Book it Real Good: September 2015

Y'all, it's been 6 weeks since I last blogged. My, how different our lives looked then - sleeping in, running at a leisurely pace, watching The Golden Girls with breakfast. Then - BAM - back to school hits. When both you and your spouse are teachers, back to school season tends to look like this. Early mornings, exhausted nights, breakfasts eaten in a hurry, in bed before 8:30 (who am I kidding, we did that during the summer too).
There's certainly very little free time to read - much less time to blog about what I've read. I'm in a new school district these days, and my car rides to work might last 10 minutes, so an audiobook would be not really be worth my time lately. Most of my reading time has been in the early morning hours on a weekend in which I inexplicably could not sleep in. In that time, I actually managed to finish Harry Potter & the Half-Blood Prince. Every thing that could be said about the magnificent series has already been said, so I will not blog about that one except to say, even on a re-read, that Jo manages to grab hold of me and make me think.
In the weeks since school has started, I have stretched myself and grown beyond my wildest dreams. I have found an incredible set of colleagues who have quickly taken me under their wings and treated me like family. I have gone to dinner with my math nerds by myself - as in, no RAHD. I have connected with my students and fallen back in love with what I do. I have begun getting my students out of their seats (ground breaking, I know) on a regular basis and helped them become owners of their own learning. They have really responded well to the things I've tried. This has been so out of the norm for me, but I have grown a lot in changing the way I do things in my classroom.
We are still working through the home study portion of our adoption, and as of this week, that portion will be 3/4 completed. We've had to answer questions about how we will attach to a child who may not be biologically ours as well as think about how we will respond to development delays that could be caused by substance abuse. Can we say overwhelming? But these are things that every parent must consider, and it is not something that should be entered into lightly.
In the mean time, I've run two half marathons in the past two weeks. The first was the Area 13.1 Half Marathon in Roswell, GA. The basic premise of this race was to outrun an alien invasion, so the gun time was 7:00 pm - very atypical for me and my training style. I knew fueling would be something I would have to carefully consider moreso than in other races, since I would have to eat a meal before. I thought a bread bowl of soup a couple hours in advance would be ok. Boy, was I wrong. Running on a full stomach - especially a half - will not be counted as one of my greatest life decisions. I spent most of the race searching for a portapotty and turned in my worst half time to date - as in 2:18:20. Lesson learned - night races just aren't for me. But on the plus side, we got to have a small getaway together and loved our Hyatt Place hotel - seriously, if you are near Atlanta, check them out.

I mean, how cool is this suite area? Totally worth every penny.

This was an interesting race experience to say the least. Thankful for my #1 fan, but wow, I would not run this one again. Plus side: the alien head medal glows in the dark. A little freaky sometimes when I wake up in the middle of the night, but it's super cool!

My most recent race was Labor Day weekend in the big city of Tupelo, MS. The Tupelo Marathon is unique in so many ways - 5:00 am gun time, total field of 700 between the half and full, and an ending inside the local arena. Sometimes, we as runners have those days when every single thing seems to go right. September 6 was that day for me. I slept pretty well for a hotel stay, awoke refreshed, had only my banana to eat this time, followed all "cleansing" rituals to a t, and enjoyed absolutely perfect pre-dawn weather - low 70s at gun time.

My boo & me right before gun time. How much fun is this Hippie Runner headband? There are options galore and if you use my link, you get a discount & I get loyalty points! I'm a bit of a headband snob, and this one stayed in place for the entire race and didn't slip at all while keeping my mop of hair back. You will want to expand your collection once you start to shop.

I was feeling it during this race - I was cutting a sub-9:00 mile and had already passed 7 miles at the 1:00 mark. I only had a minor issue at one aid station when a volunteer didn't see me and I didn't get to take some water at that one - and I wasn't about to break stride when I was just feeling the potential for a race like this. The Tupelo course is simply stunning - rolling hills through historic neighborhoods and flatter sections through the business district of town. Near mile 11, I had to slow my pace a bit and do my Oprah Winfrey power walk

for about 2/10 of a mile before getting back to pace - but even then, my pace stayed well below 10:00/mile. I was nearing the arena when my watch was showing a 1:58:00 time (in all honesty, I just wanted a sub-2:00), so I was getting excited. The finish chute may be my favorite part, because I always keep just enough in my tank to sprint the end (poo poo on those who say this isn't good etiquette; it's just plain fun!). I crossed the finish line at 1:58:35, a new PR by 5 seconds! I was ecstatic after the tumultuous last two weeks of training. When we got home, I looked at the results and found out that I actually won my age division. Me, former Beefy T XXL boy, managed to beat other people under the age of 30 to capture the division! I didn't stay for awards, because never in my life have I even come close to winning. I've emailed the race director in hopes that they can ship my award - even if it's just an ink pen, dadgummit - to me. Tupelo is a fantastic race, and it is one I would do again in a heartbeat. Here's to moving to a new age division next year and maybe impressing myself a bit more.