In the Blue.

This is the video message that popped up on my Nike+ profile when I logged in my run today. I am now in the Blue status, which as I mentioned before doesn't really mean much of anything, but hey it made me smile and proud of all the miles I've ran. Which, speaking of the miles I have run...

This total is since I started logging them through the Nike+ site in June 2011. I'm about to close out the month of March, and if Friday's run goes as planned I'll have 122 miles on the books for this month. And 203 miles so far this year. I better savor this moment because if you notice above I have 930 miles to run before I hit the next color level, and that will take me quite awhile!

I've had several runs since I last logged in. I had a 2-day break from running this past weekend due to working 14-hour days at the hospital. So I basically worked and slept and had no time for running or much of anything else. When I was off on Monday I ran in the early afternoon on a gorgeous sunny day. My legs were feeling good so I decided to run my hilly route and I even took Abbie along. It is amazing how much easier a run is on fresh legs. I was feeling great and found a good rhythm to settle into. I was amazed when the Nike+ celebrity that comes on at the end of the run to congratulate you on 'getting out there' or 'running more this week than last' actually announced that I had just run my fastest 10K. How cool is that! I still have yet to run a 10K race (one is scheduled for May) so I topped my previous training PR for that distance. Fresh legs make a huge difference and this really proves the power of tapering. Here are my splits...I really settled into a good rhythm after the 1st mile and held it.

Run: 6.22 miles, 53 min 36 secs, 8:36 min/mile pace, 61 degrees at 11:45am, 10K PR.

Tuesday I ran my scheduled 3 miles and completely overdressed. I got really hot during the run and looked like a hot mess by the end. Hello hot and humid out of control hair!

Run: 3.14 miles, 28 min 2 secs, 8:55 min/mile pace, 56 degrees at 8:30am.

Today was another 6 miler and it was the run that put me in the Blue. It was another great day weather wise. I cannot get over these temperatures we have had for March! I never remember having such a consistently warm early Spring before, or such a mild Winter as we had this past one for that matter. I will gladly take it, but just hoping this doesn't mean the summer months will be unbearably scorching. Lolo tagged along with me on her bike which was nice.

Run: 6 miles, 54 min 43 secs, 9:03 min/mile pace, 75 degrees and full sun at 5:30pm.

Rain Out.

So wouldn't you know that my 2 days off of work prepping for my 14-hour days this weekend were drenched in rain. My plan was to get up and get 6 miles in on Thursday morning since I had a shopping trip planned to get some much needed spring and Easter essentials that day. It was pouring down rain when I got up at 6am. Grrr, I went back to bed. Luckily after the shopping trip the rain had cleared off and and I got my 6 miles in after all once I got the girls home, fed, and one sent off to dance class.

Run: 6 miles, 53 mins 20 secs, 8:50 min/mile pace, 62 degrees and lots of sunshine.

Friday was my scheduled long run...12 miles this week. Again the morning was rainy so I did some errands out of town and got back at about 1pm. It was partly cloudy skies with the sun shining bright during the cloud breaks so I headed out. I was having a great run, taking it easy but my legs were feeling good so my pace was surprising me. At my half-way turn around I saw some daunting blackness in the distance that seemed to be getting ever closer. I was glad to be running in the opposite direction from that now, and kept doing an over the shoulder check of the sky every quarter mile or so. Then my route turned south and the storm front was pretty close. I could feel the cooler air, hear the thunder, and see the lightening strikes. Fortunately I was about a mile from my parents house at that point so I detoured and headed there for shelter. I'm not a fan of running in the rain. Wet, soggy, squishy shoes are not fun to me. Plus, since I wear my iPhone on my arm for my Nike+ app and music I do not like taking chances of it dying due to water damage. I made it to my parents house with just getting sprinkled on and decided to wait it out. We checked the radar and the huge system didn't look like it would be going anywhere anytime soon. Bummer! I surrendered to the storm and had my Dad give me a ride back home. I was a little over 3 miles short for my long run having gotten in 8.9 miles before taking cover.

