Post Marathon Ramblings

It's been over a week since Chicago but it's still all I seem to think about. Instead of anticipation of toeing the line, I recall crossing it. A song will come on that played while I was running and I'm transported to that moment. And sometimes I just find myself standing there smiling, recalling a particular scene. Am I allowed to still be basking in the after glow?

So what's next... it's the question everyone has been asking and if I can direct your attention the the right hand side of the screen you will see that my "To Do" list is already quite full. Next Saturday B.o.B and I are running the Halloween Halfathon. Next month I will re-run my maiden 10k race, the Founder's Day 10k in Celebration. (Obviously I'm hoping for a PR) After that I get to ride along side some the esteemed members of the B.R.A. as they run across the state for the RAGNAR. (Sidenote: The Roomies pooled together for my birthday and bought me a pair of cycling shorts... Holy giant camel toe/diaper @ss batman!!! Pics to come...)

I'm especially excited for the OUC 5k in December, it's a great race thru downtown O-town and it's looking like I will have a few friends running it with me. Following that will be my favorite Christmas themed 5k Fun Run through Maitland. (Last year everyone wore reindeer bells on their shoes and dressed up, so fun!)

As we head into the new year I have the Breast Cancer Half Marathon with Jill, followed immediately by the Gasparilla Marathon... which means that some time here shortly I will begin marathon training all over again. Not sure if you caught it or not, but Coach EK has been working on a plan for me, a real training plan (not to be confused with the one I put together myself this last go round) and thinks I have a sub 4 in me. *Keeping fingers crossed* So as you can see, I will definitely be keeping busy and will have endless running related excitement to share.

And yet... as I signed into my dashboard my eyes fell upon a draft that I started awhile back regarding my thoughts on training/running a marathon and why I didn't think I'd do it again. Yup, you read that right... Training was hard. Hard on me physically. Hard on me emotionally. Hard, Hard, Hard. When I look back on my training schedule and see all the runs that got the FAIL stamp, it's easy to see how discouraged I was feeling. Rather than recognize all the progress I made, I wallowed in my shortcomings. It was me thinking I just wasn't cut out for this long distance running. In the post I went so far as to say that if I hadn't already committed to running the Full at Gasparilla, I'd downgrade to the Half. That I loved the Half distance and I wanted to make sweet music with it repeatedly. I was going to become a Half Whore and I was proud of it...

But then I ran Chicago. And Chicago was AMAZING. Before I had even finished Chicago I had renewed excitement to run Gasparilla. Believe me, I know I got a fluke of a first marathon, I recognize that the likelyhood of ever running that awesome again from start to finish is minuscule at best... but I don't care. I finished Chicago and that feeling will stay with me forever. It was all worth it, the training, the injuries, the joy, the pain, all of it... From training start to Finish Line. Chicago will forever hold a piece of my heart because it was there that I discovered what I was really made of.

So even if it hurts, even if it's the worst experience of your life, never give up or sell yourself short because accomplishing something that you've put that much blood, sweat and tears into will always be worth it in the end. Every race recap I've seen come across my reader these last few weeks have been filled with either joyous celebration, heartbreaking disappointment or comfortable acceptance but the one thing they all had in common was that they all wanted to do it again.

We're a sick masochistic bunch, we runners, but it's a beautiful thing and I'm proud to be a part of it.