Numbers

Numbers. With 7 weeks to go until the Buffalo marathon, it is now all about the numbers. I am not a numbers girl... formulas, math, it generally means nothing to me. Normal logic doesn't typically work with me, and when I'm terribly mad or upset, you may describe me as somewhat irrational. My husband, on the other hand, who has his degree in Engineering and Management from a well respected Engineering school in upstate New York, is all about the numbers. He is logical, rational, realistic, and most of the time, makes perfect sense. So, when it comes to running, I try to take his advice and pay attention to the numbers. I hate to turn running into one of the things that I hate most, but when you're running miles on end, knowing the numbers and appreciating the numbers can really make a difference in your confidence and sometimes it can even make a difference in your endurance.

7... 7 weeks until the Buffalo marathon

38... I have run 38 miles total this week, 18 miles this morning.

140... I need to run 140 miles in the next 4 weeks before I can taper.

194... I will log 194 more miles before competing in the marathon on May 29th, 2011

10... Aiming for 10 minute miles in order to reach my goal of 4 hours and 30 minutes. (I actually need to run about a 10:18 min/mile pace)

25... The number of pounds I gained with my pregnancy.

49... About 49 days until the race... a little less.

6...This will be marathon #6 for me.

8...I am now wearing a size 8.

12... I was a size 12 a week after the baby.

3... I go through 3 pairs of shoes for each marathon that I train for (Brooks Adrenalines)

5... The amount of miles I typically run with Lucia during the week, this week I towed her along on an 8 miler.

5.5... It took me about 5.5 months to lose 25 pounds after Lucia was born.

2000...The amount of calories I try to eat in a day (I try not to eat more)

165... My average heart rate on my long runs.

59...My average resting heart rate.

35... To date I have lost 35 pounds, 10 pounds more than what I gained, 9 months post-baby.

9...The number of marathons I will have completed by January 8th, 2012... also the number of marathons I will have completed before Jason and I plan on trying for a little brother or sister for our princess.

2... I've got two more days of rest until I run again.


Numbers... I really don't like numbers.

"I simply remember my favorite things..."

Two months from now I will be running my 6th marathon. Two months to go!

Training is going much better this time around. I managed to do all of my training runs for the Disney Marathon, but I was slow. Now I can finally say I'm getting faster. Today I ran 17 miles in 2:46:13 which is an average pace of 9:47 min/mile. I hit the 13.1 mark at exactly 2 hours and 5 minutes, only 2 minutes slower than my best half marathon time pre-Lucia!

This week I logged 36 miles total, next week I will be up to 38 miles with an 18 mile run on Sunday. That's a lot of miles, and I still have a lot of training left. I have three long runs left; 18 miles, 19 miles, and 20 miles. And while I am so looking forward to tapering in May, I am enjoying running more than ever! But with all the miles I've been running, I need a little bit of help from my favorite things.

Things I can't live without when I'm training for a marathon:
1) My Garmin GPS watch- I had an older version with a touch bezel, but it didn't seem to pace me like my new one. Now I have the Forerunner 310XT, it doesn't have a touch bezel so I can run with it in the rain, and I can sweat on it, and I can probably throw it in the washing machine and it would still keep my pace. It does the perfect job of keeping me on track!

2)My ipod shuffle- On the playlist- Everything from Katy Perry's 'Firework', to The Who's 'Baba O'riley'. But the song that keeps me really moving is 'Come sail away' by Styx.

3)Ballenga socks- Love them, and my feet love them.

4)Orange flavored low-calorie Gatorade- I've always been a big Gatorade fan, definitely my sport drink of choice, but their new products are great! For some reason though, the only flavor I can really stomach is Orange. The fruit punch totally makes me sick, must be the red dye.

5)My treadmill- Seriously, the treadmill is a life safer when you have a small child. I prefer to run outside, but sometimes, I just can't. So when it's too much of a hassel to take Lucia out in her jogger, I can always set her down in the play-pen and hit up the treadmill.

6)My husband- He is the designated treadmill fixer-upper. With as many miles as I run, the treadmill needs to be tweaked about once a month, and he always makes sure it's running well for me. Plus, now he's running (yep, training for the Syracuse Empire marathon in October). I've said it before, and I'll say it again, I couldn't possibly be able to enjoy my favorite hobby without him. He is my number 1 fan and motivator, and I can't thank him enough for that.

