What once felt like forever away is rapidly approaching. No, I am not talking about election day 2008. Although, that is the same week... I am less than 3 weeks away from my marathon on November 8th. I am a little nervous but when I’m nervous I reflect back on where I have been and that generally brings a feeling of empowerment. It is almost surrealistic to see pictures of me now compared to pictures of me in 2001-2003.
The months of preparation now wind down in what runners call the taper. It is a gradual reduction of weekly mileage leading up to the race. My long runs the next two weekends will be 14 and 10 miles respectively which will come as a nice rest. I have six runs in excess of 18 miles under my belt, three of them over 20. I’ve run over 1100 miles in the last 14 months. My 15 day moving weight average is 187.7 which is roughly 87 lbs below my all time high and about the weight I was as I left to South Africa as a 19 year old. At my peak I wore 42" waist pants, now my 32" pants require a belt and I need to move to at least a 31" if not a 30". Just two years ago I completed my first 5k and celebrated the fact that I broke 30 minutes during that run (by 10 seconds), I now complete the distance in 21 minutes. No pun intended, I have come a long way.
Thank you to all those who have supported my running and my fundraising. I am always humbled when I get an email notifying me that a donation has been made in my name. My fundraising is at $615 right now with a handful of others who have "pledged" donations. I am still hopeful to reach my $1000 goal, which is just amazing to me!
The whole experience has also reinforced the notion that anything is possible with enough work and sweat put in. I hope many of you have been inspired to set your own goals and work towards them. If you have, let me know how I can support your effort like you have supported mine. Until then, keep me in your prayers… please. I need them more now than ever.
2 comments:
Way to go Honey!
You do realize that your first paragraph is just BEGGING for some pictures, right?
That is awesome. It has been great to go running with you and be a part of this great thing (if only in an armchair kind of way) and it helps to know that these changes have come little by little with consistent effort over more than a year. (I've only been at my work-out regime for 5 months.)
Congratulations!
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