Why Am I Doing This...

 

A few months ago, when I was a few weeks out from the OKC Memorial Marathon, and a friend of mine suggested we all get into the lottery for the Chicago Marathon it sounded like a FABULOUS idea. Now I am just over 78 days away from my next 26.2 and I was wondering why I am doing this.

This will be marathon #4 for me, and I am super excited to go run in one of my favorite cities with some of my favorite people. Plus, it'll be FLAT, FLAT, FLAT! Our hotel is booked, plain reservations are made, and we even have a reservation to carb load on Saturday night.

But holy cow, do I feel like I have a long way to go! After recovering from over training for my last 26.2, I have been working for the last month on building up my miles again. I am back to running 6 miles during the week pretty regular and have been turning my Saturday runs into something that would resemble a long run.

I have 14 miles planned for tomorrow and I am trying to not feel super intimidated by the distance. I have a good plan, which won't involve many solo miles, and I will be running with as many friends as possible. I am hoping the miles will just fly by. What are the chances there is another polar vortex that swoops into Oklahoma in the next 12 hours or so and I wake up to temps in the 40s? Probably not very likely.

I always think, after a marathon, that maybe it's not the race for me. I much prefer a half marathon. I love a race for which it doesn't take much to be trained. Marathons are time consuming! But, I am still chasing that perfect race. The perfect course, the perfect weather, the perfect raining, and I think that is what is keeping me coming back.

Will Chicago be that race? Will I get my 4 hour marathon? Will I at least get a PR? Only time will tell, and I will continue to slog through these summer runs, knowing that cooler weather should be coming at some point, and the heat will make me that much stronger.

78 days to go...

I Feel Like I Am Doing Alot of Catching Up...

So, I originally started the blog as a way to keep a record, so that someday someone could look back on this and maybe think that I did some fun or cool things with my life. I think the only way that is actually going to happen is if I actually write on the blog.

The summer is almost 2/3 over and what have I done? A lot of nothing. Ha! Not really, but some days it feels like it.

I did turn 40. Yikes! Remember when your parents were 40? Well I remember thinking how OLD my parents were, and they were younger than me when I was 13. (In case you don't know, that's how old my girls are, at least for another three weeks or so.)

I am trying to embrace the fact that I have another decade under my belt. How about a look back at some of the highlights of my 30s?

• I became a vegetarian
• I participated in 3 3-Day Breast Cancer Walks
• I ran three marathons
• I ran ten half marathons
• I did four sprint triathlons
• I did one Olympic distance triathlon
• I had 2 knee surgeries
• I had Lasik eye surgery
• I had my appendix removed
• I fell two times while running
• I crashed my bike once, and fell over on my bike once
• I survived elementary and middle school with my girls
• I survived the loss of Lucy, our first four legged baby
• We gained two other four legged babies
• We bought a new house
• We tossed around the idea of having another baby (What were we thinking?)
• My girls decided they no longer wanted to share a bedroom
• We became debt free
• I discovered that indie rock is my music of choice and saw Wilco four times in concert
• I learned how to bake really good chocolate chip cookies
• I learned how to bake and decorate pretty fabulous sugar cookies
• I took a cake decorating class
• I discovered that I love Chicago
• We went on our first cruise
• I had my first, and only, tequila shot (30th birthday)
• Celebrated our 18th wedding anniversary

Well that I all I can think of right now. I don't think that is all I did in the last decade, I sure hope not. I do know that I am not the same person I was when I was 30 and I am proud of who I have become in the last ten years.

Here's to the new decade and all the adventures that are in store for it.