Half Marathon #2

I am signed up for my next half marathon. It is the McDonald's Half Marathon in Richmond, VA on November 14, 2009. This one is cool b/c it is sponsored by Runners World Magazine that Mike and I both read. There will be a lot of events there and it seems that the race will have a lot of things for runners to enjoy. The goal is to beat my Las Vegas Half Marathon time of 2:25. We shall see!

Training

We are tentatively training for another half marathon on Nov 1st. There is one in Dallas and one in Pittsburgh on that day. We havent signed up for either of them yet but hopefully we will figure out that part of it rather soon. In the mean time I have been slowly training to get back to the point of running a half marathon again. I ran 5 miles on Saturday at Perkins Park in Warren, (that is a real picture of the park too thanks to google.) It went rather well but then again it always does when I run on a track so I know exactly how many time I have to go around. I saw some Siberian Huskies on the way and there were a lot of people out to either say hello to or watch the kids play soccer. When we got home I ran 4 miles on Monday around the neighborhood and that went well too. It helps me to have an exact plan of where I am running and how far that will be. As long as I keep doing that hopefully Ill be okay.
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A1C

I got my A1C results back today to a record low of: 5.9%

I am thrilled with this as it has been 6, good also, for so long that I didnt know if it would go down or not.

Here is a description of what an A1C is:

What the test measures
Hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) is a blood test that shows your average blood glucose level over the past two or three months. It measures the percentage of hemoglobin with glucose attached (altered hemoglobin).

Glucose in your blood stream attaches to hemoglobin in red blood cells and stays there. Red blood cells live for about 120 days.

The higher your blood sugar is, the more glucose is attached to hemoglobin. So, the higher your A1c level is, the higher your chances of diabetes-related eye, kidney, nerve or blood vessel damage are.

Normally 4 to 6 red cells in 100 have glucose attached to its surface; hence the range of HbA1c in a normal person is 4 to 6%

Chart

I found this on the blog of another diabetic runner and I thought it was worth putting up so I wouldnt forget about it and how true it is.

Running in the heat

I attempted to run 4 miles, for the first time in months, on Sun during the epic 90+ degree weather. It was a disaster. We meant to get up earlier but that didnt happen as we both wanted/needed some sleep. By the time we got out the door at 1045 or so it didnt seem so bad, as long as we were running in the shade. In reality the first 3 miles werent that horrible. As soon as I got to the last mile it became dreadful though. It was just too hot and there was no shade. I gave up and made Mike run home by himself. I proceeded to walk and then ran the last part of the way home. Who knows if I actually ran the 4 miles I was supposed to run or not. Either way it was a fiasco and I always know I should only run early in the morning, but I thought it would be okay. I was very wrong.