Run: 8.9 miles, 1 hour 22 mins, 9:12 min/mile pace, 66 degrees then stormy.

I did try out something new on my run today... a running skirt. This was one of the 'spring essentials' that I got on my shopping trip yesterday ; ) I didn't know how I would like this different piece of running wear, but since they seemed to be all the rage at the marathon last fall I wanted to give one a try. I am sold! I loved it. My main concern with it was that it would be flying up and annoying me during the entire run. Not so! I didn't have any issues with it blowing up during wind gusts or anything. I like that it has spandex shorts underneath, but hides the tightness of those under a cute skirt. Bottom line is this item is chafe-free and I love it. I like the Nike shorts too, but they tend to ride up and sometimes they can rub. The skirt combines the look of the shorts, but without the downfalls. I will definitely snatch more of these up when I catch them on sale!

Recent Runs.

So it's been a week since I last posted...but I've still been running. I finished out last week with a 7 miler on my hilly route Thursday and then did my long run, a 12 miler, on Saturday. Saturday's run was HOT! It was 77 degrees on the time/temperature clock when I ran by it at 11:05am mid way through my run, but what made it so scorching was that it was full sun out. Don't get me wrong, I am loving the sunshine and these record breaking temps for this time of year, but with no cloud cover the run was a pretty blazing. I called Steve 3/4 of the way through and had him bring me a Gatorade. It hit the spot and allowed me to finish out my miles despite the heat. I really need to get one of those handheld water bottles with the hand strap to take with me on my long runs. I have tried running with a belted water bottle, but it rides up the whole time and annoys me...not worth the hassle. Here is a pic that Carly snapped of me with my iPhone after Saturday's 12 miles. I told you it was a hot one! (Gross!!)

This week I ran 3 miles on Monday, skipped Tuesday due to a 10.5 hour work day, and ran 7 miles tonight. Tonight was also 77 degrees when I passed the digital temp clock, but it felt a lot cooler to me since it was completely overcast. I was pretty happy that I averaged under a 9 min/mile for the run too. Here are my splits which averaged out to a 8:52 min/mile pace.

This week has been out of the ordinary. My work schedule has changed because I'm working the upcoming weekend, and that means the running schedule had to change too. Here is my training plan for the week, and as you can see I'm not currently caught up with my miles (blue = scheduled miles, green = miles ran). I'm off the next 2 days though, so my plan is to run 6 miles tomorrow and keep the 12 miler on Friday and then I'll be back on track for the week.

The other exciting thing I noticed when I looked at this outlook graph was that I'm really close to moving into the next Nike+ level/color (top left). What does that mean? Absolutely nothing! But it will be cool to have accomplished the green level and moved on to level blue.

Even though I'm all about the running schedule and keeping track of my training, it doesn't bother me to switch runs around and and make changes mid-week. With the busy life I have between all of my roles and duties, it's really inevitable that I will have to tweek this hobby to fit it in where I can. My calendar proves this with all the arrows and move arounds. My main concern is to get in the miles...whenever I can.

Recent Runs:

3/15: 7 miles, 1 hour 7 mins, 9:34 min/mile pace, 74 degrees.

3/17: 12 miles, 1 hour 56 mins, 9:42 min/mile pace, 77 degrees and full sun.

3/19: 3 miles, 27 mins 16 secs, 8:41 min/mile pace, 77 degrees and breezy.

3.21: 7 miles, 1 hour 2 mins, 8:52 min/mile pace, 77 degrees and overcast.

Hump Day Run.

Wednesday. Hump Day. Midweek slow down. I was dragging today for sure. It may have had a lot to do with working until 9pm last night, and then having to be back at the hospital at 7am this morning for an ICU shift. But, also my legs were a little angry with me...achy and pretty sluggish. It was clear that I was not going to have the energy or the leg power to pound out a 7 miler tonight. Plus I've been trying to read up a little on training and the different kinds of running workouts to incorporate, and a common theme I've seen is to listen to your body. Don't push too hard or you will set yourself up for injury. So I listened and I deviated from the plan on tonight's run. I decided on 3 miles instead of 7. I would have probably made it a rest day all together, but I couldn't let this awesome weather go to waste. Here is the 6 day forecast on my phone earlier today...crazy awesome for mid March!!

