Running, Running, and a bit more Running

I have wanted to run a marathon for a long time! Ever since I saw my good friends Carla and Amanda run one in fact. They ran the 2003 Country Music Marathon after training together for months. I spent their entire race traveling from point to point, ready to cheer them on! I think i got to see them run by 6 times and it was so exciting. My love of running was born that day!

Now 8 years later I am finally getting around to doing that marathon. Since seeing them run that day in 2003, I have been doing 5k's, 10k's and half marathons, but I am just now making the leap to full marathon. I think the sheer amount of time it takes to train for one has been my main roadblock up until now. That and the idea of covering 26.2 miles just didn't seem fun! But as I run longer and longer distances I am finding out that it's just getting more fun! I love how it feels to be 12 miles into a long run and feel just as good as when i started.

My main motivation to run in the past has been races. I just love the excitement of attaching my number to the front of my shirt, attaching my timing clip, and waiting for the start in a crowd of people. At the bigger races, there are people on the sides cheering for the runners and you feel like they are cheering for you! I love the feeling of turning a corner and seeing the finish line ahead and sprinting for the finish. Crossing that line is a feeling like no other. I can only imagine what it will feel like to cross the finish line of the marathon. I am so excited I can hardly stand it!

A lot of the half marathons I have done in the past are paired with a full marathon. At some point those full marathoners have to split off from the half marathoners. In the races I have done that has been around mile 11 or 12, where the half marathoners have only one or two miles left to go. I have watched the marathoners go past that split off point thinking those people were crazy, wondering who would want to keep on going when they could be done if they just went with the half marathoners! Now I get it! Those crazy marathoners have done the training and probably actually feel like they're just getting started at the same point the half marathoners are ready to be done. I can't believe in just two weeks I'm going to be one of those crazies that doesn't take the split off and keeps trudging forward with 15 miles to go.

I can't wait until race day!