Back in the Saddle

I finally picked up a cheap frame from Target a couple of days ago to frame the poster and medals from the Philadelphia Marathon. I try to pick up the race poster from every race I do (if they have one). Sometimes I frame them, sometimes I don't. But as far as the two full marathons I have done, those deserve a frame. Plus, it's a good way to showcase the medals.

Here is the newest addition to the collection.

It goes with the poster from last years Columbus Marathon.



Here is the shadowbox I made from Jeremy's very first Marathon , Miami/06.



All leftover medals go here. I wish I could say all these are mine, but 65% are J's. The horse is an old medal from when I used to show horses when I was 14 :)



All in all, it looks nice on the landing between the 3rd and 4th floor of our townhouse.



The poster helped get me back into the right frame of mind. HA! FRAME of mind! LOL.

Anyway...it really did help a little. Sometimes, looking at the old medals brings back all the hard work and good memories of past races and gets you inspired to try it again.

So, Thursday after work I dragged my lazy butt outside for a 6.5 mile run up Main Street. The run was good and my legs felt great the whole time. I think my body (and mind) just needed a rest. Between getting sick and random stress at work, I just wasn't feeling it.

I think another problem is sheer boredom. Because of the lack of light when I come home after work, I just have one route I can run (and out and back on Main Street that I run twice for 6.5 miles), there is literally no where else that is safe to run. Sometimes when I am walking home from the train (the same route I have to run) I can't stand the thought of running back up there again. It's just something I have to get over.

So Saturday we had an 18 miler planned, but decided it would be better for me to just try and get out 16. J started a little earlier than me and ran a mile out and back to get an extra two miles in before meeting me at the start. The run felt pretty good for the most part. It was cold and really windy at the end again, but at least I stayed dry this time. The last two miles were really hard, but considering my recent lack of training, it wasn't as bad as I thought. We had planned on keeping it slow with a 9:30 pace, but as usual, we had a hard time keeping our pace in the cooler weather and ended up running a 9:20 pace overall. I guess that's better than the alternative, so overall I was really happy.

Thanks to all of you for all your kind words when I was feeling sorry for myself a few days ago. I'm going to try to catch up with all of you now, but it may take a few days. I know how much you all like to write ;)

After finishing 16 miles, I felt much more confidant about being able to do the marathon. I think I might even be getting a little excited again. It looks like I might need to make some extra room for another poster in my stairwell :)

Time to suck it up and get into some regular workouts routine again though. I'll never be able to run a marathon with these weekly stats:

Monday, 1/19 - off
Tuesday, 1/20 - off
Wednesday, 1/21 - off
Thursday, 1/22 - 6.5/58:38 - 9:01 pace
Friday, 1/23 - off
Saturday, 1/24 - 15.79/2:27:46 - 9:20 pace
Sunday, 1/25 - off

Total Weekly Mileage (8 days): 22.29 (RUN)

P.S. Congratulations to all my old friends in Miami who ran the Miami Marathon and Half Marathon today! I wish we could have been there!