7) The alligator that hangs out by the sidewalk on Westbury Park Way at the end of my 6 mile route- I call him Leather-face. Leather-face has been hanging out a little too close to humans ever since the weather has gotten nice. He's a pretty big guy, I'd say about 7-8 feet long, and pretty thick... and he's pretty scary. So when I'm finishing up my route and I hear him hissing at me (yes, gators hiss, well, I guess that's the best way to describe it) I speed up quite a bit. There's nothing like a big gator to trick you into running a negative split. Chomp, chomp.

8)My ipad- I use my ipad for a lot of things having to do with my runs. But my favorite is the Runners World app. Love, love, love it!

9)The Nike outlet store- I can always use more running clothes. I'm a bit partial to the LiveStrong stuff, and they have so many cute new things now. There is nothing glamorous about running, especially marathon running. After finishing 26.2 miles no one looks good, but there's nothing wrong with trying;)

10)Glide- This stuff is literally a running essential. It comes in a deodorant-like stick. You use it on your body, your thighs, underneath your bra, etc. It prevents chaffing. I usually have to use it on my lower back where the tag of my shorts rubs up on me for miles and miles. If I forget a little bit of glide, I pay for it the second I hit the shower, and ooohhhh does it sting.

11)My BOB baby jogger- I can't live without my BOB, I would recommend it to any mother runner (or father runner). When the weather is nice enough, and it fits into Lucia's schedule, I love taking her with me for short 3 to 4 mile runs. She loves it too. I usually make a trip to the playground out of it, so I think she is starting to associate my running with an award (which I guess, can't be a bad thing).

12)My baby- I love my little Lucia. While I get sad thinking about her growing up so fast, I'm getting really excited about the day that she can finally run with me. She is just such an inspiration for me. I do it all for Lucia.

So, these are a few of my favorite things, all of which contribute to the runner that I am. I'm hoping that these favorite things will be enough to help me make it through the next two months, and maybe get that PR that I'm aiming for. I'll let you know how it goes.

Baby Steps

Next week, Lucia will be 9 months old. NINE MONTHS! It's crazy to think that we will soon be celebrating her 1st birthday party, and let me tell you, she is growing up quickly. While she has always been ahead of the curve developmentally (rolling back to belly and belly to back at 3 months, sitting unsupported at 5 months, crawling/scooting at 6 months), I am certainly not ready for those first baby steps that she may soon be taking.

These past few weeks we've been battling colds, ear infections, and the usual coughing spells, but it hasn't slowed her down any, and it hasn't slowed Mommy down either. The quicker Lucia gets, the quicker I get. I get quicker at catching her falls, I get quicker at locking the doors, and latching the drawers, I get quicker at making her laugh, I get quicker at saying "no," and I get quicker on the road. That's right, somehow, I have found the time to get faster, but we'll get to that with a another post later this week.

Lucia is getting stronger, taller, bigger, and smarter, at a rate that I find hard to keep up with, but somehow I'm managing. This past week she perfected her pull-to-stand (and pulling herself up onto everything possible is all she does). While she did it in front of me a few weeks ago, as of Monday she had yet to do it without immediately falling down. On Wednesday my husband called to tell me that her teacher said that she had pulled herself to stand on the "baby fence" and stood there for about 10 minutes all by herself (probably because she hadn't figured out how to get down yet). I never thought I would have the reaction that I did, I mean I see kids pull to stand everyday, I help them pull to stand, I teach them to pull to stand... so crying about my daughter doing it was a little unexpected, both to my husband and myself. When I thought about it a little more I realized that I didn't cry because she did it, I cried because I missed it.

I try not to be a therapist at home, and while its hard, I have really tried not to treat my daughter like a patient when it comes to her development. I try to focus more on giving my daughter opportunities and experiences like taking her to the beach, the park, and letting her explore. She'll crawl when she wants to, she'll stand when she wants to, and one day (probably soon) she will walk when she wants to. The problem is, I want to be there when she does.

I am not ready for her baby steps. More importantly, I am not ready to miss her baby steps! I want to be there for the first step, the moment when she discovers that her feet give her freedom, and her legs give her power. I don't remember what it was like to take my first steps, but I wish I did, and I want to be there for my daughter's so I can tell her exactly when and how she did it.

