Hitting my stride

This year's marathon training has been a series of ups and downs. I started off strong, and hoped the momentum would carry on. But with Matt having basketball games in June, and Tom playing baseball up until last week, my midweek runs were pitiful. To top that off I missed a long run, and had to throw in the towel less than 5 miles in to a 10 miler.

I have to keep reminding myself that life happens, and some miles are better than no miles. So last week I gave myself a mental pep talk, and got back out there last week. 

Tuesday I joined the Dick Pond group for a hot and sweaty 4.3 miles, then ran the Summer Sunset 5K Wednesday night. That race was a bit eventful for me - I wiped out before the first mile, and I'm still sporting tons of bruises along my right side. But I got up, brushed myself off, and finished strong. I even got my butt out of bed early Thursday morning to run with the Fox River Trail Runners!

Even after a good week I was still nervous about the Fox Valley Marathon training run this past Sunday. I was supposed to run 13 miles, but in my head I was saying that I'd be happy with 11 miles. 

I was by myself from about the second mile in, and fell into a great rhythm. The miles flew by, and before I knew it I was 7 miles in. I turned back around at that point, and knew I was at least 5 miles away from DP. But I really did feel pretty amazing at that point.

As it warmed up I had to work a bit harder to get through the last few miles. I made it back to St. Charles, and I was at 12.4 miles. I was so happy with knowing I would make it 13 miles! And I added an extra 0.1 miles to get my personal half marathon distance. 

This run gave me back my confidence, and showed me that I'm stronger than I think I am. I've been lucky enough to have Christine join me on her bike for a  couple of my long runs, and that's helped me tremendously. But I'm having to get through this mostly on my own, and stay on track for the next 9 weeks. 

This week I'm supposed to do 10 miles, but since the 15 miler would fall on the weekend when we'll be moving my oldest into his dorm at KU I'm swapping the weeks. This way I can knock out the longer miles early Saturday, and save the short run for the day before we leave. 

Thank you so much to all of my friends and family who are supporting me through yet another summer full of long runs, weekday runs, and my mini-freak outs! It means the world to me.