up having less than an hour to nap in between the race and the tri group and I had no idea if I would make it through the latter. To my surprise, however, I was okay. I definitely took it easy in the tri group, but I still finished the day having done just under 4 1/2 hours of intense cardio. I've been down on myself lately for not completing my planned winter marathon training, but this day taught me that I'm in better shape than I thought!

MCM registration #2: Just within the past hour, I registered for my second Marine Corps Marathon. I had a very tough time with my first MCM, but my experience in NYC this fall really boosted my confidence. So, now I look forward to actually enjoying this marathon, rather than just surviving it!

All in all, a productive few weeks!