26.2 in two years

I just finished the New Years Double a few hours ago!  I'm giving a recap while the pain is still fresh on my mind.  I don't have many pictures and I don't even my times, but I don't care either.

My journey began on the 27th (I pretty sure) when the weather here in Texas went from cold and rainy to the upper 60's, sun shiny and dry.  This kind of thing always does a number on me and I came down with a crappy cold and fever.  For three days I had snot and chills taking over my body.  Finally on the evening of the 29th I felt warm enough to remove myself from my down comforter and even take of my jacket too!

On the morning of the 31st I still felt congested and a little week.  I made it my goal to have no goal.  Oh, and I also had barely run at all the previous month.  This is all looking promising isn't it?  I decided to wear a long sleeve top, but go with a skirt on the bottom half.  This was a mistake.  It took every bit of four miles for my legs to warm and my toes to unfreeze.  It did warm up later into the race, but not enough to make me less miserable.  My feet hurt, my knees hurt and my 5 minute run intervals were dragging on for multiple eternities.  Also, I forgot how in flat, treeless Texas you can see ahead to every mile you haven't covered and all the tiny people who are already on those miles.  Horrible for my mental toughness!  I ended up with a time somewhere in the 2:40's (I forgot to stop my watch at the finish).  My legs felt the same way that they do when I run full marathons.  I had not idea how I was going to stay up until midnight, wake up again at 6 and run again on sore legs.

But I did it!  I did it, and amazingly it was much better today than yesterday.  My congestion is mostly gone which made it much easier to breathe, I wore pants so my legs were warm, and I actually took GU this time.  I was so uninterested with my time today that I didn't even start my watch.  After a little bit my legs loosened up and felt, well, not any worse.  I decreased my run intervals to 3 minutes and that made things at least seem like they were going by more quickly.  I felt strong the whole way and even bumped up the effort a notch in the last 5k.  However, when I crossed the finish line and saw the clock time I realized that despite how I felt, I didn't really go any faster.  Oh, well.  I felt great!  It was an awesome way to take out 2011 and bring in 2012.  And now I qualify to be a Half Fanatic!  My knees still feel like hell though.

-Hugh Jass