I DID IT!!!

Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who supported me in this awesome experience by praying for me, donating money to TNT and encouraging me with notes and posts. I feel truly blessed to have been able to do this. The marathon was really tough, but I'm so excited to say that I finished it.
I started early at 5:30 with the walkers and walk/runners. We couldn't go faster than a 15 minute pace until about mile 5 or 6. This really helped me conserve energy for later on and, anyway, there were a couple tough hills in this leg so it was a good pace for me. I really felt like I hit my stride from mile 9 to about 18 or 19. I felt great, my pace on the running intervals was in the 11's and 12's, and the miles flew by. I passed my family at about mile 16 and that was awesome! I felt really good at that point and it really gave me a boost to see some familiar faces. I had put my name on the front of my TNT shirt so I had people yelling my name and encouaraging me the whole way, but it always means more when it's the people you love.
Around mile 19, we headed up the last big uphill toward Lake Merced. This is when my feet started feeling heavier. I started extending my running intervals by 2 minutes because I found that I was having a harder time starting back to running after my walking intervals, not to mention that my pace was slowing down, too. So imagine how awesome it was for me to see John and Anne somewhere during the 21st mile! That was so encouraging! I was thrilled, even though you can't tell from the look on my face in the pictures that John took at that point. Then, coming down the hill in the 24th mile, I saw my coach, Charlie, and he ran at least a half mile with me (after having run the half marathon himself!). We talked about the race and how everyone was doing and that really made that stretch fly by! He is awesome and I don't know if I would have had the courage to go for the full marathon after my injury if he hadn't of said that he thought I could do it. I am so thankful for him.
After he turned around to go meet up with other teammates, I had 8 stoplights between me and the finishline. That last mile and a half felt like an eternity! Once I saw the finishline, I started looking around for familiar faces. I got a surge of energy when I saw Deborah and then, on the other side of the course, everyone else! It was pretty emotional to finish it and I am so proud! It is so inspiring to see so many people out there running and so many of them running to raise money to help cure Leukemia, many of them with pictures of loved ones who have battled the disease on the backs of their running shirts. It was a great experience! I praise the Lord that He helped me do this. If I can do it, anyone can!

I CAN'T BELIEVE IT'S HERE!!!

So the marathon is this weekend! Wow! I can't believe it. We had our last Team In Training meeting Wednesday night. We were given our running shirts and went down the endless list of things to remember to do, must pack items, and last minute strategies. Let's just say I came away from that meeting feeling more than just a little anxious. Later that night, my devotion referred to some verses in Isaiah 40 that were so perfect for me and I will recap them here. "Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint." (40:28-31). I have looked at these verses several times since then for encouragement. I know that these words will be running through my head several times during the race.
I am registered for the early start so I will be starting the marathon at 5:30 on Sunday morning and hope to finish by noon. Check back next week to see how I did or check my Facebook page. Thank you to everyone that has supported me throughout this experience!

NOTHING LIKE A 10 MILE RUN TO BOOST YOUR SPIRITS!

Well, Saturday was my first long run since I got injured on the last weekend in July. I haven't even tracked how far any of my runs have been up until now. Needless to say, I was more than a little nervous about doing this run. Dr. Roget said I was ready. Charlie said I was ready. But my mind kept saying "But you haven't run near that distance in sooooo long!" To top it off, out of no where, my leg was hurting Friday a little bit, but that was more than it had hurt in weeks.
I decided going into this run that I would not pay attention to my time. I was just going to do my 4 or 5 minutes of running and 1 minute of walking and not get distracted by the fact that I was the slowest runner out there. This is so much easier said than done! After all, I have to pay attention to the time so that I know when to stop running and start walking. And I really do need to do this because I'm almost out of the woods and I don't want to re-injure my leg.
I've always believed that running is 95% mental and I believe that now more than ever. I got out on the road in Knight's Ferry and my leg felt great, which is awesome! It's exactly what I hoped for, but then I kept having to remind myself that, yes, I do still need to stop and take my walk intervals even though I was feeling really good. Again, God was really teaching me humility through this experience. It takes humility to put aside my pride and just go slow, not worrying that I was literally the last runner out there. Because I am a pretty social person, it took a lot of restraint for me to not speed up just a little so that I was at least near other people.
I was running alone which I discovered was really not all that bad. My life gets pretty busy and hectic these days and a little time alone with my thoughts was actually pretty nice. I finished my run and felt great. My legs were a little stiff the next day, but there wasn't any extra soreness. Now that I've finished this run, I feel a lot better about the prospect of being able to do the race. I have decided not to rule out the full marathon. Charlie, my coach, says I can do it, probably because the walking intervals really help keep my legs from feeling like they are dragging. I know that I can do the half marathon, but that's not what I set out to do. I am still aiming at the full marathon which will be really tough, but it will feel great if I can do it. I'm still training and feeling good about it. And that makes me excited!

STILL PLUGGING ALONG....

