Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Big Step Ahead

Yesterday, I made the biggest step in getting prepared for the Disney Marathon. I was able to run 22....yes 22 miles in the early morning. Wow..it sounds like a long run... and guess what??? It was!!! It felt like it took forever. I enjoyed most of it, but I had some stomach issues before I left my house, 3 miles into the run, and 11 miles into the run, in which I had to stop and.... take care of business. My neighbors must think I'm a nut job, because I continued to run around a loop in my neighborhood...10 times!!! I saw people running and go home, and I saw one guy who was running, then I saw him go to work, and I was only 1/2 done. So, I guess I was never fully in a groove with my running, but who cares? I did it... one of the cool things about this first time of training for the marathon is that everything feels like such a big accomplishment because it's all firsts. I remember Chris and I slapping high fives when we completed 10 miles for the first time, then 12,14,16,18 and then 20... Now 22 (but we didn't run this one together). To be honest with you, I remember the first time I did a circuit training session after I saw my MD about my cholesterol, and I remember how satisfied I was that I finished 15 minutes of the circuit... it puts everything into perspective. Be proud of your fitness accomplishments, no matter where you are currently at...just continue to progress. I got some good nutritional advice from a patient at our clinic on how to intake energy gels during my training run, which seemed to help me throughout. My stomach problems were there before I even got out and ran, so I know it wasn't due to the energy gels. Anyways, I was sore after finishing...not as bad as I felt when I did the 20 miler, but I wasn't going as fast. I'm getting psyched... I just don't want to get hurt at this point...As I read disneyrunning.com, I'm starting to see more people write on the message boards about their injuries keeping them out of the Disney race...what a bummer!!! Well, you just gotta take everything in stride...no matter what happens. Okay, tommorrow I will be blogging about shin splints for all of you Disney people asking me about your shin problems. I hope I answer your questions.

Happy Running!!!