"The journey of 1000 miles begins with 1 step." One step, one big important step. I'm waiting for it. I'm excited for it. I'm dreading it. One baby step will lead to many baby steps, many baby steps will lead to "big girl" steps, "big girl" steps will lead to running, and once she's running, I know it won't be long before she's gone, and as Dr. Seuss so eloquently put it...oh the places she'll go! ...Baby steps.

Baby steps...

Baby steps... I'm not quite ready for those baby steps yet, even though it may mean that she's one step closer to running her first race with her mother.

Murphy's Law

“Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.” Runners know this oh so well. Today I ran my 7^th half marathon, but I came really close to not running it at all.

Lucia has been battling colds and ear infections on and off for about a month now, and while I know that I should be grateful that she lasted six months without really ever getting sick, her being under the weather has been taking an enormous toll on my nerves. I hate it when she’s sick. I feel so helpless and totally not in control. I try my best not to freak out, but she’s my little princess, and I get so incredibly nervous when it comes to her health.

On Monday she finished up a week’s treatment of antibiotics. She was doing much better. On Wednesday Jason came down with a hideous stomach bug that had him out of commission for about 36 hours. Of course, psycho mom over here wouldn’t let him touch the baby because I was so worried that she’d catch something else. So Lucia and I went about our normal routine (work, daycare, work, daycare, etc.) for the rest of the week. By Thursday evening all was well in the Neves household and we began making plans for the race weekend.

Jason and I had miraculously found a babysitter for tonight (date-night will have to wait for now) and we were making plans for our first date in a few months. I don’t normally work on Fridays so my plan was to clean up around the house, run some errands, and pick up my race packet. Friday morning, when I got Lucia up for her first bottle, I noticed that she had a little more gunk in left eye than usual. I brushed it off thinking that she laid on it a certain way during the night and brought her downstairs to feed her. That night at dinner Jason so eloquently said “She’s got this green eye booger.” He confirmed what I was afraid of… the little munchkin had pink-eye.

So there we were at 7:00pm, a baby with symptoms obviously consistent with conjunctivitis, and nothing that we could do about it. Our pediatrician was probably about 45 minutes away, and definitely was not in the office that late. So we took her to the Urgent Care. Luckily they were open, and they were quick. By 8:00pm we were out of there with a prescription for some eye drops.

I laid in bed last night cursing the parents who bring their kids to daycare sick. I was so angry. It seems like it has been one thing after another with Lucia and every time I get her better she comes back with something else. I was livid. I toyed with the idea of not running the race, heck , I toyed with the idea of becoming a stay-at-home Mom and quitting my job. I was so upset about her getting sick all the time that all these crazy thoughts were running through my head.

So ,to make a very long story, just a little bit shorter. I ran the race, except I ran sick. The second the race started I realized I had caught whatever it was that Jason had earlier in the week. I had to stop running to throw up twice, and somehow finished in my best time for a half marathon since 2007 by just less than 5 minutes. Instead of enjoying my victory and hanging out with my husband and baby, I curled up in the fetal position on the couch and hoped that whatever was in my system would go away soon. And, on top of everything else, I think I have conjunctivitis in one eye too. I've been in laying down since I got back from the race, Jason has been running around like a mad man taking care of the Lucia and making sure I stay hydrated. Since I am tired of sleeping (is that possible) I figured I would get up and blog a little, it can be very therapeutic at times.

Anyway, whatever could go wrong, went wrong. But I stuck through it. Sometimes running through adversity can teach you a few lessons. I know that I can push my body, I probably shouldn’t, but I know that I can do it. And, if I can keep running, I can certainly keep working (not that I really entertained the whole stay-at-home Mom thing for more than 2 seconds). Running today made me feel awful, but it gave me a little gut check (literally and metaphorically). Lucia is going to get sick, Jason and I are going to miss our date-nights every now and then, I’m going to get tired, there will be rough weeks, and there will be great weeks. You’re never going to see the light at the end of the tunnel if you quit and turn around. You just have to find the energy to keep going!

Marathon #5: Part Deux

It’s funny how the only time this week that I’ve been able to sit down and blog is during the Super Bowl. If you know me well, you know that this is entirely uncharacteristic of me to be distracted from the world’s most important game! But, life has changed.

Life has changed so much that:

-Waking up at 6:45am is sleeping in.

-When the house smells like pureed sweet potatoes, it smells good.

-Going out with our friends for dollar beers and dollar hot dogs is a great Saturday night and the fact that we are in bed by 9pm on a Saturday night is even better.

-Going out on Saturday night is a miracle.

