A Christ-Centered, Yogic Lifestyle

Rather than give myself a lengthy list of resolutions to attempt to follow, I've decided to recommit myself to more fully living out my rule of life. I've been faithful to certain elements, and have struggled with others. So this year I'm going to continue my efforts at living a Christ-centered, yogic lifestyle. Happy Near Year and namaste!

Love God

Pray daily.

Pray the rosary regularly.

Participate in corporate worship.

Observe the sacraments. In particular, participate in the Eucharist.

Honor the liturgical cycle of the church calendar.

Study the Scriptures.

Love Others

Act always out of love.

Always consider others' feelings before acting or speaking.

Speak gently and do not spread gossip.

Never refuse a request for help.

Love Yourself

Keep a positive attitude.

Maintain healthy relationships with others.

Maintain a healthy environment.

Set priorities and personal limits.

Get adequate rest.

Make healthy food choices.

Exercise regularly.

And may the peace of the Lord be always with you.

The Dancing Sun Sequence

From Namaste Yoga's Practice page: 

Beginners: This sequence will build confidence and improve flexibility in the tight muscles of the back, hamstrings, and calves. Make sure your bent knees never over reach your ankle in any of the positions and really stretch your arms and lengthening your upper body in each pose. The heart opening breath body link will help develop strength in muscles we do not typically use. Be sure to keep your feet parallel to one another. On the inhale focus on the expansion of the chest. On the exhale focus on the contraction, your chin tucked in slightly to elongate your spine.

Advanced: This is an inspiring practice that restores balance and energy to the body. Focus on lengthening all points of the body, like the rays of the sun stretching endlessly into space. Keep your chest open and spine aligned as you move through the poses. The breath body link is called heart opening link. Once you are comfortable opening and closing your arms with breath, begin to focus on your energy. When you inhale extend energy out from your core, releasing tension. When you exhale return your hands to heart's center with fresh energy. Feel revitalized and ready to begin the sequence.

And may the peace of the Lord be always with you.

My Rule of Life

A week or so ago I updated the menu bar across the top of this blog to include a page titled "My Rule of Life." This is something that I've been thinking about and praying about for a year or two, but I've never blogged about it before. I don't know where my interest originated. It may have started when I first began reading Saint John of the Cross and other Carmelite authors. I think that's when my interest and curiosity in religious orders began. I began to research the different types of religious orders and what their lives are like. What do they do to devote themselves to God? What vows do they take? Why? How does this affect their daily lives? 

Obviously I don't intend to take vows and join a religious order, because I live very much "in the world" with a husband and a family to care for. But that doesn't mean that I can't follow their example in the way I live my life. So that's when my search began, the search to find a Rule of Life that I felt I could really live. There were many elements to choose from. Poverty. Charity. Celibacy. Silence. Ceaseless prayer. Fasting. There are so many more and they are so many expressions of these. But I just couldn't find the right combination. None of them spoke to me. None of them called out to me. So after giving it a lot of thought and prayer, I decided to write my own, personal Rule. And here it is. Love God. Love Others. Love yourself. 

There is a phrase out there that says you should live in JOY (Jesus first, Others second, Yourself last). And while this is an okay sentiment, to me it implies that I would have to put myself last. In a world where my obligations often leave me stretched completely thin and exhausted, I can't afford to put myself last. I can't take care of other people if I'm not taking care of myself. I have to love myself and take care of myself in order to keep myself physically, psychologically, emotionally, and spiritually healthy. But I still want my focus to be on serving God and serving others. 

I'm still working on refining the details of my Rule, but I think I'm off to a good start.

And may the peace of the Lord be always with you.

The Consequences of Over-Training

As I've blogged before, I've been having some pain in my left foot ever since the 15K at the beginning of the month. As a precaution, I went to see my doctor yesterday afternoon. He took a few X-rays to rule out any stress fractures in my fourth or fifth metatarsals. Those came back clean. After a physical exam of my foot, his best guess is that I may be suffering from plantar fasciitis. He prescribed me some strong anti-inflammatories and told me to look into some stretches I could do to help ease the tension in my plantar fascia, the connective tissue on the bottom of the foot.

