Off and running

Literally and figuratively.

This weekend, my fundraising "officially" kicks off with my letter and email campaign. Check your inboxes! (Or, if you're reading this, maybe you got my email and have stopped by, so welcome to my blog!)

Yesterday was our second Saturday practice- every Saturday we run together as a team at a park in town. We run along a paved path along a "river" (there's water in it maybe a few times a year, after it rains, then it dries in another day or two......but every 10-20 years it floods...).

We run out and back's, to a certain landmark and back.

Today my distance was 4 miles. Not bad, I thought, I can do this- I ran over three on Thursday and felt great, so let's go!

Off on a slow run, trying to set my cadence and what is THIS???!?! A sideache? You're !@#$% kidding me, right? I haven't even gone a half a mile yet, so what's the deal? I kept running, albeit a bit slower, then one of my coaches caught up with me and asked me how I was doing, then we chatted, which helped distract me, and I was grateful for the conversation.

But this foreboding feeling started to set in: What if I really can't do this? What if I ALWAYS get sideaches and can't run any faster and I end up just TOTALLY hating running marathons? What if I can't make my fundraising goal? What if what if what if?

I pushed those thoughts aside and listened to my coach as he gave me some great pointers on rhythmic breathing and chi running, and it started to make sense, and before I knew it, we were done with our 4 miles. Really? Wow.....

I went home and took about a two hour nap- as my boyfriend put it "I'd hate to see you after a real marathon...." Oh boy.

Another quote on my training calendar says "Bad days are flukes, good days never are".

While not a REALLY bad day, it was not good enough to keep the "what ifs" at bay.