3 weeks? I can not believe it has been 3 weeks since I’ve blogged! I haven’t even logged into this little wordpress site until last night and when I realized my last post was nearly a month ago I knew I had to do something ASAP. While I do love blogging and proclaiming my running obsessions with the world these last three weeks have been pretty stinkin busy. So, a three week vacay from blogging was necessary.
This las month has involved: moving out of my apartment, moving into el dormitorio, visiting family, welcoming all of the new freshman residents into the residence halls, getting my classes figured out/ getting myself into a solid week day routine and keeping up with that whole running thing that I love so much.. Yep I have been swamped!
So, now that I have most of the kinks in my schedule worked out, the freshman are getting more comfortable and I am as settled as you can be in a residence hall I think it’s time for me to jump back into this ole’ blog. Now, I won’t say that I will blog every day but I do hope that I will be able to post at least a few times a week. Which I think is very doable especially since the Chicago Marathon is 37 days away.. HOLY COW! I still can’t believe it. It has been blowing my mind every weekend as my milage goes up and I’m finishing my runs feeling strong.
I had a hard time getting past those 13-15 mile runs but once I made it over that hump I have been busting out my 16 and 18 mile runs like nobody’s business. Last weekend when I ran my first 18 miles ever (a PDR) I felt strong pretty much the whole time. I did start to slow down and feel it during miles 16-17 but I’m okay with this though. It was a steady/solid run and when I finished that run strong I knew that in a few short weeks I would be able to run a marathon.
I’m still in shock that I’ve come this far in my marathon training. Runner’s talk about their first marathon as an emotional journey and I didn’t fully understand it until now. A marathon is the ultimate, at least for me, a goal that I thought would take me years to complete. Something, I always thought of as “Oh yea running a marathon would be beyond awesome” kind of a thing. lt was always something that I would do eventually and something I honestly never thought I’d be able to accomplish. The fact that I’m going to be running a full 26.2 miles is my own little metaphorical way of telling myself and the world for that matter that I can do anything I set my mind to. When I cross that finish line I’ll never be allowed to myself that I can’t do something. If I can run 26.2 miles I can do anything.
This is something that non-runners don’t get. People are always baffled by my running and ask questions like: “18 miles? WHY? How is that even possible? “ Well, you see, to me it’s more than just running. It’s about pushing myself, breaking my own boundaries, and taking myself places I’ve only dreamt of going. Running is my metaphor for life. I can do anything I set my mind to and in 37 days I’m going to be breaking one of those boundaries.
Happy Friday Everyone!
~Sarah
Running On Smores 
I completely agree with you! While I haven’t trained or completed a marathon, I do compete in triathlons and get a lot of comments about why I ever would. It’s definitely, like you said, about breaking boundaries and proving to yourself that you can do it. 🙂 Congrats on the strong runs; you’re going to rock the socks off this marathon!
Hey there! First time reader…it’s so hard to balance college, running, blogging, etc. I will be training for my first full marathon this spring and I can’t wait 🙂 Best of luck at Chicago.
Thanks for stopping by! I’ll have to read up on your training asap!