Why I Love and Hate Running

Hospital discharge goal: Run in the Mercedes Half Marathon in February. Today I achieved that goal in spades. I signed up and paid my dues in October thinking, I will have plenty of time to get in shape for this run. Well then life got in the way and needless to say I have not run more than 2 miles since last June. Today I ran 13.1 miles in 2 hours, 57 minutes and 12 seconds. Which is only 6 minutes slower than my half time last year. So why do I run:

- The thrill of running and having complete stranger cheer you on is exhilarating.

- It's fantastic cardio.

- It gives you time to clear your mind and just take in everything around you

- If you run with the group I do, it gives you time to catch up with great friends while being productive.

Why I hate running:

- my feet and knees feel like they might give out from underneath me at any moment.

- Rain, shine, snow and cold. Runners don't care they run in anything.

Today reminded me why I enjoyed getting into running and why I should get back into it.

Mercedes Half Marathoning

What was I thinking? I know what I was thinking. I'm hard headed and determined and thought I'll have no problem getting in some miles between October and February. What I didn't count on was getting sick in December (flu like business... nothing as drastic as a hospital stay.) I also didn't count on Alabama having one of the coldest winters in memorable history. Even as I write this there is snow on the ground and ice on the roads.

So in two days I have to some how muster the strength to travel 13.1 miles by foot. The good news is I roped Jason into it to! :) Well part of it. He agreed to fill in for a relay member who had to back out. So Jason is running the second leg of the relay which is a 10k or 6.2 miles.

We are running for little Alex at the Bell Center. They don't give us any information on our sponsor child, but I believe we will get to meet him on Sunday. Please help us raise money by donating to our race fund....

Right now its supposed to be 30 degrees at race time. Lets hope that temp goes up between now and Sunday.