Couch to ATHLETE!

Me, Meredith and Janell!!! Whoops! I'm late!!! No, not that kind of late... My blog for the week is late! I just had the most fantastic weekend. For starters I was able to get home, see my parents, see my niece  nephew, sister and brother in law. I also got to celebrate the union of two awesome people. Yep, we had a local party for Bernie and Meredith in Chicago. All of it was fantastic. My brother's wife is a runner too, so on Saturday morning my sister, her husband, my new sister in law and I headed down to the lakefront in Chicago to run the Soldier Field 10 miler. I recently ran a half marathon so I  wasn't expecting miracles because I feel as though I am still recovering from that race, but miracles are what I got. I started running the 10 miler and decided I was going to use the same strategy I attempted for the half marathon. I didn't quite follow the strategy all that well. The first five miles of the race I ran thinking about how lonely it is running...

I am starting to think the purpose of my training schedule is to totally exhaust me on the weekends, simply so I know how to keep going even when I am out of steam. That is where I am right now. I'm in a world of pure exhaustion and fatigue. And you know what? I'm going to wake up tomorrow and start it all over again for a week! Quite honestly, I'm so exhausted I don't even really have the energy to write a coherent post so instead here are some random things for the day: I went for a 50 mile, turned 33, turned 35 mile bike ride with my good buddy Laurie yesterday and took no pictures of us. The flat ride was not so flat. Both of us had to walk our bikes up one hill but it was still a totally beautiful ride! I finished up the last 15 miles of my ride when I got home. I am not a big Shakespeare fan, but there really isn't a better way to see a play than by sitting on a comfy chair in the grass, outside, with your closest friends, on a cool night after 50 miles...

Ever have someone tell you something but you are so stuck on your convictions that you ignore that person? For example, say you went to the bike shop to get a new bike pump and the pumps were over what you wanted to spend on that particular day. Say you went to that bike shop already thinking they were going to over charge you, so when you saw a price tag of 32 dollars instead of the 20 you were willing to pay, you told the bike shop sales man there was no way you were paying for that pump and then walk out the door. Then let's say you go to a different bike shop, they have a larger selection of bike pumps from 20 dollars to 50 dollars. The bike shop guy tells you why, in fact, you should buy the more expensive pump but you know better! I mean, seriously, it is just a pump in the event you get a flat on the trail. No need for anything too expensive, right?  Well, I have learned that I was wrong. Oh, so wrong. I bought the 20 dollar bike pump once upon a time... First of...

It is Mother's Day and I live several hundred miles away from my mom. I never put a card in the mail despite many reminders from folks that Mother's day was near. I'm forgetful yous see... AND I simply can't get home to say happy Mother's Day in person so instead I'll do it right here... There are so many things I could say about my mom, starting with her encouraging words to always give of yourself, always take care of your mind, always take care of your neighbors, always be yourself, and remember when things are hard there is a light at the end of the tunnel. She has basically taught me to not settle on mediocre, but strive for (my) extraordinary!  Over the past several years I have been striving to make something of myself in this athletic world. It isn't that I want to become a super athlete or anything, I just want to do events and feel good about myself. I have had several set backs but my mom has always told me that things will get better...

Me and Sue pre race. It is a very rare occasion that you find someone to train with and even more rare that you are so similarly matched that you can comfortably run an entire half marathon  with that individual. Well, I am pretty lucky. Yesterday I ran the Cap City Half Marathon in Columbus for my third time, this time was special to me because I got to experience the entire race with a very good friend of mine. Sue and I have been running together for over a year. During that time I would venture to say that she has become a very close friend of mine. I mean, how do you not become friends when you spend so much time together? It is a true statement to say that your running buddy probably knows more about you than most people. This year we intentionally trained for the Cap City half marathon with plans of  running with each other until one or the other felt they wanted to take off, or one or the other needed to back off. Well running with  someone th...