-I use the word “Poopy” at least 80 times a day.

-Either Jason, Lucia or I have had a cold/flu/fever/cough/ear infection for the past 75 days.

-It takes all day to clean our house. It stays clean for 65 seconds.

-I have to schedule everything. EVERYTHING. If its not on the agenda… its not happening, and even if it is on the agenda, there’s no guarantee its going to actually happen.

-Lucia’s laugh makes me crack up hysterically no matter how often I hear it.

-I like the taste of Gerber’s Apple flavor baby cereal and I consider mixing some for myself in the morning before I go to work.

-I can’t really remember a time that Jason and I weren’t married, or that Lucia wasn’t a part of our lives.

-We’re really happy. Who would have thought that moving further South was a good thing (I’m saving a little more on this topic for another post… I have a lot to say about this!)

-It doesn’t take me 25 minutes to get out of bed anymore, the second I hear Lucia on the monitor, I am up and ready to go. She’s the most reliable alarm clock ever!

-Life is glorious.

So, yes, life has changed in very good way. I know it may seem like I’m complaining, but I don’t mean to be. I actually wouldn’t have it any other way. It just makes blogging about my little running escap

ades a little harder than I thought it would be. So here I am, writing whatever thought comes to mind, and glancing over my computer every other 5 minutes just to make sure the Packers are still winning (Sorry Steeler Fans, I’m a die hard Cowboys fan, and the Steelers winning this game just isn’t good for America’s team).

So lets get back to Marathon #5; The Disney World Marathon. My previous entry was about MY race, but I wanted to make sure I wrote a little bit about the actual race itself. My overall impression… AWESOME. If you have fond memories of Disney as a child this race is for you. Every mile was enjoyable, there was plenty of entertainment, and there were surprisingly a lot of spectators. The water/aid stations were great, almost at every mile. There were bananas,

oranges, and candy at about every 3 miles (unfortunately I didn’t opt to grab any). There were probably about six GU stations in the last half of the race. And, I’m going to guestimate about 7-8 medical stations complete with barrels of biofreeze and vaseline. It was very well run, and very well organized.

The race course was wonderful, it took you through all of the Disney World parks beginning and ending with Epcot. The race started with awesome fireworks (and we all know how much I love fireworks). There are Disney characters all along the way and fabulous photo ops! I had a wonderful time, my family really enjoyed it, and reliving some of my greatest childhood memories on a 26.2 mile adventure was priceless! It definitely brought out my inner child!

My one piece of advice for anyone who wants to run this race is to run it for fun. Run with Mickey Mouse ears, stop and take your pictures with all the characters on the way, and take some extra time to enjoy the scenery. It’s a flat, fast course so you’re going to run well, but if you don’t take the time to enjoy it, you’ll regret it later. Since this was my comeback race, and my competitive side got the best of me, I didn’t enjoy it as much as I should have. The only picture I have of me with a character is when I crossed the finish line and Donald Duck gave me a high five. I don’t have a picture of me in front of the magic kindom in my race gear, I sped through Epcot, and I pretended like I didn’t want anything to do with Sleeping Beauty when I saw her at mile 11 (she is my favorite princess of all time). So, if you’re running the 2012 Disney, enjoy it! That will be my plan, at least! I have two more races this year to take seriously. When I do the 2012 Goofy challenge (13.1 miles on Saturday and 26.2 on Sunday of marathon weekend) I will be taking it slow and easy, and enjoying every minute of it!:)

Marathon #5: Part I

I’m back! I have been meaning to write this latest post for about two weeks now, but I’m going to have to chalk it up to technical difficulties and leave it at that. The good news, or bad news depending on how you look at it, I have a lot more to write about now… so we’re going to have to break this up into two parts.

Seventeen days ago I finished my 5^th marathon in 4:58:44. It didn’t go as planned, and I didn’t meet my goal time, but I had a whole lot of fun. For about 20 miles I was running with a huge smile on my face. At mile 20 the pain set in, and for 6 miles I pushed through possibly the worst cramping I’ve felt since Lucia was born. I can’t really say that I hit the wall at mile 20. I’ve hit the wall before, and I know what it feels like, and this wasn’t it. This was different.

I’ve had almost three weeks to reflect on what happened throughout those long 26.2 miles. Believe me I have analyzed, over-analyzed, every single step. After the initial moment of triumph that I felt when I saw Jason holding Lucia up in the air to see me cross the finish line I have to admit, I beat myself up a little. I made so many rookie mistakes.

