St Louis Marathon

Okay so for the past month or so I've been secretly training for the STL Half Marathon. While running you wouldn't believe all that you can think about. I mean you've gotta do something to not think how much longer til the next mile.

Thus far I'm up to 8 miles. . . can u believe it. Last Saturday was so bitterly cold, it was ridiculous. We did the entire Forest Park which is 6.2 miles, then 1 mile up Wydown to Fontbonne. I really like running at Forest Park and I'm sure I'll be able to enjoy it once more when it heats up. This half marathon will be like my last "hoorah" and farewell to the STL.

So I as I was running last Saturday at about mile 2-3 I got the brilliant idea to share my thoughts with everyone . . . I don't really want to let a lotta people know right now that I'm trying to run it, so I'll let errybody read it after the race.

It's amazing how much support you get from my brothers of the Caucasian persuasion when you're all out there sweating, breathing hard, and in the bitter cold. It's like some unspoken comraderie from the white people. All these random people just speak and say good morning, when on any given day at work, etc. . . they don't seem to speak. I guess when you're out there that all preconceived ideas are out the window. Now I'm not saying jogging/running is the end to racism, but hey maybe it would be a start. . .LOL!

So how did I get to 8 miles, I'll detail this for those peeps who will probably ask how. Well in November, Joy (my old personal trainer from NLF) emailed about starting the marathon training again as she has the 2 previous years. And her knowing that I've mentioned it time and time again. . .emailed me. So she, being the peppy girly girl that she is, recommended to everyone to start running at least 30 min 3-4 times per week during the month of December and we'd start full blast in January. Well needless to say, I got off track, but I don't really like to back down on a committment. So the first Saturday in January, admist the 30 degree weather around Creve Couer Lake, we set out to run 4.2 miles. . . I was like My God My God. That was a challenge but I still finished and didn't die after the fact. Each week she's basically added a mile. I still do my regular routine of Step (M & Th), Spinning (T & Th), Weights (W). . . so needless to say, my sleep lately is pretty sound.

My eating habits are still not the greatest. And this week my appetite has picked up tremendously, I mean it's like every 2-3 hours I have GOT to eat. Bananas!

This is our "off" week. But Joy still expects us to do 5 miles on my own. I may get some motivation and just run Forest Park on Sunday morning since I don't have to work and we have church on Saturday night. . . At this point, I do feel that running is very much a "mental" thing. Half the battle is getting out of the bed and driving to the meeting point. And once you make it past that 2nd mile, you always seem to get a burst of energy to get you to the 4th. .. now I'm trying to figure out how to make it over that hump. . .