Milestones

Last week I was chatting with my friend Jenny, who has run a number of marathons including Boston, and we were talking about my upcoming Saturday run. I told her I would be running 7 miles - the farthest I've ever gone. She said that's what's so cool about training for your first marathon, after a certain point, each week becomes a first. The first time you've run 7, 8, 10 miles. How motivating is that, knowing that each week you'll be accomplishing something you've never done before. It's really powerful when you think about it.

I finished 7 miles on Saturday and it was an awesome feeling. I'm excited to do 8 this week. Five years ago when I ran the 10K, I felt like I needed to take a week off after running that far. This weekend I ran 7 and got up the next day and ran another 3. Today I got 4 more miles in. None of it is easy when I'm at mile 2.3 and hating every second. But I finish hard and feel so good about myself and the fact that I can say I did it, that it makes it all worth it in the end.

26.2 miles scares me, I'm not going to lie. But when the day comes, I will have accomplished so much before that 26.2 miles that I will be strong enough to know I can do anything.