Finishing strong

So much has happened since I last blogged! I finished my second year of PT school, my mom came to visit, and I ran my second half marathon! And I start my clinic tomorrow. I'm not exactly excited about that last one. These last few days of freedom have been so sweet. I'm not ready to get back to the world of work/school/reality.

I took my last final on Tuesday, so I had 5 days off before my clinical rotation starts. In the week leading up to finals, I felt like I studied non-stop. My friends and I would go to Panera every day and sit there and study for hours. I ate way too much junk food and caffeine to fuel my study sessions. But it paid off because somehow I did really well in all my classes.

I must have been born under a lucky star when it comes to my GPA. I needed a 92% on the final to get an A in Neuro PT, and miraculously that's exactly what I got. I thought I had ended up with a B in Clinical Medicine, until I found a mistake on one of the questions. I e-mailed the professor and she re-keyed the test. Those extra two points bumped me up to an A in the class. I was rocking a solid B in Cardiopulm (a class I hate!) and I was okay with that. I studied for the final hoping for a B at best. I honestly didn't want to put in enough effort to get an A because I hate that class so much. Somehow the time I put the least effort into cardiopulm is the time I get an A on the test. My reaction when I saw my grade wasn't joy, it was more like "What the heck?" I have no idea how that happened. I also got 100% for participation, even though I skipped the last two classes. I don't know how I got so lucky, but I'll take it!

I also managed to fit a 10 mile run into my schedule in the midst of all these finals. I had to do a long run because my half marathon was coming up and I hadn't been getting much mileage in. As I was planning my route, I realized that this was only the fifth time I'd run a double-digit route. I ran 10 miles once before my half marathon (#1), then the Richmond half (#2), then I ran 10 miles once before the Cherry Blossom race (#3), and the Cherry Blossom race was a 10-miler (#4). Even though I feel like a runner now, I'm still sort of a newbie when it comes to running long distances.

My ten mile training run went great, though! I was a little worried about the heat at first. I didn't start my run until after 9am, which was later than I had wanted to start. It was a hot day, even in the morning. I was dripping in sweat by the second mile and totally soaked by the end of my run. But I had my water bottle and a gel for energy, and I remembered to put on sunscreen. My route had some shady parts and there were some nice cool breezes that made the heat bearable. It ended up being a pretty good run. After my last disastrous run on a hot day, it felt good to finish. It gave me a little bit of confidence that I can run in the heat. I just need to be prepared and maybe run a little slower.

Running in the heat was good practice for my half marathon. I ran the half as part of a relay team in the Kinetic Half Ironman triathlon. It was a hard, hot race, but I finished strong! I'll post details about that race later this week.