Another reason for my decision to go ahead with a short run tonight was that I wanted to take these babies for a spin...

They arrived Tuesday after I had finished my run already for that day and I really wanted to test them out on a short distance to make sure there would be no rubbing issues that might create a blister. I'm happy to report that they feel great!

Since I was feeling so sluggish I decided this would be a good time to try out some pacing...another thing I've been reading up on lately. My Garmin Forerunner 610 has a feature on it called the virtual partner. This feature allows you to put in a target pace and then it continually shows you during your run how you are pacing compared to your 'partner' at the set pace. I've noticed that my pace has really been all over the place. I usually start out faster until I find my rhythm, then my pace slows throughout the run, then I tend to pick it back up at the end. I definitely would like to keep a more steady and constant pace throughout. So tonight for my 3 mile run, and not feeling very energetic, I put my virtual partner at a 9:30 min/mile pace. It actually worked very slick. It told me how many seconds I was lagging behind or was ahead of my 'partner' and the cues really helped me to fine tune my pace to get it right. Here's my data stats from the run.

I thought I did pretty good for my first time pacing...9:29 is pretty darn close to 9:30! I will definitely use this feature again.

So tomorrow night was to be a rest day but I'm subbing in my 7 miler instead to make up for tonight. Here's hoping my legs feel fresher and I have more energy on board. At least the weather should be fantastic again.

Welcomed Weather.

The weather tonight was fantastic for running. It was 70 degrees out with a medium breeze when I headed out for my run at 6pm. I have been longing for this spring-like weather and I'm pretty excited that it's forcasted to be like this the rest of the week too. With the time change this past weekend it was a lot easier to get in my miles before darkness fell too. And I really like that I can wear shorts and a tech-T instead of all the cold weather wear. Definitely great running conditions in my book!

I ran my 'hilly' route and I stretched my rule of only taking Abbie on a 10K or less distance and brought her along for the 7 miler. At the turn-around spot on my hilly blacktop route there is a farm house that has a ginormous dog...I believe it is a Great Pyrenees breed. He/she is usually very friendly when I run by their house and he/she will trot along with me until I'm about a block away from the farm house and then return home. I have had Abbie with me one other time on that route and the Great Pyrenees, who is at least 4 times larger than Abbie, came up to us and just curiously sniffed her. Abbie was frightened but all was good with their meet and greet. Tonight the farm dog saw us coming up the road and trotted up to us. I thought it would be another simple stop and sniff and we would be on our way, but tonight was different. Abbie was pretty scared and tried to hide behind me, and I'm not sure if this gave the farm dog an authority boost or what but he/she started growling and snapping for Abbie. This dog's head comes up to my waist and I started to panic that this could go bad quickly. I kept blocking him/her from Abbie and we turned around to go back the other direction. Luckily once we were headed in the opposite direction he/she left us alone. Scary! I guess I won't be taking Abbie on that route again. She loves it out there on the country blacktop though. She ditch dives and gets just soaked running through the weeds and water...definitely a bird-dog's element. It was warm enough after our run that I hosed her down in the backyard and lathered her up with her vanilla bean shampoo. She is clean, fluffy, and smells great now...that is until our next run!

Run = 7 miles, 1 hour 3 mins, 9:00 min/mile pace, 70 degrees at 6pm.

Wear and Tear.

It's recommended to get new running shoes every 300-400 miles, and if you run on rough roads, which I do, you will have to replace them sooner than if you run primarily on a treadmill. When I started this running venture I went to a specialized store to get fitted for shoes. I had started out running in my Nike cross trainers and it wasn't very long at all before I figured out that they were not going to cut it. My heels felt so bruised after each run in those shoes. My main request at my fitting appointment was the best shoe for my aching heels. I tried on several brands and styles and took trial jogs around the store in them while the fitting expert watched me. The result was the Mizuno Wave Creation 11. I loved how they looked, which was a bonus, but most importantly they felt like they were made for my feet. My heel problems got quite a bit better after putting in miles with my new shoes.