I'm pretty sure I know how this happened and it's my own stupid fault. One of the primary causes of plantar fasciitis is a drastic increase in mileage (oops), particularly when running downhill (double oops!). The 15K was on paved running trails. The sixth, seventh, and eighth miles were all downhill. That explains how I got it in the first place. Put on top of that the fact that I've raced three consecutive weekends to include a half-marathon and it's no surprise that I'm hurting! I have two weekends off, then a two mile race, one weekend off, a 5K, a 10K, then three weekends off. In order to keep this from becoming a chronic injury, I may skip the two miler so I can have a full month to heal before jumping back into the Grand Prix with the 5K and two 10Ks. I hate to do it, but I have to take care of my body. So I'm going to spin and possibly try swimming to keep up my cardiovascular fitness during my time off. Hopefully I'll be able to jump back into the Grand Prix and race healthily for the rest of the year.

Below is an article I found on plantar fasciitis from the Runner's World magazine website. The original article can be found here.

The Grand Prix: Half Marathon and Injury Report

Ok boys and girls, let's talk about the consequences of over-training! Well I guess we should talk about the half-marathon first. It was a rough day. James and I opted to drive on the day of the race (which was about three hours away from where we live) instead of stay in a hotel the night before. We didn't get much sleep. For some unknown reason, Hamish decided to whimper and whine constantly for about four hours during the night. He didn't need to go out, he wasn't hungry, he wasn't thirsty, and we eventually even put him on the bed with us. When he finally did go to sleep, I think it was only because he had exhausted himself from crying. Ugh! Then the alarm clock started wailing around 3:30 AM and we both felt like zombies.

I had rested my foot all week with the hope that it would alleviate the pain I've been having. I was concerned that I wouldn't make it through the race at all, particularly when the pain started talking to me at the starting line. My plan was to just take it easy. I would only run for as long as it didn't feel significantly painful. Once the pain started to increase, I would slow my pace or slow to a walk to keep it from getting increasing. Worst case scenario? I would stop at an aid station and ask them to send the trail vehicle to pick me up, essentially quitting the race. I have NEVER done that and I REALLY didn't like the idea that I might have to do so.

The race started. There were only about 400 other runners so I didn't have to fight the beginning-of-a-race-crowding that usually drives me so nuts at bigger half-marathons and marathons. My foot felt okay and I felt strong and well-rested (weird!). I missed the first mile marker because I wasn't paying attention, so I didn't split my watch. As a result, I had no idea what my pace might be. But I decided that it didn't really matter today. I wasn't going for any pace goal. I just wanted to make it to the end without hurting myself.

I felt pretty good for most of the race. My foot started to bother me between miles eight and nine, so I dialed back my pace a little bit. I had taken a gel just before the start and then again at the six mile mark, but around mile 10 I was really feeling fatigued. I slowed my pace a little more. What I really wanted to do was walk, but I knew that I wouldn't be able to start running again if I did. So I just kept on going.

I had forgotten how serenely peaceful it is to be alone in my own head on long runs like this. When I was training for my first marathon in 2006, I used my long training runs as a sort of meditative time. The rhythmic timing of my feet on the pavement and my coordinated breathing put me in a very relaxed mental state where I can think clearly without the distraction of the constant chatter in my head. It's one of the reasons I love long-distance running alone. Don't get me wrong, I love going on runs with James. But it's a very different experience when I can do it all by myself.

James finished ahead of me and walked up the course to meet me and run me in around mile 12 (I think - I was actually feeling quite delirious by then). I'm not going to lie, the last 3/4 mile or so was really tough on me. I was getting tired, my foot was hurting, and I was running into a head wind. But I made it. Officially, my finish time was 2:21:57 (10:50 pace). Not a PR (which would have to be faster than 2:14:58) but I was quite proud of myself for it. I ran the entire race and didn't walk, which is a big deal for me. My goal at the marathon in November is to do the same thing... which I've never done before.

I finished 89th out of 140 women, no break down for age divisions. I earned 12 more Grand Prix points, pushing me up to 5th place in my division. The woman leading my division has enough points that she's competing for the overall prize, which means that if the Grand Prix ended today I would actually be in 4th place out of 12. 

As for the injury report, I'm going to write a separate blog about that because there's just too much to talk about to include here. Check back soon!

And may the peace of the Lord be always with you.

The Grand Prix: 5K Race and Injury Report

Yesterday I ran the third race in the Grand Prix series, a 5K. I was a little wary of doing this event because our area got hammered with about six inches of snow on Wednesday and the race was supposed to take place on wooded trails. It was cold yesterday morning, but mercifully the race wasn't scheduled to start until 11:30. By the time I got to the course, it was hovering right around 40 degrees.

