TRUSTING THE PROCESS!!!!

Ok, so today I was out for my 30 minute run and I started realizing how much my time has improved since I started this training program which was less than 2 months ago. From about December or January, I've been running 30 or 40 minutes twice a week, but I was not putting any pressure on myself as far as time was concerned. In fact, I was purposely trying not to pay attention to how long it took me to cover such short distances, mainly because I was just getting back into the swing of things since I had had Ethan and I had gotten pretty out of shape. Unfortunately, I wasn't using my Nike+ chip at that time so I have no record of those runs, but at the time I really didn't want a record of them because I feared that seeing the actually numbers would be too discouraging to me.
So today as I was booking along at a less than 12 minute mile pace, it hit me that I have shaved at least 2 minutes off my pace since I started this process. The thing is this pace is pretty comfortable for me right now (which blows my mind when I stop and think about it!) and I would be completely thrilled if I could have this kind of pace for the entire marathon.
What's even more amazing to me right now is that there have been times during recent runs when I'm running a pace of less than 11 minute per mile (today I even dipped down to less than 10 minute mile, but I can't maintain that for very long at all!!). I have to attribute this to the fact that I have been following the Team In Training running schedule pretty closely. In the past, when I have trained for the 2 half marathons, I followed a training program, too, but this is the first time that training has included regularly scheduled track work. I'm sure that the time we log on the MJC track every week is giving me the extra boost to improve my time better than I have before.
So far, 7 weeks in, my Team In Training experience is great and I definitely recommend it to anyone that wants to train for a half or a full marathon. I've raised over half of the amount that I need to raise which helps motivate me to keep going. It helps keep me accountable to the program when I know people are making donations on my behalf. It only makes me more motivated to keep up my end of the bargain by rolling out of bed earlier than I'd like to on most mornings and running out that door. I pray every day that the Lord will keep me injury free so that I can reach my goal and "Run Full Marathon" off my list of things I would like to do at least once in my life.