Unprepared For A Half Marathon

It's been a while since I posted an entry here, but I haven't had any huge events since the Winnipeg 10&10.  I do have a whole bunch of smaller happenings recently (or excuses for not running).  I'll start off with those, then recap the WFPS Half Marathon in a separate entry.

In July, my term at work unexpectedly ended.  It wasn't great news, but it also wasn't the worst thing in the world.  In that time off since then, I did take advantage in participating in several races and enjoyed my summer.  In a nine week span from July 13-Sept 7, I participated in one try-a-du, a 5k color run, two mud runs (5k, 6k) and two 10k races.  Because I worked shift work, had I been working, not all of those races would have been possible.  I had also signed up for the WFPS Half on Oct 19th, my third one, knowing I'd be off with my previous schedule.  I had not been training properly as I did for the Fargo or the Manitoba Halfs.  I ran 1-3 times a week, but leading up to the 10k's, nothing higher than that.  I found that because I had so many races, I would count them as my long runs and end up skipping runs during the week.  I was however playing soccer once a week over the summer and completed a 30 day squats and abs challenges, so I wasn't being completely lazy.  I did start the arms challenge, but only got halfway through.  In July, my dad and I worked on finishing my garage.  We had insulated and put up vapor barrier previously, but this summer's task was to put plywood up on my walls.  I was also doing some job searching to no avail. September, ball hockey started on Sundays.  Following my last 10k race in September, I did put in  few short runs before skipping some runs in favor of a wedding one weekend to attend a Bomber (CFL) game the next.  I also left the next morning to Minneapolis to attend a Jets at Wild NHL game and a Browns at Vikings NFL game for a stag.  This is where I fell behind on the 30 day arms challenge and it fell by the wayside.

Eating from my helmet of nachos, enjoying a preseason Jets game.

Outside the Metrodome for the Vikings game.

 For the next 3 weeks, I managed to do a 12k and two 14k runs.  Mid October, I started playing on a 3D Dodgeball team.  What is that you ask?  Well it's dodgeball on trampolines at Sky Zone Winnipeg.  It's tough, but a lot of fun.  So anyways, any days I had an activity, I would skip runs.

Playing 3D dodgeball

I kept in contact with my former manager and provided her with an updated version of my resume.  I heard back from her in October and she informed me about a possible position opening up again.  A few weeks later, I was contacted by HR with a job offer.  I was happy to accept and started last Wednesday.  Unfortunately, I would be working Wednesday, Thursday and Friday over night, 13 hour shifts and would have to run the half the next morning.  I was not pleased, but had requested several days off for some Wedding commitments, that I didn't want to ask for too much and just accepted it.