Since I had work and class on my actual birthday, I took last night as an opportunity to celebrate with the hubby and our adorable kitties (they spent the whole night on the couch with us and didn't kill each other!). However, that made for a slow start this morning. I had to do 5 miles, and I'm proud of myself for powering through. The most important thing in distance running is staying consistent with training, so I'm trying really hard to stay on track. I averaged a 9:43 mile, but I'm fine with that. I don't care about my speed. I just want to make sure I'm feeling well and don't injure myself.
It is amazing though how much of my schedule is affected by my training. Weekend plans are dictated by how many miles I'm doing in the morning, even weeknights have to end earlier so that I can get my miles in before going to work the next morning. It's crazy. I have to allot at least an hour of my day to running 4 times a week. On Saturdays, it takes no less than 2 hours with traveling to NJ, waiting for everyone to get together and start, walk breaks, etc. And then 2-3 days a week I do weight training to keep my muscles strong and protect my knees and ankles.
However, I still love it. That hour in my mornings, especially when I'm alone, is so precious and really brings me back to center. No matter what, I feel great when I'm running. I could probably run with no music or anything, but I like the Preston & Steve morning show too much to do that. But it is like meditating at times. I don't know what I'd do if I couldn't run.
The most important thing about this journey is that it's bigger than me. I can't imagine training for a race without a purpose behind it. When I'm feeling down on myself or struggling through a run, I "remember the reason," as they say in Team in Training, and I'm honestly amazed. It feels like everyone I know is aware of the race and my fundraising. I guess I had something to do with that, but it still astonishes me when someone asks me about my training. It makes me feel so great and so supported. Also, because of this, I get to tell our story, how leukemia almost took Michael away from all of us, how his family struggled through his sickness, how it affected everyone in his life, and how he won. I hope we can all help make that story possible for more people fighting these awful diseases.
On a lighter note, when I was walking up from the subway this morning, I saw a pair of crutches in a garbage can. It was at the bottom of the stairs. I was baffled. What on earth happened? Did someone decide they had had it with the crutches (they are a pain, I know)? Did they suddenly get healed like on a televangelist show? Bizarre!
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that post is kinda how i felt on my walk. it would have been so easy to just get a ride back to the camp when my knees were killing me or i just didn't feel like walking any more. but i'd think, no one with breast cancer gets to say, eh i won't have breast cancer today and it made it soooo easy to do. now, a marathon is a different story for me haha, but it's so much easier when you think of the big picture in life.
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