Well, I got the clear from Dr. Roget yesterday to get back to my training. I am still running 4 minutes and walking 1 and am up to 40 minutes. He said I can increase it by 5 minutes each time and I can start doing the track workouts again. I'm pretty excited about that! I want to be back to training with the group...there's definitely strength in numbers! Because I haven't been racking on the miles, he also recommended that I do some cross training (either the elliptical machine or a bike) twice a week. This injury has definitely changed the way I am training, making it more involved and more frustrating.
Yesterday I decided that I will probably do the half marathon instead of the full marathon, which I have suspected I would have to do, but didn't want to actually admit it. I really, really, really want to do a full marathon, and I will - just not this one. With one month until the race, I know I can still be ready for the half marathon, but I don't want to hurt myself by trying to "cram" for the full marathon. I've spent a lot of time praying that God will give me peace with this situation. I need to accept what is happening this time, but I still have hope that I can continue building up my miles and, eventually, accomplish a full marathon some time in the future.
This morning at Bible study, a women came up to me and thanked me for what I'm doing with Team in Training. She told me that she was diagnosed with myeloma, a blood disease that often turns into Leukemia, 2 years ago. What a reminder of why I signed up for this in the first place! So, I may not be doing the race the way I had hoped to, but I'm still doing it and for that I am grateful!

ON THE ROAD AGAIN...JUST CAN'T WAIT TO GET ON THE ROAD AGAIN!!!

Well, as much as I love talking about running...I hate talking (or writing, for that matter) about not running. The last 4 weeks have been frustrating. I hurt my hamstring on a training run and haven't been able to stay on my training schedule. I went to a sports doctor 2 weeks ago. He told me to do some cross training on my bike and the eliptical machine. So that's what I've been doing the last 2 weeks. Yesterday, I went back to the sports doctor and he told me I am ready to start run/walking. I can run 4 minutes and walk one for 20 minutes total, increasing by 5 minutes every other workout. He told me that my running should be barely faster than the walking at this point (no problem!). He seems to think that I have no reason to think that I can't complete a marathon. I may be walking more of it than I had planned, but at this point, I am just determined to do it.
The Lord is teaching me so much through this experience. I have had a plan of what I want to do and how I want to do it and He is reminding me that I am not the one in charge here. I'm being reminded to be patient and to be content no matter what is happening in my life. So, while I may not be doing this marathon the way I had thought I would, I'm still doing it. God has a reason for doing things this way and I just need to keep that in mind.
This morning, after dropping the girls off at the bus stop, Ethan and I did our first run/walk. I was so excited to be out there again. I think I really am a runner now because I can't believe how much I have missed it. Crazy!! Who'd have thought? While I didn't experience any pain, it was hard for me not to focus all of my brain power on that area of my hamstring. It did feel a little tight, but I stopped and stretched after about 10 minutes. I plan to keep doing this every other day, cross training on the other days. I'm back on track and it feels really good!

WHAT A PAIN IN THE...LEG!!!

Well, it's been 2 and a half weeks since my last run. I hoped that not running while I was on vacation would help it heal, but it didn't. All that swimming and playing in the pool probably didn't help either!
So this morning I went to see a sports doctor to get his assessment of the situation. First of all, he determined that the injury is in the upper tendons of my hampstrings - not my groin. Next he recommended some stretching, crosstraining (on the bike and eliptical machine), and weight training (with very light weight on the hamstring exercises). He said I will know I am ready to run on my leg when I am able to walk fast for a half hour without any pain. Even then, he recommends that I run 3 minutes and walk 1 minute, just to ease back into it. But let's not put the cart before the horse here! I need to do all the prescribed exercises and keep a log of it so that he can see what I've been doing when I go back in 2 weeks. This is frustrating, but at least I have a plan of action now. If I do what he tells me to, I will not derail my training completely. Stay tuned for more updates!

OUCH THAT HURT!!!!

Well, I'm writing this as I should be running this morning, but my groin muscle did not respond very well to getting back out on the road and going for a run. Let me back track a little bit....
Saturday morning I ran 10 miles along the canal banks of Modesto. During the second half of my run, I started to feel my right groin muscle. For quite a while that's really all it was, it didn't hurt, I just suddenly started to feel that muscle. Hindsight tells me that maybe I should have slowed down, or possibly stopped to walk at that point, but of course I didn't. By the last mile, my groin was sore, but still not a shooting pain so I just slowed my pace and finished my run. After I stopped running, it became more sore, but my coach told me that that is one of the few muscles that you do not want to stretch if it is sore. Who knows why this is, but Charlie's been at this for a very long time and I trust his judgement.
I changed the way I stretched my hamstring so that there was no residual groin stretching going on. Then I hopped in the truck and headed home. When I tried to get out of the truck, I realized that my groin muscle was more than just a little sore. So the first thing I did when I got home was fill the bathtub with cold water and soak for about 15 minutes. I put on some Ben Gay and I rested quite a bit. Sunday morning, it felt a lot better, but, although not near as sore as Saturday, I could tell it was still sore. So I didn't run Sunday (I was only scheduled to run a half hour)....or Monday, which brings me to today.
This morning, I got up and was hoping that a slow half hour run would feel great. I stretched everything except my groin and headed out the door. After just a few steps, the soreness was there and I could also feel some shooting pain. Not good! I was barely down the street so I just turned around and headed home. I'm hoping another couple days of rest is just what I need. My training has been going so well and it's really frustrating to get sidelined at this point, but I'm optimistic that a couple more rest days with a lot more icing and Ben Gay will do the trick! I'll keep you posted!