2:41:36

Today I ran a half marathon in 2:41:36. I am tired, but happy :-)

I was kind of dreading today because I was afraid my knee was going to act up. As you may know, I've been training for a marathon, but I hurt my knee (I-T band syndrome). I saw a sports orthopedist, and I've been doing physical therapy for the last 7 weeks. It has been working slowly, but two weeks ago I attempted to do an 8 mile run and I failed miserably. At 6 miles, my knee hurt so badly I had to completely stop. I had this stabbing pain that came on suddenly. The experience really brought my confidence level way down. Add to that the fact that today was supposed to be a washout (according to the forecast a few days ago), and I was kind of down in the dumps about today.

BUT, it actually went really well. Although I didn't feel prepared because my last few long runs were pretty rough, I knew that this distance was something I could do. I've run close to this distance before, so mentally I knew I could do it. Also, the weather turned out to be pretty good. It was cloudy, but that meant the sun wasn't beating down on us. The temperature was about 60 degrees - not too warm and not too cold.

Terri and Rusty both ran with me for the first 6 or 7 miles. We were following the Galloway method (taking walk breaks) and keeping a pretty good pace. I popped an Aleve at mile 7.5, and I really didn't have much pain until the 10th mile. It started to hurt, but once I was that far, it was nothing I couldn't handle. Rusty broke away at the 8th mile or so (he runs much faster than me, and I don't mind if he goes ahead), but Terri stayed with me the whole way. I would have been just fine if she wanted to go ahead, but having her run with me kept me motivated. We skipped our last two walk breaks and crossed the finish line at the same time. My goal was to finish in under 3 hours, and I was really hoping to be done in under 2:45. We killed that goal!

It felt like such a great accomplishment. I'm so happy I did it. Along the way, our "athletic supporters" (Mom, Billy, Sarah, and Alex) were there to cheer us on. It was so motivating. They drove around during the race and came to see us every 3 or 4 miles. It made me so happy :-) At about mile 9, there was this large crowd of people with pink shirts cheering their runner. I looked at Terri and said "I'm just going to pretend they're my cheering section". Then I realized that our cheering section was right there with them! It was so awesome.

At the very end, I got really teary-eyed and it was hard to breathe. At 13 miles, I knew I was so close! It wasn't the goal I originally planned, but it still felt huge. My mom ran along with me, but we told her she had to slow down so she didn't beat me ;-) Terri and I crossed at the same time and it was done. We went to the beer tent to get our free beer (yum... we really only do races that have free beer) and then we grabbed some lunch and hung out in Hampton for a few hours. There was this cool bar above the boardwalk with an acoustic guitarist playing all kinds of classic rock songs - the kind of setlist where you know every song.

Ahh... It really was a great day. I have a couple of pictures from the event, but I hope to have more soon.

This is me and Rusty pre-race (still smiling):



This is Rusty at about 9 miles (he broke away from us a mile or two earlier):
I will probably have more soon, but for now I think I'm ready for bed!

Red Letter Year

It's a little late for a New Year's post, but I've been extra special busy this year.

Expect blog posts to be infrequent from now on. You know why? I don't have cancer anymore. It seems weird to continue to keep writing about it.

So, a few weeks back I noticed a lot of red around me. I have a beautiful set of mittens and a scarf in matching red that Jocelyn knit me. I also recently knit my first project - a red hat with red beads. My sister-in-law gave me a red handbag for Christmas that I absolutely love and use every day. And then there was the new Ani DiFranco CD I recently bought, Red Letter Year. I've decided that this will be my Red Letter Year.

Red is the new Pink. Pink is so last year. Red is an amped-up version of Pink. Pink is for breast cancer and Red is for not breast cancer. Pink will always be special to me, but I'm happy with Red.

When I was celebrating the New Year in Chicago this year, I also felt like I was celebrating my new year. It's my year. It's my year to be able to take control of my life and move past cancer. I no longer feel like a cancer patient. I just feel normal. Sure, I wish my hair was longer. I wish I had real boobs. I wish I could do a Chattarunga in yoga class (I can't because I should never lift my body weight with my arms... ever again). But these things will get easier over time, and there are so many other things I can do, that it really doesn't make sense to waste time thinking about what I can't.

So, what have I decided to do for my Red Letter Year? In no particular order, these are the things I want to accomplish:

- Get "real boobs". Well, real fake ones, at least.
- Use my passport for the first time. Rusty and I are planning to go to Jamaica in December.
- Lose my financial advisor poundage (and more), and wear a bikini for the first time in my life (in Jamaica). I'm half way there. I can see cheekbones for the first time in a looong time :-)
- Run the Chicago Marathon on October 11, 2009. Rusty and I are currently training for this.

These things are not New Years resolutions. You know... the things you say you're going to do in the first week of January but forget about by Groundhog Day. Aside from the boobs, these are things I always wanted to do. But I've come to realize that goals don't happen to you (cancer, on the other hand, happens to you). Goals never really meant much to me until recently, but now I get it. Goals are things that you have to really really believe in - something you are compelled to do. They have to be your own, or you won't be willing to put in the hard work and effort it takes to meet them.

Anyway, what are your goals? Is this your Red Letter Year?