Most of the running trails had been shoveled clear, but there were still many slick spots so we had to be very mindful of our footing. My left foot has been hurting since I did the 15K last weekend. I haven't quite figured out what's wrong with it, though. It is most likely a deep bruise on my instep or a small blood vessel that burst. In any case, I stayed off of it as much as I could last week and it's definitely feeling much better.

My primary goal for the race was to get to the end without wiping out on any icy patches. Beyond that, I really wanted to run a sub-30 minute 5K. My all-time PR (personal record) for the 5K is 27:09. I knew I wouldn't be quite that fast because I still haven't had much of an opportunity to train. But I did manage to reach both race goals and came in at an unofficial finish time of 29:31 (9:32/mile pace).

What's even better is that my split times got gradually faster and faster. My first mile was 9:51, my second was 9:44, and my third was 9:11. The last 0.1 miles took me about 43 seconds... I have no idea what that means.

I'm still waiting on the Grand Prix point results. Officially my finish time was 29:30.7 (9:31/mile pace). I was 44th out of 103 women. Not sure about my division.

My foot hurts more today than it did yesterday, but less than it did the day after the 15K. I'm worried that this might keep me from running the half-marathon next weekend. OR if I still run the half-marathon, I'm worried that it will start to hurt worse during the race and I'll have to walk a significant portion of the course. If I rest this week and then can make it through the run next weekend, I'll have two weeks off from the Grand Prix before a 2 mile race and then two more weeks off. I hope I'm not setting myself up for a year of over-training injuries!

UPDATE - I got 5th out of the 6 Grand Prix competitors in my age group for 12 points! Yeah! Overall, I'm now 8th out of 12 women in my Grand Prix age group. 

And may the peace of the Lord be always with you.

The Grand Prix: 15K Race

Well I think today might count as one of the coldest runs I've done in a loooong time. And only the second or maybe third time ever that I've run in the snow. We had a snow storm come through here yesterday. It snowed and then it sleeted and then it snowed some more. Oddly enough, we didn't have very much accumulation.. maybe 2-3 inches? 

Anyway, the race was supposed to take place at 9 this morning, but was postponed to noon instead. And thank God for that! Even though we had clear skies and full sun, it was only 30 degrees when we got to the race. Brrr!!

So my primary goal for the race was to just run the entire distance without walking. It's been over a year since I've run that far (I think.. I'm actually not really sure). My secondary goal was to run the entire race at an average pace of 11:15/mile or less. I marked the time on my watch at each split so I could keep track of how well I was pacing. My first couple of miles were all faster than my goal pace, so I kept track of how much time I was "banking" each time. 

I only ran at my goal pace for one of my mile splits. For every other mile, I actually ran much faster. I took a power gel around mile 6 and briefly ran without my jacket for about a mile (thinking that I was going to overheat). But once the wind started blowing (and it really picked up toward the end) I put my jacket back on and stayed bundled up. 

James finished way ahead of me (as always) and came back up the course to help me run the last mile or so in. By the time he caught up with my, both my hips and my left knee were really starting to ache and feel stiff. I really wish I'd taken some ibuprofen before the run, but we didn't pack any in our running bag. 

So anyway, my official finish time for the 15K (roughly 9.3 miles) was 1:42:43 (11:02/mile pace). I finished 127th out of 177 women and 20th out of 27 in my age group. I'm still waiting on Grand Prix results to find out how many points I earned. I don't know how many of the runners in my age group are also competing in the Grand Prix (all but one from the One Hour Track Run were there). If there were no new Grand Prix competitors in my division, then I'll end up with 15 points (woo hoo!). It'll be a few more days before I know that, though. 

Here are some pictures:

This is around mile 8.5 or so, right before James joined me

 

I may not look that bundled up, but I'm wearing TWO pairs of socks, TWO pairs of running tights, a tank top, an Under Armor cold gear mock-turtleneck, a technical tee, a jacket, gloves, and a hat.

James likes to pretend he's tired, but he's not.

My sweet DH

Yeah. We're pretty darn cute.

Update - Well the Grand Prix results are up and there were a few more participants that ran the 15K than had been at the One Hour Track Run, so I only ended up earning 3 points (BOO!!). But that's okay. I know that I ran a really good race for me and I'm satisfied with that. Like I said at the beginning of all this, my goal is not to be the fastest and to earn the most points at the events. My goal is to run every event and to earn my points for being determined and consistent. Two down, 18 to go!

And may the peace of the Lord be always with you.

