This at one point seemed like the scariest of all the the activities on The List. I mean seriously, 26.2 miles?? I don't even drive that far to work every day! And how on earth am I supposed to train? What if I hurt my knee again? What if I don't finish? This and about about a hundred other questions went churning through my mind. So I decided to do something sane for once: I would ease into running. Anyone who knows me can tell you the ridiculous amount of restraint this took. Ordinarily I would jump right in and start running 8 miles-a-day. Everyday. For a month. That is until I grew so disgusted or injured due to over-training that I would decide to flip running the bird and move onto something else. But for this, I decided to actually use the brain and common sense God gave me and I joined Team Philly. I signed up for the Broad St. Run to give myself a goal and proceeded to contemplate my sanity. 10 MILES.
And then I started the training. And I remembered I love to run. Check that: I love to SPRINT. My favorite part of the first few weeks was running hard for the last half mile. That feeling of kicking into overdrive and not giving a crap if I looked like a lunatic (I have a creepy tendency to smile maniacally when engaged in athletic activities). And I was having fun. Even when I didn't know the person next to me, I still fed off the energy of running in a pack.
When we did the 8.4 mile Loop up around Kelly and West River Dr, I spent the entire run looking at the crew teams on the river, the trees, the families hanging out on the Drive super early. And even though I destroyed the sleeve of one of my favorite shirts (too a turn SUPER tight onto the Falls Bridge), it was still on of the best runs of my life.
Now that I have Broad St and the Oddyssey Half-Marathon under my belt, I'm pretty sure I can do this. Scratch that. I know I'm going to kick the Philly Marathons silly little butt.
So...anyone have any words of wisdom for me? Any little insider tidbits I need to know about Marathons in general, The Philly Marathon in particular? Let me know
Love,
Ruth
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