I'm switching sports!

I'm a gymnast now. It's official. A bad gymnast but a gymnast. After months of trying to teach myself to do a cartwheel to no avail I went to my first gymnastics class yesterday.
What happened to me? I thought I was in good shape from running I don't know, like 14 miles a day for the past year, but that was before I tried to climb a rope and leap across a room. Let's just say I am glad there is no such thing as the 24 hour jump.
I spent the rest of class practicing doing a handstand into the wall and doing baby cartwheels while everyone else from age four to thirty five did back flips over me.
After about 8 failed attempts I'm able to kick my legs up against the wall. If I have one percent fear I won't be able to do it. Not even 1%. Hard to have that when you know all the five year olds are laughing at you!
I just want to be able to do a cartwheel! I could do this when I was seven! Seven was the highlight of my life in many way but I refuse to let it be the pinnacle of my athletic career. I am still alive which means I'm young enough to learn how to do this.
It only takes four failed attempts to get my legs against the wall by the end of class. Maybe there's a little hope for me, maybe not much, but a little. That's it I'm quitting running- I'm going to be a gymnast!
Justin Beiber song comes blaring out of the radio and no one else falls out of their handstand because they are plugging their ears! Yeah, okay, maybe not.

Lake Samish Half Marathon

Today I ran the Lake Samish Half Marathon. Considering it was only six days after my 30 mile time trial my time was decent in 1:36:15. my hamstrings had been sore when I was running all week and because of this I got to have a whole easy week! Or five days anyway! Do you know the last time I got to have five, five easy days in a row? It was May when I had a stress reaction. Though my start to my 2013 mileage has some catching up to do now!
Yesterday I did something I never want to do - I took an ice bath. I watched Titanic the night before so I was imagining myself as Jack dying in the water. It's so cold...i can't feel my body... I wonder if anyone has ever died of hypothermia in their own bathtub before? Anyway the horrible stabbing pain only lasts two minutes and then your body goes numb unlike what happens in the half marathon,
In the half marathon I felt very good for the first 4 miles, my hamstrings weren't sore, I was running about 7:00 mile pace, then for some reason it got hard. Phooey.
My legs were more fatigued than normal. It is normal to think at some point in the race- I don't  know if I will make it! or I don't think I should be a runner anymore! And the like, otherwise it is not a real race but there were a couple points like even at mile 12 where I was really wondering if my legs were just going to collapse. That was scary.
Well I made it and in first for women which was exciting. Considering how sore I was the beginning of the week that could have been a lot worse.