The Grand Prix: One Hour Track Run

The One Hour Track Run was the first event in the 2011 Grand Prix series. The idea is pretty simple. You run around a 400 meter track for an hour. At the end of an hour, they determine how far you've run. For the lap count, they used timing chips. When the event director called the time, everyone stopped where they were and waited for an event official to come around with the rolling distance measuring wheel. They took up the timing chips and marked on a clip board how far around the track you'd gone since passing the mat for the timing chip.

Initially, I didn't really have any goals for this race. I was just planning to treat it like any other hour-long training run. Running on a track isn't especially exciting, even though they were playing music the whole time. I hacked my watch each time I completed a lap so I could keep track of how fast I was going. I wanted to maintain an average lap time of less than 2:45 (for an average pace faster than 11:00/mile). After my first few laps, I decided I would try to maintain a constant pace for the entire hour. By the time I was rounding out my 12th lap at about 31 minutes, I realized that I might have a shot at completing 6 miles in the hour. So I started pushing my pace a little.

If I could've gained just a few seconds on each lap, I might have been able to squeeze in just a little more distance before the time was called. When I came around the track and saw there was only 11 minutes left, I knew I wouldn't be able to make it to 24 laps. It was humanly possible, yes. But not Jennily possible. I'd have to pull out an 8:30 minute mile... and I just didn't have it in me. So my new plan was to finish out the 23rd lap and then haul ass for whatever time was remaining to get as far as I could.

I made it about halfway around the track when I heard the event coordinator call time. I was so tantalizingly close! But I'm still quite pleased with how I did. Roughly 5.87 miles in 1 hour. I'm still waiting for them to post the official results, to see how I did in my age group, and to see how many Grand Prix points I earned toward my total.

Oh, and did I mention it was 46 degrees and raining? Yeah, it was a great day to go for a run.

Update - Officially I ran 23 laps and 783 feet for a total distance of 5.898 miles (so close!!). I was 40th out of 75 women and 7th for my division. Because this was also a championship event, I earned 12 points toward my Grand Prix total. Woo hoo!

And may the peace of the Lord be always with you.

Run 2

Time - 45:04
Pace - 11:39
Distance - 3.87 miles

Today was supposed to be another hour long run around the track, but the weather was working against me. It's cold (about 45 degrees) and drizzling and all I want to do is curl up in a blanket and nap on the couch. But the hour long track run for the Grand Prix is on Sunday and I didn't run at all during our trip to visit our family, so I felt like I needed to do something. Plus spending 14 hours in the car yesterday has left my body feeling stiff and in need of some exercise.

So I bundled up and opted to go for a run around a little rural neighborhood near our house. I decided to only run for 45 minutes because I don't want to be sore and I'd like to get in another run or two before this weekend without feeling totally spent on the day of the event.

I ran at a pace that felt faster than conversation, but slow enough to be comfortable. Part of me wishes that I'd pushed myself a little harder so I could have run at a pace less than 11 minutes per mile. But I know how I felt and it was probably better that I did a nice, easy run. I might not have made it the full 45 minutes if I had gone any faster. Learning to pace and recognize my body's limitations is an important component of distance running. I don't want to burn out during a run and I don't want to burn out in the course of the year.

And may the peace of the Lord be always with you.

Run 1

Time - 24:57
Pace - 10:24/mile
Distance - 2.4 miles

Today I went to the base with the intent to run around the outdoor track for an hour. The first Grand Prix event (a 1 hour track run) is in a few weeks and I thought this would be the best way to prepare. I need to get my body used to the feeling of running for an hour, but I also need to get my mind used to the feeling of running in a quarter-mile long circle for an hour.

I had a terrible time getting to the track. Apparently, I picked the worst possible time to try to go anywhere on base because there was a massive group run going on. I don't know how many people there were... I'm going to guess somewhere in the ball park of 500-700 people maybe? I have no idea. What I do know is that there were several streets blocked off, that the runners were NOT running on the sidewalk, and they were going incredibly slow! It took me, no joke, almost an hour just to get to a parking place. And even then, I still wasn't where I wanted to be.

I resigned to parking near the gym (not AT the gym, NEAR the gym) which is about half a mile away from the outdoor track. I figured that I would run to the track, run around the track, and then run back to the car and try to take about an hour to do it. When I got to the track, they were conducting PT tests for about 50 people. And although I still could have run there, I didn't especially want to. So I decided I'd just go for a free run around the base and hope not to get lost in the process.

