The high

What's on my mind? Running. That's what. I am nearing the end of my half-marathon training, and am getting pretty excited to run the 13.1 in two weeks! I am slightly nervous, because I've never done anything like this before...ever. And I desperately don't want to be the last one to finish.

I wanted to run a half earlier this summer with my sister, but it just wasn't a good idea with the amount of sleep I was getting and the ups and downs of having a new infant in the house who had an up and down schedule. I was really bummed. But then five weeks ago my sister said she was doing another 13.1 (because she's just awesome like that) and got a fire underneath my butt to run it too. I'd been running all summer, but just 2-3 miles at a time, and a very occasional 4...I think I did a 5 once. So I was kind of nervous to start training with only 7 weeks to go, but I gave it shot and am on track and fired up to run!

I'm not a very athletic person, actually...I'm not, AT ALL. But I really enjoy running. I am obsessed with the feeling after I run. It's like a high. I feel so energetic and good and alive, and to be honest - this last Wednesday when it came to my rest day, I was actually disappointed that I didn't have a run that day and craved it. Weird, I know.

My brother-in-law is training for this half-marathon too, and I loved a comment he said about the training process: "Every week you do something you never thought you could do." It's so true, it's such a great feeling of accomplishment every week. I've never run 8 miles before in my life...and last Saturday I did, without trouble, and felt fantastic. I am so glad that I decided to do this, it's been tough, I've pushed myself, had bad runs and good ones, and I still have two big runs to tackle before the big day...but I'm looking forward to my 9-mile tomorrow. This next week is my biggest running week...which will be complicated because Andy is out of town and Vienna doesn't nap long enough to run 5 & 7 miles on a treadmill (which I am dreading running on the treadmill for that long anyways...I'd rather run outside.) SO, I either have to push the stroller for that long, which is basically out of the question, run after she goes to bed at night or go in the morning before she gets up, which would entail starting to run at 5:30am. Blah. Or figure something else out...

Regardless, two weeks left - 13.1 here I come!