The finish!

Yesterday was a great day for a run. A 26.2 mile run that is! I completed the Houston Marathon in 5 hours and 29 mins. I achieved my goal! I finished. :)



Thanks to my wonderful supporters Jen and David who came out and followed me along the course with Gu and support!

A poem

Butterflies in your stomach
The fluttering feeling in your heart,
"Racers, on your mark,
Ready, set, go!"
Soon the butterflies are forgotten
As the scenery passes by you.
Steady breathing in and out
Arms pumping low by your side,
Legs searching for the winning rhythm
As you cover the miles.
Hills approaching up ahead
Gather courage, run up fast,
Round the corner
Fly down the street.
The pain is building
And your legs feel weak,
But you can hear the crowd
Cheering up ahead.
The finish line is just in sight
—Keep on going, you're almost there!
Don't look behind
Accelerate—now!
Sprinting past `em with all you've got
Finally…past the line.
Once you've stopped
You can barely breathe,
Your head is spinning
Your body aches.
But oh,
The embrace of your teammates,
The proud expression
On your coach's face,
And the thrill of
accomplishment,
Makes it all
so worth it.

Less than one week!!

Wow! These months have flown bye. I can not believe that the marathon is less than one week away. Here are some things that I will be doing throughout the remainder of this week.
Revisit and visualize your goals: Are your goals still relevant? Visualize what you want to do during your race, and spend a lot of time thinking about it. Do not think thing of any negative thoughts about your goals; think only about what you will need to do to accomplish them. This can help you feel more confident when you get to the starting line, and serves a dual purpose of helping you to avoid taper madness.

Avoid taper madness: After 3 to 5 months of heavy training, the last few weeks of relatively low mileage are leaving your body aching for a fix. You need to try to avoid going nuts and you have to resist the urge to go out and run or do physically strenuous activities like carting your treadmill around your basement.

Properly hydrate yourself: Being hydrated for a race starts a week ahead of time. There is a theory that thirsty people feel more pain. You should be drinking a lot of water. Try not to have more than a beer at a time in the days leading up to your race. :(

Sleep well on Friday: If you are running a Sunday marathon, then try to get a good night’s sleep on Friday.

Wahoo!!!!!! I am almost there... I can taste it!

Getting closer

Saturday started out with weather that did not allow me to get my long run in. I ran 7 miles in hopes of being able to get all 21 miles in, but the rains came a pouring on Saturday morning, so my run was cut short.

After two parties on Saturday afternoon, I was not too sure that I would be able to run 21 miles on Sunday morning.

I woke up at 5:30am and bundled up for the cold weather that would await me. Sunday morning started out at a cold 34 degrees. Something that I am definitely not used to running in. Four of us from Team in Training woke up early on Sunday and braved the weather for our long run. One of the guys on the team was also nice enough to follow us around in his car and provide plenty of water stops for us. It was an amazing run! Long, but incredible. I ran for 4 hours and 12 minutes for a total of 21 miles. :)

Here are some pictures from the end of the run. We decided to take the end of the run as a photo shoot opportunity.



Thanks to everyone for all of your support and prayers so far. You guys are amazing.

I think I can... I think I can...

Wow! It has been way too long since I have posted. The theme right now is "I think I can". I have had a few not so good long runs. So far the most that I have been able to run is 15 miles, which I ran last Saturday. My IT band has been giving me a fair amount of problems. :( It has been discouraging me lately. Hence the blog title. I am trying to continue chugging along. It is getting harder and harder though.

On a more uplifting note, while my runs have not been the distance that I am wanting, I have had some great time to chat with some friends. I am not one of those people who likes to talk the entire time while we run, but I sure do love the random conversations that have occurred this past month. I have also had a few more donations come in lately! Praise God! He is so good and has been so faithful throughout this whole process. I know that He will continue to provide, both financially and physically.

13.2 miles- It's a milestone

This past weekend, I woke up at 5:00am to meet my team for a 13.2 mile run. That's right, I said 13.2 miles. I completed my run in 2 hours and 32 mins. I managed to run all of the 11 miles, and I did a run walk combo for the last bit of the run. My toes were hurting afterwards. In fact, for the rest of the day my entire body was hurting.

It is quite rewarding to me to know that I ran 13.2 miles on Saturday. I have never ran that much in my life. It is quite grueling for me during the run. I finally truly understand how running is mental. I wanted to give up so many times on Saturday, but I knew that I had to keep going.

Sorry for such a short post this week has been a whirlwind so far. Busy busy.

It's here!

That's right- fall has finally reached Houston, TX! Hooray! I could not be more thrilled. Fall is pretty much my favorite season. I love the crisp mornings and the gorgeous afternoons, followed by a cool breeze in the evenings. It does not get much better than this.

With the fantastic weather to spur me on, I managed to run 18 miles total this week. Nine miles last Saturday, four miles on Wednesday and five miles on Thursday. The rest of the days in between that were a giant blur. If I was in Houston this morning, I would be running eleven miles. Sadly I am not there, I am in Dallas- which means I am not motivated enough to go out and run eleven on my own. I will just have to make up those miles when I get back to Houston.

Injury report: Things are feeling good. My toe is a million times better! No more infection, and my back is also feeling okay. I have normal soreness and such but other than that, I am trucking along.

On another exciting note, I got my "offical" confirmation from the Houston Marathon that says my entry form has been processed - I am offical now.