a little over a year ago, in a goal setting group, when asked what i want to "be", one of my answers was "a runner." sure, i had "run" before, but i wanted to be a real runner. at that time, i had a friend training for some races, so i decided to start running with her. i set my sights on the marine corp 10k and signed up for the race, which would take place on Halloween 2010. well, as luck (or stupidity) would have it, while running a 1/4 marathon on mothers day 2010, i pushed myself way too hard up the final hill, and blew out my knee. that was the end of running for me for a while. i was so deflated. over the next few months, i would also experience back problems and develop plantar fasciatis.....neither one helping my return to the running world. i was determined though. i would be a runner! i would not give up! i did PT for my back and knee and saw a doc for the plantar fascaitis. i decided to get a cortisone shot in my knee, after the PT told me there really wasn't anything left he could do for me. wow, that was painful, but it did the trick! as for the back pain, it still comes and goes....and the PF was treated through exercises and a better pair of orthotics and shoes.
with my body feeling better, i was ready to hit the road again...on foot! my friend robyn decided she was going to train for a marathon, by following the
galloway training program. based upon your running pace, you figure out your run/walk intervals, which you use throughout the run. the purpose is that it allows you to hold your pace and not burn out on longer runs. this meant for me, i would run 3 minutes and then walk 1. i figured this HAD to be better on my body...and i was right!
at some point, probably after too much wine one night, my next door neighbor jenna and i decided to register for the wilson bridge half marathon. i continued running with robyn & her crew until their mileage became just too high for me (remember, they're training to do twice as much as me!). as much as i was excited to not have to drive to burke for our early saturday morning runs, i missed my running team badly! it was so great to have a group of women to encourage each other, complain to each other, and figure this whole thing out together. i especially missed seeing robyn's bright smiling face before, during and after a run! you see, robyn is the kind of person who always has a smile on her face....even after a hot, sweaty, long run! she is always so proud of those around her and truly brings out the best in people. heck, even on the mornings when she would head out at 4:30am to run, she was smiling...at least it looked like it in the dark :)
jenna decided she would try the run/walk method with me, so we could train together. she is an avid runner, so i wasn't sure she'd like the run/walk idea. i was so excited that she was willing to give it a go with and FOR me! once again, i found an amazing running partner, who has turned into one of my dearest friends! it is amazing how much time you have to chat and bond with someone when you are running for hours on end!!! one of the things i love about running with jenna, is that because she is only living here for a few years, she really wants to take in the DC sights. so, rather than just running around our BORING neighborhood, we would head into DC for a run. these "destination runs" were awesome! we would just lose ourselves in the scenery....and our chatting...and before we'd know it, the run would be over. and best of all, jenna was enjoying the run/walk method!
fast forward a few HOT months and many miles....to october 2, 2011...RACE DAY! it was much colder than we had anticipated....maybe 40 degrees at the start! that didn't stop us though....i don't know if its because we trained so well or what, but jenna and i LOVED the half marathon! when we hit the 6 miles marker we hadn't even realized we had run that far! before we knew it, we were at mile 9, and we started talking about doing a marathon. at mile 9, most people are wondering why the heck they decided to do this....but not us...we wanted more! we attribute most of these great feelings to the run/walk method. we never felt like we hit a wall and at the end, we were actually passing people, instead of feeling like we were going to keel over! we even kept a faster pace throughout the entire race than we had during ANY of our training runs!!!
thank you to everyone who supported me throughout the training and the half-marathon! i expect to see you cheering us on at the marathon!!!!
me and my other runner gal, jen
jenna & me pre-race
crossing the finish line (love how it says "PROOF" across the pic...PROOF that i did it!)
post-race
post-race with my biggest fans!
yes...those are our crazy pirates dressed up for halloween! ever since our pirate adventure this summer, the boys have wanted to be pirates for halloween. before heading out to the store and spending a lot for costumes, i figured i'd check out craigslist. and, what do you know....i found not one, but two pirate costumes...for sale by one person! her kids had the same idea last year, to be pirates together. what made it even better, was that andrew's costume was not just a pirate, but captain jack sparrow, who is one of his faves right now! what made it even better for me, was scoring BOTH costumes for under 20 bucks!!!