Ultimately, I ended up running much faster than I usually do (guess I was feeling a little frustrated) and made my way back to the car in much less than an hour. But it felt good to get outside and it was better than nothing. At this point, I just need to get myself back into the habit of just running, regardless of whether or not I hit a target time or distance.

And may the peace of the Lord be always with you.

Year of the Grand Prix

I am so excited about all the running events we're planning to do this year. Some of you may know about the difficulty I've had getting back into running marathons. For those of you who don't know, here's what happened.

I started running marathons in 2006 before James and I got married. I didn't run a spectacularly fast time, but marathons are all about finishing, not necessarily finishing fast. Generally first-time marathoners can be split into three groups after the race: those who wish they had never done it, those who are glad to have finished but never want to do it again, and those who are hungry for more. I fell into the third category. Crossing that finish line the first time was such an exhilarating high that I wanted to do it again and again, despite how much pain my body was in.

So after taking the recommended two to three weeks off after my race, I started running again. I wasn't training for anything specific, but I wanted to keep up my fitness level so I would be ready to resume training as soon as I found a race I wanted to run. My first race was in April. I moved out of my apartment and back into my parents' house in June while we waited for our new house to be built. Over the summer I did fairly well. My parents live in a large neighborhood and there are two other large neighborhoods very close by, so I was able to run without having to worry too much about cars. By the end of the summer, I was back up to 14 mile long runs and I felt great.

In September we moved into our new house, across town from my parents, and got married. The fall semester started and so did my 3 hour daily commute, I started working again on the days I wasn't in school, and James left for his first deployment. My running came to a sudden and very abrupt halt. Our new neighborhood was very small, about a half mile around, and there was no where nearby that I could safely run without having to worry about cars (I would later discover that to be false because there was a 4-mile, paved running trail only 5 minutes away... but I didn't know that at the time). My parents lived about 30 minutes away, too far to be convenient for me to go running every day. And on top of that, the commute to school and back had me completely exhausted and I was lonely for my husband... who was half-way around the world.

That fall I ran a half-marathon with my mom, who'd been bitten by the distance running bug when she came to watch my first marathon earlier that year. After that she decided, at age 53, that she wanted to run marathons too. So I trained with her and we did exactly that the following March (2007). It was freezing cold, so we ended up doing a run-walk sort of race. But that isn't all that uncommon in marathons. We finished in a slower time than I had done the previous year, but marathons are all about finishing and we had a great time doing it together. James had just gotten home from his deployment and was geared up for a full spring racing season.

The Mud Run

A few weekends ago, James and I ran in a local "mud run" with several friends to help raise money for the local parks and recreations department. The concept behind the event is that (1) people go in costume, (2) the "three-ish" mile course involves some obstacles, (3) and the run ends in a 300-foot mud pit. James didn't dress in costume, but the rest of us did (sort-of). We were quite surprised by how "out there" the costumes of the other participants were. So we're planning to go again next year (because it was so much fun) with a bigger group so we can do some kind of awesome group costume. I can't wait. Anyway, here are a few of the pictures from after we went through the mud pit.

And may the peace of the Lord be always with you.

Marathon Training

It's that time of year again... marathon season! Yay! Ok, technically there are marathons going on all-year-round. But who in their right mind would want to run a marathon in July or August?? Crazy people, that's who. Personally I prefer races in the late fall or early spring, and sometimes in the winter depending on the location. Really my favorite time to race is in the spring because that means I've been able to do all my training during the cooler part of the year. I haven't run a full marathon since April 2007 when we did the Kentucky Derby Marathon in Louisville. I've been a little gun-shy to do it again since that race experience was so negative. I've done several half-marathons since then and I feel like I'm ready to take on another full. So here we go!

I'm starting my pre-training period this week by starting P90X again. James and I tried to do P90X last year, but fizzled out for a variety of reasons. I'm doing things a little differently this year with the hope that I'll be able to stick to the program or at least do enough of the strength training workouts to regain some of the lean muscle I had when I was dancing in college. In addition, I'm going to double up on my workouts either by running on the days I'm doing upper body strength work or by running (4-5 miles) in place of doing the Kenpo or Cardio workouts... or maybe both. I'll finish the 90 days by the beginning of December and then move into a more specific marathon training program right after in preparation for my March marathon. More on this to come soon.

If you're interested in keeping up with my training, I'll be posting regular updates on the pre-training and formal training periods. You can also go to the "Marathon Training" page for a full schedule of what I have done and plan on doing to prepare. Happy running!


