train, run, race equals happiness

10 weeks of training left = 10 more long runs (or ten more Saturdays of running the entire morning and not wanting to do much else) – so yes I am 8 weeks in.  I know that when I write that, it doesn’t sound like I am excited (or that this is fun), but I am excited and sometimes it is fun.  I have a love|hate relationship with my long runs because I don’t really look forward to them, but I am learning alot about myself on them (and I love writing the distances on my training calendar and crossing them off my list). I guess the question why just keeps popping into my head.  I was asking myself this yesterday morning when I woke up at 6:50am (which was really 5:50am –because of daylight savings) – why is this important|why do i want to run today?  My answer is there is really nothing that makes me feel better from the inside out and the feelings of pride that I have about my running truly fuel the desire and passion that I have for the way I want to live my life.  I think this is also about a commitment that I have to myself and the people that I love – they (you) believe in me and in turn I believe in myself.  I am thankful to have so many people who understand why I do this and who support this dream I have that sometimes seems to take over the logical part of my brain.  Talk to me after I race and you will feel it too. 

I ran the Celebrate Life Half Marathon yesterday. I ran it in 2:05:45 with the final 5K time of 28:26 – 9:10 splits - this is happy news! Why you ask?  Because I ran half my goal distance yesterday and I felt amazing which means that my training is paying off and I am running stronger.  Yesterday showed me that I am exactly where I need to be; that my mind and my body and working together and that is all I can ask for. This is huge! But don’t let my excitement fool you into thinking that the whole day went smoothly because it didn’t.  With daylight savings comes tiredness; with unseasonable weather comes an uncertainty of what to wear (which was in full effect yesterday); with a race that you haven’t done before also comes not knowing where to park.  You see where I am going with this right? We arrived at the start 3 minutes before the race started (and the only feature on my garmin that was working was the stop watch – so every mile we were figuring out our splits).  None of that mattered though when we were running.  It was beautiful out and we just ran – for all that goes into it, the days when it is just that simple it is worth everything else. 

“Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul - and sings the tunes without the words - and never stops at all.”   -Emily Dickinson