Rock n' Roll San Antonio Race Weekend December 7, 2014

It was a rough month leading up to the San Antonio Half Marathon.  My training was going pretty well.  I'd run the Houston Half marathon on 10/26 followed by the Katy 10 miler the next weekend 11/1.  The next week I had a 15 mile training run and was on schedule for my "goal" race of the year the San Antonio Half.  And then I got sick.  I went to the doctor for a sinus infection and then ran 8 miles the next day.  And then I got even sicker.  November 22nd, I was supposed to run 17 miles but had decided to only do 15 again.   I woke up with a sinus induced migraine headache that would last the entire day.  I went back to the doctor that week and was given some steroids to try to help clear up the sinuses.

It sort of worked.  I was able to run the Turkey Trot 1 miler with my 4 year old and the 5k on my own.  It wasn't a great run but it was a decent run.  I attempted 6 miles the following Saturday one week before the race and my knee started to hurt after 2 miles.  I bailed on the run and walked back in hopes of being able to run another day.
So over the month leading up to the marathon I ran a total of 6 times, the longest of those runs 8 miles.  I went from feeling well trained to woefully under trained in the course of a month.  One of these days I'd love to show up to a race, healthy, injury free and well trained.  For this race I was neither of the three.  My last run before the race was supposed to be a 6 mile run (and wasn't supposed to be my last run either) on Saturday the 28th.  At 2 miles my knee started hurting and I shut it down and walked back.  Between my knee and my sinuses I was not feeling extremely optimistic about this race.

Race weekend officially starts on Wednesday, December 3rd.  My parents were flying into town today so I was going to pick them up after work.  My youngest, Alice woke up in the morning complaining that her ear hurt with no fever and no other symptoms.  I dismissed it hoping that she had just slept on it.  I was wrong.  I got a call from school that she was complaining about her ear at 9:30.  She was one miserable little girl by the time I got there to pick her up and take her to the doctor.  She had a raging ear infection and was in a lot of pain, very lathergic, and  quite a miserable little thing.  Fortunately a couple of doses of antibotics and she was feeling much better by Thursday afternoon.

We left for San Antonio late Thursday and after and uneventful drive we made it to our resort the Wyndham La Cascada without incident.

Friday arrived and I woke up with another Sinus Headache.  As the day went on I was really questioning my ability to run on Sunday and thought about finding a ready clinic if things didn't improve.

We had lunch on the River Walk and I made it to the Expo.

Checking in at the Expo

 My bib - why do they still use shoe tags?  

The shirt - why are all my race shirts orange?  The 10k shirts were much prettier (so were the 10k medals but that is neither here nor there)

Having picked up all my race gear, I explored the expo.  I was very excited to get to look at my upcoming Princess medals at the RunDisney booth.

I picked up some new gear including a new Fitletic belt that will hold my new monster phone, some Nuun tablets and some compression socks.  

We finished off the day with a trip to the grocery store, dinner in the room and a river boat cruise to look at the Christmas Lights along the Riverwalk.

Saturday was an easy San Antonio Touring day.  We started our morning off at the Botanical Gardens where they were having a Lego Display.  It was fun chasing the girls around the Gardens and looking for all the Lego Sculptures. 

Including a Yellow Jacket to root on Georgia Tech in the ACC Championship game later that night.

This is the second time we have visited the San Antonio Botanical Gardens and I highly recommend a visit.  It is a beautiful place and the special exhibits are great.  It was also Howl-days and people were allowed to bring their dogs to the gardens that weekend.  It was so much fun to see all these dogs (well behaved dogs at that) at the Gardens.

After lunch back at the room we went out to the San Antonio Market Square and walked around.  The girls each got new cowgirl hats, we watched some traditional dance troops and then went across the streets and got to play on the playground.  

After some fun playtime, we headed back to the Riverwalk to meet some of my Katy Running team for a prerace dinner.  

Some of my oldest's artwork at dinner

We left from dinner to head up to the Texas Transportation Museum for Santa's Railroad Wonderland.  The good news is the tickets were only $5.  It honestly would not have been worth anymore than that.  The "train ride" was so short and had one inflatable display.  The train displays were great but you could do those during the day without a crowd.  It was not worth the crowds and the drive.

But this isn't a review of the Transportation Museum.

We went back to the resort in time to watch the end of the first half of the GT/FSU ACC Championship game.  So close but yet so far.  Here's to an Orange Bowl Victory and better luck next year.

I finally made it to bed (later than I should) to get ready for the race the next morning.

So that brings us to RACE DAY (which I will put in a separate post for those that really only care about the race report)