I had a game plan. I was going to run the first 2 miles slow, at an 11:00 minute pace (that wouldn’t be too hard, the start is always slow, you’re moving around people and passing all the walkers). Then I would speed up to a 10:30 pace up until about mile 5, and run a 10:15 until about mile 10. Then I planned to speed up to a 10:00 mile at least until the half and try to maintain that as long as I could. It was a great plan, so why didn’t I follow it?

I ran the first two miles pretty slow. And as planned, at mile 2 I started to pick it up. The problem was, I picked it up a little too much. I glanced down at my Garmin at about mile 6 and all of a sudden I was running almost a 9 minute mile. I thought that it was a mistake, and my watch was just being goofy for a second, but that wasn’t the case. Mistake #1: I didn’t slow down. I felt great, I felt wonderful, I felt unstoppable. I saw my Dad and my grandmother a little bit before the 10 mile marker and my Dad shouted “You’re doing great Deborah, you’re doing great.” I smiled, shouted that “I feel awesome!!!!” and sped up a little more as we entered the Magic Kingdom. The whole time I’m thinking, “Man, not only am I going to make my goal time, but I’m going to blow my PR out of the water.” So I kept speeding up, and I kept a good stride. At about mile 12 my legs started to feel really tight. Mistake #2: I didn’t stop to stretch. I kept on going, my legs kept getting tighter, I didn’t want to stop, and I was determined to get my PR (remember a month ago I wasn’t even going to try beat my PR). So slowing down to do something as silly as stretching, hah, that was for amateurs. At the half way mark I saw my fan club again. Dad had some cold orange slices for me, so I stopped to fuel up a bit and told him that I was starting to feel tight. “You’re way ahead of the 4:30 pace group, if they pass you, just tuck in behind them and get comfortable and just cruise your way to the finish, it’s all heart now.” Great advice, seriously, I’m not being sarcastic here. But, the 4:30 pace group, could I do it? Mistake #3: I started to doubt myself. The mind games began. I had run the half in under 2:15. When I crossed the check-point I was on pace to finish at 4:29… plenty of room to play with, at least enough to make my 4:45 goal. Yeah, in 2 miles I went from “determined to get my PR” to easily making my goal. So I kept going, I knew I was slowing down, but the 4:30 pace group hadn’t caught up to me yet. At about mile 15 I really started to feel my legs giving up. The 4:30 pace group had passed me. Cardiovascularly I was fine, I wasn’t even breathing hard. But my legs, my best assets, my strongest parts, were betraying me. I kept making deals with myself, I’d tell myself that if I could run to the next water stop I would get a minute break to walk. That soon changed to, run a mile, walk a minute. And then finally run 5 minutes, walk a minute. At mile 20 as we were coming up on a small hill, my hamstrings just stopped working. This terrible sharp pain shot right up into my lower back and I could not bend my legs. I was done. Mistake #4: I gave up. I got scared. Yeah, I had done the training, finished all my long runs, and I had done this many many many times before... I still got scared. This was my 5^th marathon, but this was my first marathon as a Mommy. For four months of training I refused to let that be an excuse, for four months I looked past the extra weight I was carrying, the joint pain, and the clumsiness that just didn’t go away once my belly was gone like I thought it would. But, in the end all of that was enough to freak me out. Whether I like it or not, there are inevitable physiological changes that happen to a woman when she has a baby, and while it is completely possible to run a marathon 6 months after giving birth, I was kidding myself to think that it wouldn’t be a different experience. My hips are larger, my core musculature isn’t quite back to normal yet, and there is a lot more on my mind now when I run (after all, I am a Mom). And all of these things can have an enormous effect on performance.

So while, I’ve been beating myself up about my time, I still feel like I accomplished something really great. It’s time now to look at the bright side of things. Like Lucia saw me run a marathon as a six month old (In Disney World none-the-less). It wasn’t my best time, but it wasn’t my slowest. It was only 20 seconds slower than the last marathon I finished before I got pregnant (when I was 5 lbs lighter than I am now). I escaped the whole endevour injury free (after a few days of ice, tylenol, and rest). I am still running. I am still shrinking (4 lbs less than my pre-pregnancy weight, 15 lbs away from my goal). I’ve got another marathon coming up in May. And Lucia saw me run a marathon! Wait did I mention that already…

Part Deux coming soon

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!