When it was time to replace my Wave Creation 11's, the Wave Creation 12 was out. My heel pain (plantar fasciitis) was increasing again with my increasing mileage so it was suggested by a fitter that I try Super Feet arch supports. Those made a big difference and fit great into my Mizunos. Since I run on the streets and even on some gravel roads around my town my shoes wear out pretty quickly. I ended up going through 2 pairs of these same Wave Creation 12s. It's a little hard to swallow paying around $150 for an identical shoe you already have, but I just couldn't part with this particular shoe style.

I can actually feel when it's time to switch out shoes. I generally only have heel pain on the right now that I'm equipped with the best shoe for me and arch supports, but that increases when my shoes need replaced. I got my last Mizunos about a month before the marathon this past October. I was noticing some more heel pain and when I looked at the bottom of my shoes today I noticed lots of wear and tear.

The heel is worn almost down to the shoe frame on both shoes!

So, definitely time for a new pair! I had seen the new Mizuno Wave Creation 13s in Runner's World magazine and was surprised at the bold coloring. They were very loud and very RED and they just didn't feel like me. Besides clashing with most of my running clothes I just could see myself running in shoes that were that flashy.

Luckily when I went online I found that there were a lot of different color schemes for the 13s. They had other crazy loud color combos like purple with lime accents, black, all over aqua, and an even brighter red with purple accents. I guess I'm just not very trendy because I couldn't see myself running in any of those crazy loud colors. I did find one pair that I love though...the White/Sangria/Bleached Aqua style.

I love the look! And since I already know my size and that they fit me perfectly I was able to order them online this time. Also, Amazon rocks! I was able to use my prime membership to get free 2 day shipping, I didn't have to pay tax, and I got a promotional discount to make these the cheapest Mizunos I've purchased yet. They will arrive on Tuesday. This time I'm going to keep track of the miles I run in them to know just how many it takes to wear and tear them down into retirement. There I go with my infatuation with stats again!

Hills...sorta.

I am in the middle of half-marathon training for my next race...

Race day is April 28th and I will be traveling back to my old stomping grounds of Nashville for the event. I only lived there for 1 year post college, but Nashville holds a special place in my heart. It was where me and the hubby spent our first year of marriage together, and my stab at big city living which I always thought was going to be for me. Turns out, not so much, but I do have lots of fond memories from my time there.

I will be going to the race with a friend/former co-worker from my days as a retail pharmacist. I'm so excited to spend some time with her and to catch up on everything since it's been quite awhile since we've seen each other. Facebook is fabulous for reconnecting with friends and through our status updates we recognized that we both have a similar interest...running. Last fall we decided to schedule a spring race together and the result was the Nashville Half which is part of the Rock-n-Roll marathon series. Two of her running friends are also running in the race, and although I haven't ever met them I'm sure we will have a great weekend.

One thing I'm a little nervous about, however, is the course elevation.

The area that I run in is super flat. There is one vein that runs north of town that has some hills on it. I try and run that route at least once a week and I was proud of myself for incorporating it into my 7 mile run tonight. That is until I got home and looked at the elevation graph from my Garmin data.

Good news is that I kept a pretty consistent 9 min/mile pace despite the hills as you can see in the blue graph. Bad news is that my 'hills' are nothing compared to the ones I will face in Nashville. The change in elevation during the half-marathon course is > 200 ft., and my measly route of sorta hills only changes by about 50 ft. at best. I'm in serious trouble! I may have to take my running clothes with me to work on some days and do some after work runs there. There are definitely hills to be had in that area since it's on the river's edge. Plus, I remember all too well how the 10K hills there kicked my butt last July...right into the ER. I definitely want to be ready for inclines in the race this time around so I'm gonna have to find some real hills somewhere!

Running Partner.

