she's goin' the distance, she's goin' for speed...

Last year Karen impressed me by finishing the London's Run half marathon, a charity race to benefit children fighting cancer. So this year she tried dragging me into it. Which, actually, wasn't too hard of a sale, I've been wanting to run a marathon for years now, but my knees haven't had the same goal. But I started training at Christmas time and was really enjoying it. The weather on Saturday morning long runs was ideal and I think it's the longest I've ever been alone post twins.

Unfortunately, Friday I came down with the flu and I was bitter...really bitter. Dad and Troy gave me a blessing and the next morning I drug myself out of bed and out to Queen Creek.

The race started and I ran and ran and ran. I felt pretty good and made a goal to not let anyone pass me after mile one. I think I'm a little more competitive than I thought and kept trying to get ahead of whoever was next in front of me. (The same way I drive.) I felt bad if it was a guy next in line for me to pass, (for their male ego) so I would give them about 30 seconds to pick up the pace... and if they didn't they had to deal being passed by a girl. (When you're running 13 plus miles you have to think of something to pass the time.)

It was also touching and motivating to see the posters of the children fighting their cancer battles encouraging us to "keep going". I think I choked up a few times just feeling how lucky I was to actually be running and in good health.

The last mile I was ready for the race to be over and then I saw Troy. I thought he was staying home with the sick kids, but there he was cheering me on the last leg. It felt so good to round the corner and have the energy to sprint home and see Karen & the kids.

I looked at my finish time and was instantly bummed. 1:50. I had wanted to finish right over 2 hours... (120 minutes). So when I saw the clock I was thinking 150 minutes. Then Troy informed me the clock said 1 hour & 50 minutes... ten minutes faster than my goal. Ooops! I was now thrilled. Instead of a 9 minute mile that I was used to, I had been running an 8.3 minute mile. I think because I was sick I couldn't gage my pace very well... wich turned out to be quite advantageous. I'm glad it's over, but so glad I did it. Now I'm looking for a Saturday marathon and time and energy to train for it.