Inspire - in·spire - /inˈspī(ə)r/
Little word, Big meaning. Monday was just a terrible day - equipped with an overly busy work day, stuffy nose and head, sore throat, sore legs and topped of with a flat tire....There are more details that include hysterical crying, but I'll spare you. At the very end of my horrid day, I received an email asking about my long run this weekend. The last line of the email said "take care and keep inspiring me". With that one little line, my day instantly turned around. You see, the person who sent me the email is a true inspiration to me. She has helped me through my decision to run this marathon and with any questions I have had about my training. Me, an inspiration? Ha - who would have thought!
People will tell me that they could never run a marathon, or 10 miler, or any distance for that matter, and that I inspire them. And I often respond with "you could do it, you just don't want to". I realized that is only half of the truth. It is not easy to run a long distance. It takes hard work, determination, mental strength and practice. If it were easy, everyone would do it. where would inspiration be then?
For the update on last week's training: I did it! I accomplished the dreaded 12 mile run!
My long run on Sunday was my longest run yet, and the beginning of many, many more during my training for Philadelphia Marathon.
I spent most of my Saturday feverishly checking the weather. With a 50% chance of rain, I thought "this can't be happening-my longest run yet-in the RAIN!?!?" Slowly, the chance of rain went down to 30%, and when I woke up at 5am, it was gone. I would be lying if I said I wasn't nervous. I started to tell myself, if I just do 10, I would be okay. But I knew I wouldn't be. I have been so amazed at myself for keeping up with this schedule for 8 weeks now, if I had backed out of my longest run I would have never stopped beating myself up. Besides, I knew I could run 10, I wanted to prove to myself that I could keep going. I reminded myself that its not about how fast I get through it, or how pretty I look doing it (not so much - trust me), that the goal is just to finish it, to accomplish a goal. So I was off. For being in the middle of a heat wave, the weather was near perfect. When I say "running with angels" these are the things I mean. It's not some big sign that they are with me. It's the little things, like no rain or stinking hot weather, or just the fact that I finished.
Let me say - finding a road that will stretch 6 miles up and back with a safety shoulder? NOT SO EASY MY FRIEND. At least 2 total miles out of 12 were on the white line praying that I didn't get side swiped by a car. I will have to do better research for my next long run this Sunday.
I finished in 2 hours and 17 minutes. Do you know how your legs feel after running for 137 minutes? Like Jello. My body was achy, but my heart was soaring. Stepping up to the challenge really reinforced my faith that I could do this....that I was a RUNNER. I spent the rest of the day laying on the beach with my family and my best friend's family. Other than the ride down, I would love to spend every Sunday exactly like this past week. Running my heart out and then spending the rest of the day in the sun with the ones I love.
Thanks for checking back in - and don't forget to check out my Donation Page - my true inspiration for running a marathon is to honor My Angels who lost their battle with Lung Cancer and helping Lung Cancer Alliance raise awareness and increase attention to lung cancer treatments.
Go Team Lung Love! All the links you need are below!
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