I never go on runs with other runners. It's not that I'm opposed to that idea, in fact it would be nice to have someone along to motivate me and to have a conversation with. I think it would pass the time and miles nicely. Unfortunately, one of the drawbacks of small town living is no organized running group here. Also, I've never really asked anyone to go along with me as my running schedule is kinda hoakey. I usually run when it's convenient for me, and sometimes it's very last minute and at spontaneous times. I do have one running partner, however, that is always waiting in the wings for me lace up my running shoes...Abbie.

Abbie is our family dog. She is a full breed Brittany and was born in October 2010. She loves to run!

I take her along when I'm running 6 miles or less. I know she could go lots farther, but I get too tired handling the leash at more than a 10K distance. I can't use natural arm form when I'm holding her leash and she tends to always keep resistance where I'm holding her back the whole way. She does pretty good overall though. She has learned to stay to the side of the road and she knows my commands for turning and slowing up. She is a bird dog however and several times each run her instincts take over and she will try to go after yard birds or squirrels. We also encounter lots of other dogs on our runs, and usually she will do pretty good with the occasional slow down or stop to sniff.

Abbie gets truly heartbroken when I head out to run without her. She does this super pitiful whiny bark slash crying yelp. I feel bad, but she just has too much energy for me on my long runs. She spends the first half mile of each run tugging hard against the leash to go faster...which is usually why my first split time is one of the best ones. Then as the excitement wears off she will settle into a nice pace out in front of me, but she always maintains some resistance in that leash. Usually if I run without her I will take her out for a cool down walk when I get back to smooth things over with her. We have covered a lot of miles together, and she really is a good running partner.

Charts, Graphs, & Stats.

Warning: Nerd Alert! I am definitely that type A personality, first child attribute person that is particular and, lets just face it, 'anal' at times. I really like lists....I make them for anything and everything. I adore my Awesome Note app on my iPhone and have so many things filed away in that little spot of joy : ) So it should come as no surprise that one of the things I really like about running is the stat aspect. I like having my mile schedule listed out by the day and synced with my iPhone calendar. I like using the Nike+ app while running for the verbal stat feedback and the archive that it keeps about each run. I like that I then sync my Nike+ workouts to Dailymile.com where more information can be recorded and it tabulates and spits everything out in cool chart and graph form. I like that I wear my Garmin Forerunner for a second GPS record and all the route, elevation, and split timing data it provides. I know it's so overkill, but it makes this stat nerd happy.

Today I ran prior to going into work. The wind was crazy brutal and at points it felt as if I were running in place. It was pretty interesting to look at my Garmin splits afterwards. It's pretty evident that mile 2 is where I was running straight into the southerly winds!

Dailymile is great. It keeps more of an overall tabulation of your running progress. It tells you how many calories you have burned and then converts that into how many donuts or cheeseburgers that would equal...love it! It also has informational graphs. This is the graph of how may miles/month I have run since I signed up last June. It's very telling of my journey to train for and then run a marathon in October, recover, struggle through the winter months on the treadmill, and then now to be rebuilding my mileage up again.

So I am a little OCD when it comes to running stats, but it motivates me to keep going so whatever.

Back Story.

Well, since I'm starting this blog well after I started my running journey I will try to catch up and give you the back story. It's a long one but I will try to condense it as much as possible.

Let's go back to the year 2000. I was newly married, living in Columbia MO, and working the 3-11pm evening shift at University Hospital. I had a lot of time on my hands back then and got the whim to run a marathon. There was a fantastic trail there, the MKT trail, that I loved to run on in the mid-mornings before going into work. I bought the book 'How to Train for and Run Your Best Marathon' and started logging miles and writing down notes in a spiral bound notebook. The lack of technology I had back then makes me chuckle...no apps to track distance and pace, no internet stat keeping or online running community participation, and my only gadget was a digital watch that had a stopwatch feature on it. Without all that though I was on track to run a fall marathon, St. Louis I think it was. At the point in my training where I had run a 16 mile long run I hurt my ankle. A bad sprain, and I let that set back derail my whole plan. No marathon, not even any shorter distance races instead. Crazy but I just let that injury defeat me and I never really started running regularly again after my ankle healed. Then life happened, we started our family, and running fell out of my routine all together.

