Running. Running. and more Running. 26.2 miles

19 months ago.....running wasn't even a thought.
18 months ago.....running was a struggle.
12 months ago......I was three weeks away from my first half marathon and a nervous wreck.
6 months ago.... I was just getting back into running from taking the winter off (bad idea!!)



About seventeen+ weeks ago, running a marathon was a distant (VERY distant) thought..... I had been running with three women from my town, two of which had decided to train for a marathon in November. (One of them was my high school band director and is training for her 13th marathon.... the other has been running for 15 years but just decided to do her first full.) When they asked if I was going to train for it too, my initial thought was to chuckle and make a million excuses why I couldn't or shouldn't do it...

I don't have the time.
I don't have the money.
I have bad feet.
I don't think my fallen arch could do that many miles.
I don't know if I can commit to that.
I don't know if I'm made to do that many miles...

blah.blah.blah.  
(Can you hear the fear in all of those thoughts?)


They kept asking and suggesting it and then about sixteen weeks ago, something clicked.... I was on Pinterest (what else do I do?!?!) and started pinning 26.2 and marathon inspiration.... and then it was like WHY THE HECK WOULD I NOT DO THIS?!??!!? I was going to be training for a half in September and that fit perfectly with the full training....... Why wouldn't I keep going?? I don't have kiddos at home yet to focus on and I have the group to train with. I would be stupid to not at least TRY! (Remember my post a year ago about why running a half marathon was such a big deal... well, nothing big has happened year in 2013, so a full marathon fit right into my plans.... 26 miles before age 26 became my mantra.)

So.... the training began...
We are running four days a week and have hit mileage as high as 35 miles in a week. Some days have been great and I felt that I could have gone longer and others were awful. Heat, food, hydration, stress--- they all affect your run, and can sometimes ruin it.....but I have survived and kept going. I wasn't about to give up!

Now we are LESS THAN three weeks from Marathon Day and in taper. I did 20 miles on Friday with the other newbie in the group and we survived. Twenty miles in heat, with hills and little motivation due to exhaustion (mentally and physically)......and we still completed and survived! What wasn't even a possibility five months ago is a reality now...

Here are some of my favorite marathon pins from that night....














Now it's time to rest, hydrate, eat right and get my head back in the game. I'm so ready for this to be over but I know it's going to be an amazing experience to remember for a lifetime. I'm just ready to sleep in on Saturdays, not plan my week around my runs and to see my husband a little more often in the evenings :)


You never know what idea tomorrow will bring and how your mind will change. If you would have told me a year ago that I would be in marathon taper now, I would have laughed in your face..... 

A goal without a plan is just a wish....
Until Next Time...
 Krista