DISNEY!

It’s been a while since my last post. I had every intention of keeping up with weekly entries about this whole marathon process but as Lucia gets older, the less time I have. On Sunday she will be 6 months old and on Sunday I will complete my first full marathon since May 2009.

While I haven’t been keeping up with my blog, I have been keeping up with my training, and I AM READY! Tonight I finished my last “real run” before the race. I ran a quick little three miler and plan on jogging one or two miles on Saturday just to keep my legs loose. I’ve been tapering for about 3 weeks now and I feel really energized. These short runs don’t even phase me now.

Three weeks ago I ran twenty miles in 3 hours and 35 minutes. Not too shabbyJ! Jason met me with some orange G2 gatorade after my run and was surprised that I wasn’t even breathing hard. He got on my case and told me I wasn’t pushing myself hard enough, and he was probably right. See, when I began training for my post-baby comeback race I automatically set a goal to finish the race in 4 hours and 45 minutes. I kept telling myself to take it easy, and I took things pretty slow in the beginning. With time I got stronger and naturally got faster. Losing a little bit of weight also helped shave a few seconds off my mile time too. But when it came down to the last half of my training schedule, I’ll admit that I phoned it in a little.

Most experts will say that its okay to take it slow, especially when you’re training for an endurance event. Hal Higdon will tell you its all about the mileage; It’s simple, you run the miles, do the training program, and you’ll run a good race. But if you want to get faster, you have to run faster.

I’m pretty confident I can make my 4:45 goal, and now I’m wishing that I set my standards a little higher. I’m trying to tell myself not to be dissapointed with anything less than 4:45, but as competitive as I am, I’m finding it really hard to fight the urge to take-off fast and aim for a 4:30 pace.

So, to help me fight that urge to run fast, there is already another marathon in the works. With the support of my family and friends, I’ll be running my second marathon of the year in Buffalo, NY on May 29^th. If I don’t set personal record at Disney, I will most definitely have a personal best in May. But, for now, let’s focus on Disney!

FOUR MORE DAYS! In four more days I’ll be hitting the pavement again alongside thousands of other runners just like me who spent hundreds of early morning, late night, and lunch time hours running. Some will run faster than me, some will run slower, and some will run right by my side matching every breath and every step for approximately 285 minutes. While I will admire everyone who finishes the race, I will be sending some extra good vibes to my fellow mommies who will be running this thing with me. Running in itself is hard, but being a mother runner, that’s really hard!

I have friends that ask me how I do it. A lot of people can’t understand how I find the time. To be honest, in the beginning, I didn’t really know if I would have the time. Lucia has always been my number one priority, and running will forever be a distant second to her. But the time I spent running in the past few months is easily justifiable when I think about the kind of example I am setting for her. I love her so much and as I have said before in my blogs, she is the best inspiration anyone could have! But, aside from my daughter there is one more person who has kept me going. Well, “kept me going” is probably an understatement. I mentioned before that when I finished my 20 miler Jason was waiting for me with a gatorade and was a little dissapointed with my effort. “You ran that in 3:35? You’re not even tired! You’re not pushing yourself enough, you can work harder, you can run faster than that!” Most women would have been insulted by his comments. I wasn’t, deep down I knew that I could have run faster. That’s the beauty of our relationship. He pushes me! So, how do I have the time to do it?… I have a very supportive, patient, and motivating husband. When I would take off on three hour runs on Sunday mornings, Jason would watch the baby. He would take care of everything. He would bring the baby out to the front porch to cheer me on when I was lapping the neighborhood or hold her by the treadmill so I could give her a kiss mid-run. One morning he made me a cinnamon coffee crumble cake for my post-run breakfast (impressive right, even if it was out of a box). I could not have done any of this without him.

So, here we go! Disney Marathon weekend is here. When I ran my first marathon in 2007, I ran for me. On Sunday I will be running for Lucia, and when I cross the finish line I’ll hang the Mickey Mouse medal over her head and we’ll celebrate her 6 month birthday. On Sunday I will be running for Jason, and thanking God every step of the way for giving me such a wonderful husband. On Sunday I will be running for us, running for our little family, and looking forward to all of the events (athletic and non-athletic) that we will share with each other in the future. I love you Jason and Lucia! WE’RE GOING TO DISNEY WORLD!