Thursday, March 18, 2010

News on the home front

After my last post, I had been planning to update following the 10K that I ran on March 6. That was almost two weeks ago now. And it was certainly update-worthy! I went out a little too fast, struggled in the middle, and managed to gut out a sub-44 for the first time. My official time was 43:54, a new PR by 17 seconds. It was also good for second place female, which is awesome, but also tells you how competitive the race was. :)

So why didn't I update? Well, because we went to see a house that we loved that afternoon, and then we decided to put in an offer. Which was accepted. So you can imagine how crazy the past couple of weeks have been! We house hunted for about six weeks, and this was our first offer. I was amazed that we got under contract on the first try. I suppose I was thinking there would be more competition out there with the tax credits due to expire fairly soon.

And this house is a real find. It's in a nice, older neighborhood, and has some wonderful features that I'm really excited about--a sunroom, ample garden space, mature trees, etc. One of my major location needs was that the area be highly "runnable." That is, safe to run any time of day, including rush hour, after dark, or what have you. This fits the bill perfectly, in fact, better than I thought we could afford. It is at the upper end of our price range, but seeing as how we're now kind of skipping the whole "starter home" thing and moving on to "here's where we're going to live for a good long while," I'm thinking it's worth it. I'm still stunned and overwhelmed at our good fortune at finding something so perfect for us, in such a perfect place, that we could afford. (I was worried about some horrific hidden problem, but the home inspection turned up only a few smaller problems, all of which are manageable.)

The closing date is April 30, eleven days after Boston, meaning April will be an even more interesting month than I was expecting! I am nearing the end of my peak mileage week, and I am officially in "ready-for-taper" mode. Mileage will lessen a little bit after this week as I transition to race sharpening, and then I'll start a two-week taper. I can't believe it's so close!

Boston bib numbers were released earlier this week. Mine is #14899, meaning I'm in Corral 14. The fourteenth corral is the first of Wave 2 (the race consists of two waves, one at 10:00 a.m. and one at 10:30 a.m., with separate starts). This means I will be right up front (kinda) at the BOSTON MARATHON. It's actually a very ideal start position, with less crowding and less time spent waiting to cross the line after the gun.

It's hard to explain how exciting this is. I have been wanting to run the Boston Marathon since 1996, after reading an article about the 100th running (that was 14 years ago?!?!). In 2004, when I ran my first marathon, I realized how difficult it was going to be for me to get there. In 2007, I joined the online running community and started making friends who were running the race. For three years, I looked up their names and bib numbers on the BAA site so I could track them on race day. So now, to see MY name displayed, with MY bib number, is...indescribable.

5 comments:

jen said...

Wow!!

I was waiting to hear about the 10k but this exceeds my expectations!

Congrats on the house!

And, congrats on the race. Have a great time preparing for Boston. It's going to be all you dreamed and more.

The Alien said...

Amazing!!! Congrats on the new PR and that's amazing that you also found a new home, specially one you really like.

And to see your own Bib # for Boston should be amazing, hopefully I'll be writing a post like this someday, hopefully sooner than later.

Julie said...

Nice job on the 10K -- that bodes well for Boston. With the benefit of the backstory, I'm looking even more forward to tracking you on Patriot's Day. Thanks for sharing your bib number. Following some runners always makes the race more interesting.

And congratulations on the house. Home ownership is full of surprises, but some of them are pleasant. I've never regretted buying my place.

Joe said...

Congrats on the house, Mir!! There are some very nice parts of Bloomington...glad you landed in one of them.

Do let us know how we can track you on that Monday in Boston!!

L.A. Runner said...

Congrats on all the new and exciting things in your life! A new hubby, a new house, AND a new PR!!! Wowzers, girl, can I borrow some of that good luck? I'm seeing AWESOME things in your Boston future.