spanning the seasons

Atlanta Half Marathon Official Time: 2 hours, 4 minutes! Whoo-hoo! My goal was 2:10, and to know I not only beat that goal, but shaved 20 full minutes off my time from Disney last January, makes me extremely proud. It was quite a run, one of the best I've ever done. I'm already thinking of my post-marathon goal now-- finish the half in under 2 hours. If I had known I was going to be that close, I would've booked it even more to hit the 1:59 mark!

So as Erin and I were out doing our 9 mile training run last night, it started getting dark around 5:45pm. I started thinking as we were running past houses lit by Christmas lights how my running has carried over time. After the half marathon last January, I hit a whole new level of interest and excitement with my running. Even with my goal a year away, I continued to train, even through the dog days of summer when it was a too hot to run at 7:00am.

When we started our official training schedule in September, it was still hot, and even though we still had daylight at 7:00pm, you couldn't get out before then because of the heat and/or summer afternoon thunderstorms. As the long runs increased from the first week, 6 miles, to this week's upcoming 18 miles, we kept going, never missing a training day, never cheating, never stopping. The rainy season slowed, the oppressive humidity dried up, and an occasional comfortable day started slipping in. Night fell earlier and earlier, and it's continued to get cooler and cooler. We've run from summer straight through fall and into winter (granted, not that our seasons are very pronounced in Florida, but you get the idea!). We've run distances I never thought possible. I took 20 full minutes off my half marathon time. I feel stronger mentally and physically than I ever have in my life, and the race still looms ahead of us, a mere 6 weeks away!

Atlanta Half Marathon

Happy Thanksgiving! Me, Adam, his uncle Guy, his cousin Emily, and my friend Becky started the holiday out with a little 13.1 mile run known as the Atlanta half marathon. The AHM is kind of a tradition in the Walenga/DiMuzio Thanksgiving holiday rituals, with always Guy and Emily and a random assortment of other friends/relatives taking the running plunge before the grand feast. This was my first year running the AHM, and it was quite literally, a training run for the marathon.

That didn't stop me from treating it with due respect though, and I set a PR for time. I could tell as soon as I started out it was going to be a fabulous race day for me, so I rolled with it and paced well ahead of my Disney half marathon pace. For that race, I finished in 2:24, and this one was 2:17 clock time, which is not my official time because it doesn't not take into account the time it took me to reach the starting line. The official race time won't be posted for a few more days, but it should be somewhere in the vicinity of 2:10, which was my goal for this race.

This race was mostly flat in the first half, but there were two or three very challenging uphill climbs in the second half. It was a lot of fun though because the course takes you right through the heart of Atlanta and past the landmarks I grew up with, like the Fox Theater and the old Macy's building.

I finished a full five minutes ahead of Adam and Becky, which made me very proud because both of them are lifelong runners that have done this course before. I never thought I'd be a good enough runner to even complete the distance, much less finish before Adam.

Anthony's had a great time earlier in the week with MiMi and Grandude, and is now enjoying his first Thanksgiving with a house full of relatives at Grandma's house! He amazed Auntie Chiara with how smart he is-- check out her blog at : http://dimuziogravell.blogspot.com/

Happy Thanksgiving!
Chantel