Smashing my PR—and mental hurdle

   I've been curious for a while, if I could actually run a half marathon (13.1 miles). Last week I happened to be in a leadership meeting over lunch with Mark M, and we talked about races and tris and the Ironman races he has done. Super inspirational. 
   And this week I happened to talk to Theresa on my new team, who has run several halfs as well as the Chicago marathon. She very casually said, "Yes, people will tell you that you need to stick to a strict training schedule, but the truth is, you're a fit human, and you could run a half today. You just have to get over the mental hurdle." She was so matter-of-fact about it, I began to think, "Well, of course—that makes sense..."
   She tried to encourage me to run the KC marathon on 10/19 (which I can't do, because that's the day I start Divemaster training). Today when I headed out, I planned to try for 8 miles... And just kept running. It didn't feel especially difficult, since the weather is cool (I'm a cold-weather runner for sure). I simply kept going. In fact, I was tempted to run the full 13.1 miles just to prove to myself that I'm ready, but it was getting late, and beginning to get dark, and I didn't want to risk injury by upping my mileage too far, too fast. (Which sounds surprisingly smart and responsible—we're still talking about me, right?) I resisted the temptation.

   So what do you know, Theresa was right about me.
And you know what else is super-motivating? Nike+:

   Of course I do stack the deck in my favor by creating my own "power playlist" of favorite songs—which I'm going to need to grow, as this run was long enough that they began to repeat. Still, somehow the right song seems to come up at the right time to keep me going: either a great hook, a driving, beat, or inspiring lyrics (every song on my playlist must meet at least one of those criteria, if not all three). Today Usher's "Numb" helped me out lyrically:

"They say life is a battlefield / I say bring it on

If you wanna know how I feel / Live it till it's gone

I'm just saying that what don't kill, only makes you strong

If you don't recognize what is real—

Then forever is a long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long time..."   

Thank you, Theresa, for believing in me! :)
* * * * * * * * * *

   And... A weird thing happened on my run: I was running through the park in Old OP, and nearly stepped on a very large red-tailed hawk who had just swooped down to catch a squirrel. He took his dinner up to a low tree branch and continued to watch me... so I high-tailed it outta there!

Aki: 1, Bird: 0

My lil' beastie caught another birdie. She was standing at the door, whining and quivering with excitement to show me. Poor bird!
   And then... I convinced her to drop it. You can't really see it here (just the tip of her tail), but Aki is SNARLING at Kismet, who is in the house, peeking at Aki's bird. Insolent cat!

Omaha: Desert Dome

   Omaha zoo has some very cool exhibits and many unusual animals that you don't see at every zoo. The Desert dome was a favorite for sure, full of foxes, bats, and black-footed cats; thick-kneed birds, finches, meercats, and hyrax.

the handsome thick-kneed bird

the incredible & incredibly charming klipspringer

I need to research what the dark spot is at the corner of their eyes

saying hello to a beetle

they can fit all 4 hooves on a spot of cliff the size of a Canadian dollar

kookaburra

a grouchy-looking yet adorable burrowing owl

a sleepy and not-so-swift swift fox

LOLwls

Some funnies courtesy of icanhascheezburger...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Who you callin' turkey?

   The turkey vulture was especially proud and showy, changing poses frequently. Much more charming than you might expect a vulture to be!

Her beak curves up like a huge, menacing smile

"Hey, kid—you want some candy?"

A Great, Great Blue Heron

   After stalking the snowy owl by the boat ramp for a while, Joni instructed me how to effectively approach a great blue heron at the end of the dock. These guys are quite shy if approached too quickly. We were able to get some decent shots before he swiftly flew across the water:

At Last, the Owl!

   Okay, it wasn't the super-mega-closeup I was hoping for, but the female over at the boat launch in Little Platte Park was much closer than the other owls were... I wished I'd had a camera with more than 20x zoom, but was surprised that my photos turned out better than I expected: she's more than a little white blob! HOORAY!!!

The marina and boat ramp

Joni spots the owl

YAWWWW~N!

Suddenly she becomes more alert, puffs up, then starts preening:

bars on the owl, bars on the water