Getting caught up

Well, I have definitely not written in a while and, if you're curious, I haven't been running as much lately either.  But it's not as grim as the lack of blog posts might infer.  Here's a quick summary:

• Ran 2 miles in Pittsburgh on the Saturday before the half-marathon.  I thought that I was going to a part that wasn't too hilly.  And for Pittsburgh, probably it wasn't.  But by normal standards, there were plenty of hills.  No need to walk any of them though.
• Unfortunately, for the half-marathon in Geneseo, NY, there was A WHOLE TON OF HILLS.  Several super nasty ones too.  There were rolling ones around 4-5 miles and one super killer one right before the 12-mile marker.  Because that is what you want to see at Mile 12: a huge hill.  Also, it was somewhat humid.  Humid and hilly, my two favorite conditions.  But we did it (I ran this with another person).  We persevered.  Even if we had to walk some of the hills.  The part that I found hilarious was when we looked ahead at the killer hill near Mile 12 and saw everyone still out on the course walking.  It was very pretty, though, and the race was well-organized.  Its only major flaw was that it was ridiculously hilly for a Floridian.
• There was one advantage to having walked parts of the half-marathon: I ran the last mile.  Really ran it.  And was rewarded with a finish-line picture where I am actually running instead of gasping for my last breath of air before I die.  I liked the picture so much, I ordered a super-huge copy of it.
• Last weekend I did 2 miles on a treadmill and 5 miles outside.  I called it 'a treadmill' because it was in a different gym, which doesn't believe in air conditioning with the same fervor as my normal gym.  So that was why it was only 2 miles: I got too hot.  The outdoor run went pretty well, except that I wound up in the direct sun for ~20 minutes of the run (10 out and 10 back).  This was a mistake and I did some walk-running to finish up.  On the plus side, the weather is not nearly as horrid as it was in August.

Anyway, as this summary clearly indicates, at some point I transitioned from being a runner to being a walker-runner.  I'm hoping to get my runner mojo back soon.  And to do some more running, although I have been enjoying the opportunity to take more challenging yoga classes than normal.

For once, I'm not sure what my next goal is.  I was thinking to do a 10K turkey trot, but travel plans changed and that now won't work.  So I need to think about what I want to do.  Some long-term thoughts:

1) I don't know why, but I want to run the NY marathon.  So I will put in for the lottery and see what happens.
2) I feel like I still haven't had a good shot at a half-marathon with a respectable time.  This summer was brutal and then there were hills; the other halfs I have run were in Florida and humid, all too humid.  So one thought it to think about Philly if I don't get in for NY.  Philly is mostly flat and that race is in November, when it shouldn't be too hot and humid.....right?

But those are for next fall.  I need to find something for between then and now.  With a bit more digging around, I'm sure that I will.