Fall racing season is here!

Fall racing season was my favorite season.

 You spend all summer slogging through the heat, hoping that pushing your miles in the nasty hot humidity will make you SO fast once the weather breaks. Then you have your first 50 degree morning run and you literally feel like you are flying!

Yeah, fall running was awesome. I'm not going to lie, Facebook has been hard to handle some days. Most people are distance training for one marathon or another. There are posted stats of the 15, 18, 20 mile runs and I CANNOT imagine running that far!  I know I've done it, too many times to count, but holy shit that seems so far!!!  And why are they smiling after???  Doesn't everything hurt???



Then I look at pictures of me, like the one above after I ran a 50 mile trail race last year, and sure enough I look happy as can be. And I was. 

But now I feel very far removed from even being able to comprehend how someone just goes out and runs 20 miles on a random Saturday morning. It sounds insane to me. I'm not sure if my brain is intentionally doing this, for mental preservation, or if the love of running is mostly tied to the habit and planning and schedule associated with regular running. 

I figured I'd post a few of my favorite race photos (I call this my marathon series) to remind myself how awesome running made me feel. Because I forget already. Again, if this is my brain being self protective, or I really just don't feel it in me anymore, I can't be sure. 



New Jersey Marathon 2008
My first marathon.  
My time sucked, but I was going for "run the whole thing" not "run as fast as you can." Running a marathon was a bucket-list item, and I never planned to run another marathon, ever. Training for this made me hate running! Obviously I was doing it all wrong and had no running friends then. I had a LOT to learn. 



PittsburghMarathon 2015
My second marathon!  
7 years after my first, more than 45 minutes faster than my first time, and the beginning of my distance running insanity. 



Philadelphia Marathon 2015
My third marathon. 
After watching me finish the Pittsburgh Marathon, my husband (who is blind) asked if I would help him train for a marathon. He also asked me to guide him running it. I enthusiastically agreed, obviously!  This finish might have been my favorite moment, knowing that he did something so big and trusted me to see him through to the finish. I was also really proud of myself because this is much harder than running a marathon solo.  



Philadelphia Marathon 2016
My fourth marathon. 
The winds!!!!
This was my second marathon guiding Alex. We improved our time by 15 minutes even with the weather. This picture was taken before the race started. It was SO windy and SO cold! Yes, those are trash bags on us. 



Rock N Roll DC Marathon 2017
Marathon #5.
Finally got the finish time I was aiming for and finished strong despite insanely cold temperatures!  I thought the Philly marathon was cold but this was at least 20 degrees colder and my body was working so hard to produce heat the whole time. I learned a lot about cold weather distance running that day...I learned that I hate it! My fingertips are actually blue in this picture. 



Boston Marathon 2017
Marathon #6.
Third marathon with Alex. 
Just one month after the DC marathon. I went from running in freezing temps (high 20's) to relatively hot temps (high 70's) and my body did NOT react well.  I'm bummed that this was my last marathon because it was my second slowest, and I was so sick after. Since I was tethered to Alex, it meant his experience sucked too. It really is bitter sweet. We knew we had another visually-impaired Boston Qualifying time, and planned to try again in 2018. But, you know, best laid plans. 

**************************************

So there's my marathon memories. I'm glad I took a bazillion pictures throughout my running time (thanks to smart phones!) because it is nice to look back and see how happy I was doing it. 

Wishing all of my running friends best of luck as marathon training continues!  Fall racing season is most definitely upon us!

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