And may the peace of the Lord be always with you.

Morning Runs

One of the important things to remember about marathons is that you train like you race. You don't try out a new pair of shoes on race day because they're not broken in and might cause hot spots or worse, blisters. You don't try out a new pair of running shorts or a new technical top on race day because they might ride up, or chafe, or do something else weird that bugs you for the three, four, five, or six hours you're running. And you DEFINITELY don't eat new energy bars or drink new sports drinks before OR during the race. That's a sure way to get all kinds of intestinal discomfort.

Instead we're taught to experiment with these things during our training period so that on race day we know exactly what we're going to wear and exactly what/when/how much we're going to eat or drink. There are so many unpredictable things that can go wrong on race day (ie, bad weather, rough course, etc) that you want to carefully consider and plan out the things you can control. So shouldn't that also apply to what time of day we run?

Countdown to Crazy Horse: 19 Weeks Left

I meant to post this last week, but we were super busy over the weekend and we were out-of-town at the beginning of this week. So last week I went on three runs with James and Piper.

Monday
5 miles, 10:45 pace
Monday it was POURING down raining. It rained all day, but had started to slow by the late afternoon. So I figured we could just run in the drizzle and it would keep me cool. Well, it was okay for a little while... then the skies just opened up. By the time we got back to the car we were COMPLETELY soaked. Completely. It was okay, though. The car seats were wet and gross for a say or two, but I did stay nice and cool.

Wednesday
6 miles, 11:33 pace
Wednesday's run included some pretty serious hills (which I hate). My legs felt a little stiff and heavy, probably from Monday's run. Jumping from last week's mileage to this week's mileage was probably a bit ambitious. But I did okay.

Friday
8 miles, 11:59 pace
Notice how much slower I'm getting as the week progresses? The fatigue of the week was definitely starting to get to me. We brought some carbohydrate gels for this run and that made all the difference for me during the last few miles. I think I'm going to take them anytime I run longer than an hour.

Weekly total: 19 miles
Monthly total: 26.8 miles
Yearly total: 139.3 miles

Run Crazy Horse!

It's been a while since I've done an update on my running, so here goes. At the beginning of the year I set the goal of running at least 625 miles by December 31st. I want to run an average of at least 12 miles each week (either four 3-mile runs or three 4-mile runs). I figured that would be a reasonable enough goal for myself. Even if I don't plan to do any marathons this year, 12 miles is a modest weekly mileage that I should be able to maintain just for general fitness.

Well... I haven't done such a good job of that so far. I ran 34.5 miles in January (not terrible), but only 4 miles in February. The trip to see James in Europe really threw me out of my routine. I started back in March and ran 48 miles, but April was a dismal 26. Traveling for our house hunting trip got me out of my routine again and I've had a hard time getting back in. Since the start of May I've only run 7.8 miles (4 in the last week), but I'm hoping to get in at least another 10 next week. If you've been keeping up with the math, that's only 120.3 so far for the year. I have 504.7 miles to go!

I haven't run a full marathon since the Kentucky Derby Marathon in April 2007. It was a rough experience. We'd run the Virginia Beach Marathon a month before, but I didn't run a single step during the six weeks between the two races (BIG MISTAKE). I was okay until about mile 13 or 14. Then my joints really started to ache. The thing about the Kentucky Derby Marathon is that the first half of the race is fantastic. The half-marathon (they call it a "mini" marathon... weird) is great. Lots of support on the course, lots of spectators, and you get to run through Churchill Downs. But as soon as the full and half marathons split off from one another around mile 12, the course goes completely dead. There were very few water stations and only one medical station. At one point, my hip was hurting so badly that I was literally in tears. The pain was excruciating. Eventually we found a medical station and I popped a couple Motrin to keep the pain at bay so I could keep going. We were on pace to finish before the course closed... but only barely.

Reigniting My Love Affair with Running

This was originally written in November, but I would like to share it here.

After many months of getting in my own way and trying to battle back, I'm finally back from the dismal abyss of my own laziness. After suffering the loss of a disrupted adoption (very long story), I finally got the kick start I needed to start focusing on myself again. For a long time I'd been consumed with self-pity over my infertility problems, and then with my obsession over getting ready for the baby. But since we never got to bring her home (or even hold her, for that matter), I'm left with an empty nest, a very full but unused nursery, and more time than I know what to do with. Devastating doesn't begin to describe what it was like. I let myself sink into a very very dark place.