Flash forward 10 years and 3 kids later to 2010. I hadn't run even 1 mile in all those years. We had just gotten back from a family beach vacation and I was appalled at the photos of myself in a swimsuit from that trip. Kinda vain I know but that is seriously what kick started my butt into exercising again.

We had now relocated to the small town that I grew up in where there was no gym or organized exercise facilities. The most natural decision was to start up running again. C25K was all the rage so I loaded the app onto my iPhone and decided to give the program a shot.

I'm not going to lie it was super difficult! I was definitely at couch potato status. Who knew a minute and half of running intervals could feel so long! My entire body revolted...my lungs hurt, my side hurt, I had the uncontrollable watery saliva thing going on, and all the muscles in the lower half of my body were screaming in agony for 3 days after the first workout...it was a very sad sight. I stuck with it though, and eventually the dread of heading out for another torture session turned into me actually looking forward to my 3 times per week runs. I was so proud of myself when I got up to running 30 solid minutes without a walking break...that seemed so unreachable back when 2 minute runs were kicking my butt. After 9 weeks I had completed the C25K program and signed up for my first ever 5K race.

I started my race experiences with a nice and safe 5K right in my own home town. It was the first year for the event so the participant count was only around 50. I was very familiar with the course, but even with that, the low number of runners participating, and the relaxed feel of the race with stopwatch timing instead of timing chips and pace clocks, I was still terrified. I stayed nervous the whole time, but I finished it and in a time better than I thought I would...28:16. My family cheered me into the finish line and several other local women I knew ran in it also...it was a good day!

The weekend after my first successful race I saw on Facebook that my friend from college was running in the Chicago Marathon. This totally blew me away! It was unfathomable to me that she ran 26.2 miles that Sunday when 3.1 miles seemed like such a huge deal to me. Her accomplishment inspired me to set a goal on the unfinished business of running a marathon as well. In February I registered online to run in the Chicago Marathon on October 9, 2011.

I got a little lax on running during the winter...the weather was too miserable for me to run outside and the treadmill is not my favorite thing. I restarted with week 4 of C25k once spring weather hit and signed up to run another 5K in May. This race was a much bigger venue with multiple distance races included and a course where you run over 2 bridges that straddle the Mississippi river. That morning was rainy, windy, and about 50 degrees. I was just as nervous as I was for my first 5K, so when the gun went off I just turned my music up loud and tried to pretend I was on any normal daily run. The weather was crap with misty rain and wind gusts hitting me in the face along the way, and I never really felt warm the entire time. But I finished and with an unexpected time of 27:16...a whole minute faster than my first 5K race and on a much more hilly course. Jackie Joyner-Kersey gave me my medal at the finish line and I received a text message with a congratulations and my official time. I was liking this racing thing : ) Plus, at the award announcements I was shocked beyond belief that I was 3rd in my age group of women 35-39. My friend nearly took me down when she hugged me as soon as they called my name for the plaque presentation.

Next on the agenda was a 10K race sponsored by the hospital where I work during the July 4th weekend. The course is extremely difficult with hills the entire way and even a monster hill called Lovers Leap a mile from the finish. The thermometer read near 80* before the race even started that day and my nerves were an issue once again. I have this problem of having to pee about every 10 minutes when I'm nervous. The multiple bathroom stops before the race coupled with the extreme temperature and hilly course made for a disastrous experience!

