Well, the little miracle baby that I'm running this marathon in honor of is doing great. We got home from Memphis last night after another stellar checkup. All of her labs are good and she was given a good prognosis! We've never lost hope throughout this journey, but today feel like we are practically swimming in it.
Note: The above paragraph, while wonderful, is acting as a distraction so I don't have to report on my running progress.
Oh right, this is a running blog, not her caringbridge site. Crap.
Okay, so the running has been going alright. I finished up last week on the elliptical because it really was just too damn hot. Since the marathon isn't until December I don't bother trying to rationalize running in the heat - I just avoid it. Saturday's run was all set (we were even out of town - go me!) but imagine my (fake) dismay when I realized I packed everything but my running shoes. This was very much NOT intentional, just a happy coincidence. Instead, I made a huge pitcher of sangria and gave us all a pretty decent hangover for Sunday.
This week got off to a better start on Monday with a decent run of about 1.5 miles. I did not let my very long list of errands or the pending thunderstorms stop me (this resulted in only 3 1/2 hours of sleep before our trip and being rained on - but at least I did it). Both of my younger sisters "joined" me in my run. We were about 500 feet into the run when they both took off, leaving me behind and music-less. I thought we would chat during the run, so I agreed to leave my mp3 player behind. Instead, I got left behind. Those two are close in age and pretty competitive, so they started racing each other; and let's be honest - neither one of them wanted to finish after their much older and much more out of shape sister.
Towards the end of the run, after they were VERY FAR out of sight I managed to hop a fence and cut one of them off. She didn't know how I beat her, which made my victory even sweeter! My shortcut resulted in me running about a quarter mile less and skipping that nasty hill, so I definitely think it was a major victory on my part. I probably can't get away with that in the marathon, and I'm sure I'm just "cheating myself" (silly phrase invented by tattle-tales and teachers? I think so!), but on Monday I still counted it as a win. If the marathon is both a mental and physical challenge I'm gonna count Monday as an exercise in both.
Another victory this week: my first donation! Thanks Jeff. Jeff ran across America earlier this year. Seriously, the whole country. I think he racked up over 3,700 miles. I'm embarrassed he reads this. I'm sure he wouldn't fence jump. Thanks for the donation though, I promise it is a very worthy cause - St. Jude Children's Research Hospital is a place of miracles. And I will keep working towards a more respectable running distance.
So Thursdays are my usual running days, but I'm skipping it tonight in order to celebrate my birthday. Seems pretty justified, but I do have plans to get up early to get a run in tomorrow. Then I'm spending the weekend out of town with a real marathon runner. She seems excited that I'm taking on this challenge and wants to run this weekend. I think I'm gonna have to find some more fences to jump, er, um.. wait. What? Oh right, no more of that.. hopefully, she'll have mercy on me and just take me along for her warm-up.
Weeks until the marathon: 17.5
Miles run: um, I think I'll start counting this next week
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