Done and done

Remember that half-marathon I was super nervous for last Friday? It's over. Yay!

 Me and Lauren carb loading at The OG on Friday night

I couldn't sleep Friday night. And then my alarm went off at 3:35 and it was time to get up and get ready and go. Every time I go for a long run, or have to roll out of bed in the middle of the night for a race, I think... "Why am I doing this? I'm never doing this again."

And then you get to the parking lot with thousands of other crazy people like yourself, and you start to get excited. By the time you're lined up at the starting line, the adrenaline is pumping and I remember why I'm doing this again.



 After the race -- we did it!

 I was so excited to have my family cheering for me as I sprinted to the finish line! (My mom and other sister were there, too, but we didn't get a pic with them.)

And guess what?? I finished in under 2 hours! I have never been a runner, except for short distance sprints until this last year. I used to try and run with my mom when I was a teenager and in my early twenties, and I would be fine for about a mile... and then I'd start to taste blood in my throat and my side would kill and my knees would kill (I do have bad knees), and I'd pretty much limp the rest of the way home. It was pathetic.

But then my mom and my sister ran a half marathon together and I thought, I want to do that! If they can do it, I can do it!

I ran my first race (a 10k) the month I got pregnant with Baby Girl, less than 2 years ago. The last couple of miles were so hard, but I made myself finish. The minute I crossed that finish line, the pain was gone, the exhaustion was gone, I was completely exhilarated. That sense of accomplishment was incredible--it was such a high. And I got hooked. But I also got pregnant. And had all sorts of complications and eventually got put on bedrest. So the running had to be put on hold. After I had her, I knew exercise was a great treatment for my PPD, and I kept thinking about that high from finishing my 10k. Feeling brave (and also wanting motivation) I decided to sign up for the Halloween Half, 4 months and 1 day after she was born. I did a couple of posts about that, and how hard it was, but what an amazing feeling it was to finish my first half-marathon. I did it in 2:27 or so.

Now, less than a year later, I shaved almost 29 minutes off my time! So you can see why I am so excited! But unfortunately, my cute sis is going back to college and the ballet program, so she has to stop running and get back into ballet-shape. Maybe sometime in the future we'll get to be running partners again. But for now, I'm just so thrilled that I reached this goal. I CAN do hard things! Because trust me, that was a HARD run by the end. I just forced myself to keep going, to keep pushing, knowing the end was near. And I've been feeling it all weekend. My left knee felt like someone hit my with a sledgehammer all day on Saturday. It's quite a bit better now, thankfully.

Forcing myself to keep going, to keep pushing, and achieving that goal taught me a lot about myself. About my body. About the power of my mind. About the strength of my will.

Remember that post from last week, about how I AM an author, because I will never give up, I will always write--no matter what results I get? I guess, now I can say, I AM a runner, too. I may never run a half in the 1:30's or 1:20's like some of my friends, but for the girl who couldn't run more than a mile not too long ago, I'm so excited for where I am.

What goal have you accomplished that you're proud of?

Friday Four or Five

1. Ben and Jerry's Fro-yo Phish Food is just as good as the ice-cream version IMO. And I am so tired that when I was posting about it on FB and Twitter last night, I didn't even spell it right. Whoops. So, in case any of you were wondering I was not eating fish food. I'll continue to just give that to Cougar (our beta fish [who happens to be blue, for all you local college football fans]) and Goldie (the goldfish) (names courtesy of SonA). But when it comes to PHISH food, I will gladly ingest as much of that as possible. Now, whether or not it was a good idea to eat half a pint of it the night before running 8 or 9 miles remains to be seen.


2. It's been a long week, as evidenced by #1. I'm not one to eat ice cream (or frozen yogurt as the case may be) straight out of the container. Ever. But I did last night.


3. I just had the opportunity to read a friend's manuscript (that is being published), and let me tell you guys -- it was AH-MAZ-ING. I can't wait for everyone to get to read her book. Love. I'm not sure if I'm supposed to tell anyone I read it, so that's why I'm being mysterious about who it was. But trust me, when the time comes, I will be shouting from the rooftops about this one.


4. You know how you write a book, and revise it, and revise it, and then revise it some more? And then you revise it with your agent, and then again, and again. And you think it's as clean and tight and awesome as it can be? And then you wait a year and go back to it... and find out there's always more you can do to make it better? Yeah. That.


How about you? What's on your mind today? Hope you all have a great weekend!

Looking for joy along the path

I don't know about you, but there are times when I'm so focused on my goals (aka the "end results"), that I lose sight of the joy in where I'm at right now. I've made a conscious effort to find more happiness in the journey in the last few months, and it has made a big difference. I don't beat myself up as much for not getting everything done as fast as possible. I take more time to breath, to see, to listen, to feel.

As I was running with my mom and sister last weekend (6 miles, woot woot!), we came upon this beautiful sight. It was a perfect moment--a nice cool breeze, we were all feeling really good, the sun was just coming up... it was lovely. I dare say it was the best run I've ever had to this point.

Isn't the fog weaving through the river bottoms just beautiful? We thought so, too.

But not all runs are this wonderful. My sister and I ran on the same path last night and nearly every step was a struggle. She had a blister that was bleeding, I was exhausted, but we pushed through and did our 4 miles. And we were still able to find the joy in the run, even if it was harder than the previous time.

Life is like that - sometimes it's easy to see the beauty and joy in our path, other times it takes a lot more effort. With running, with trying to get published, with being a mom, with all aspects of my life, this is true.

How about you, do you find it easy or hard to find joy in your journey?