Nearing the starting line...

In less than 2 weeks, I will be lacing up my favorite new balance running shoes and stepping up to the starting line to run the Chicago Half Marathon.  If you would have asked me a year ago today if I thought I would be doing this, I actually would have laughed at the thought.  Fast forward to a that October day...taking a walk and reminiscing that the Chicago Marathon was that coming weekend.  Something sparked.  It was very small at first.  It makes me thing of one of my favorite books I read my students, Bud, Not Buddy.  The boy in the story talks about how ideas are just like little seeds and eventually that seed take root and next thing you know it's a huge maple tree standing there in front of you.  Well my little "seed" of an idea was laying on the ground blowing around.  I had a flash, of running a marathon....someday.....not really knowing when.  Almost afraid to say it fearing the unknown.  So instead I said, let's run a 5k.

That night I reached couch to five K program.  The following week I started it. I googled a race 9 weeks away and the first goal was set.  As each goal I set was realized I set more.  My friend even did a shout out on facebook for someone to run a half marathon with her.  I didn't bite, I was afraid.  What if I couldn't do it, I wasn't a "real" runner......

This quote changed how I viewed that, "I often hear someone say I'm not a real runner. We are all runners, some just run faster than others. I never met a fake runner."
-Bart Yasso

So that settled it, I AM A RUNNER!


A few weeks later I realized if all I wanted to do in life was run five k's....then fine, but why not push it and see what I really was able to do.  I researched Hal Higdon's 1/2 marathon training program and thought why not me....I can do this!

I researched the Chicago Half and counted the 12 week program out.  In June I started.....now with only 13 days remaining I hit a mini wall.  I need to refocus, I need that self talk....I am actually looking forward to the tapering week.  My body is tired, my body needs extra rest.  On the same hand, I am ready, ready to show myself just how far I have come. 

Going back to school and the near 20 plus miles a week I'm running now have started to strain a bit of my body.  Last week I felt as if I could run forever, this weekend the 9 miler has made me very sore, very tired.  I need to be away of this, do extra stretching and even gasp....cut done my runs this week in prep for the 10 miler Sunday.  My feet are calloused, my lungs are ready, my knees are tender, but my determination to make this the best run to date is pushing me forward.  I am ready.  I am ready to do this!

It is fitting that the race is on Sept. 11th.  It is a day that I will never forget and now as I feel the aches of running 13.1 miles, I will push through remembering all those people who were lost that day.

13 days......