This was a very happy day for me as it marked a turning point in my running. I ran a Marathon Relay with my friends Adi and Maurice and was also running with my friend Sally who was running her 2nd half marathon at Tulsa Rt. 66. Adi, Sally and I started out together with the plan for Sally to run the 13.1 and Adi and I would run to Maurice at the 15 mile mark and he would finish. Sally ran off and left us about mile 6 as she wanted to run a bit faster and I knew I'd have to run conservatively to make it to 15. Long runs have been a challenge for me in the past couple of years, I don't know why. A couple of times, running alone, I experienced panic and fear. I went to the doctor and everything checked out but I still couldn't get over this fear of running alone and it got worse last year after my mother died suddenly. I lost my competitive edge and just couldn't push my body like I used to.
The Oklahoma City Landrunners group training runs and good friend Adi, have helped immensely. Our training runs sometimes have 500 people so you are never alone!
Anyway, this day, in Tulsa, after we passed the chip to Maurice at mile 15, we decided to keep on running. We ran 20 miles that day! I was so excited and happy to have pushed passed this mental barrier that I am inspired to try and run the OKC Memorial Marathon this year on April 28th. My daughter, Roxanne has signed up as well! I don't care what time we finish! I just want to enjoy distance running again and get that negative chatter out of my head! Thanks to my dear friends and wonderful daughter who are helping me!
January was my yoga challenge, so February is my RUN challenge! I'm going to run every day! I picked a short month because as I've aged my body/feet has not liked running every day, I have had Plantar Faciatis 3 times so I've got to run smart! I chose 1 mile as my minimum and treadmill miles are okay! It's going great! I logged 38 miles last week, more weekly miles I've done in years!
So excited that you started a blog! I'm following you and look forward to reading about your running adventures. :)
ReplyDeleteokay, Julie, now I'm trying to figure out how to follow you! Thanks!
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