The 10K started out good...I cranked up my playlist and tried to forget about the 'race' aspect of the event and tried to run like I was used to. The first half of the run was ok and I took water at all the available water areas, but after the mid-way turn around I felt myself slowing down. There was a ginormous hill in front of me and I was thinking to myself that if I get over this hill I can coast down the other side and then walk up Lover's Leap, which had been my plan all along. That honestly was the last thing I remember...and then I found myself sitting in a lawn chair on the side of the road with a team of medical volunteers around me. I had lost consciousness somewhere on the other side of that hill due to heat exhaustion. I don't remember feeling overheated, or even making it up and over that hill, but I went down. I sat there talking out of my head for awhile and when I went to stand up I couldn't even support myself. That's when they called for a truck to come get me off of the course. I blacked out again once they got me out of the truck near the race finish and when I became aware again I was in the triage tent with a whole new team of medical staff around me. My entire body was cramping up, volunteers were covering me in wet sheets and putting ice under my clothes, and I was breathing crazy fast. They were asking me things like "What city are your in?", "What day is it?", "Who is the president?", etc., none of which I could come up with the answer to. That's when I started panicking, knowing that I knew the answers but couldn't actually recall them. Once the ambulance arrived I was able to get oxygen and IV fluids started on the way to the hospital which helped to calm me down some. Apparently I had become so severely dehydrated that I stopped sweating and my core body temperature became elevated enough to start shutting things down. Seriously the scariest event of my life! After 3 liters of fluid though I began to think clearly again and the extreme muscle cramping subsided. It took me a good 4 days to fully recover from my bout with heat exhaustion and it made me more aware of proper hydration. I always thought I drank enough water but now I have become a hydration freak!

In the next months I focused on marathon training. I religiously ran the mileage scheduled each day on the Nike training calendar. The weekends were when I ran my long runs and I built on them each new weekend. My right knee was killing me and my heels felt more bruised than ever. Unfortunately my physician diagnosed me with IT band syndrome (knee) and plantar fasciitis (heels). I started doing prescribed stretches, got new running shoes, and also Super Feet arch support inserts. These all helped with the aches and pains but they never fully went away. I kept pressing forward though...through the pain, blackened and missing toenails, and the muscle soreness that would still come after a newly extended mile run. These were long hard months and a huge time commitment!

The longest run I accomplished was 18 miles. I was scheduled to run 20 miles on 2 back-to-back Saturdays, but I just could not make it. My body would give out before I could get to 20, mostly because I would cramp up into a stiff ball of unmovable muscle if I tried to walk at all, and I just couldn't make it that long without a walk break. This scared me A LOT looking forward to the marathon, but at that point the training schedule called for a slow taper and I knew I would need to comply in order to have fresh legs for the event.

Then the most ridiculous thing happened. Two weeks before the marathon I headed out on a Friday morning for an easy run before work, and WHAM, I tripped not 5 steps down my driveway. It was dark outside since it was 5:20am and I had totally forgotten that we had had a load of boxes containing our new outdoor playset delivered onto our driveway earlier that week. I fell flat into the boxes that were full of wood and steel and smashed my face against them. Since I was bleeding profusely from above my eye and my left arm was also killing me another ER visit was in order.

I had a broken radial head in my elbow and the laceration over my eye went all the way through to the orbital ridge bone and had to be repaired by a plastic surgeon. Later that day I saw the orthopedic physician about my elbow and fortunately he cleared me to still run in the marathon...this had been my biggest concern since falling.

The next weekend was the 2nd annual event for my hometown 5K. I was feeling better and had been running in taper mode all week so I decided I would still run in it. I had no expectations and really just wanted to make sure my arm was going to feel ok during it. When I finished my first mile my GPS app told me that my pace was 7:53. WHAT? I had never ran a sub 8 minute mile, and I still had 2 more miles to go. I tried to hold back some, but apparently the adrenalin was taking over because my next mile split was just as fast. Only 1.1 miles to go at that point and I still didn't feel that bad so I just kept going. My final time was 24:18! A whole 4 minutes better that I had run this same race a year ago. I finished in first place in my age division and 3rd overall for the women that day. I was so excited, my arm felt good, and it was just the boost I needed going into marathon week.

I will save the specifics of the 2011 Chicago Marathon for another post by itself, but I did run in it and I finished. Crossing the finish line that day brought me to tears at the extreme surreal experience and accomplishment of it all. My time was 4:38:08.

And now you know the back story of this crazy journey so far. There are many miles and I'm sure many more trials and accomplishments to come in the future, because after all, I am a runner.