Woodbridge 4th of July 10K

On May 28th I met my brother in law, Alex, and co-worker, Doug, for a nice 10 miler at A Runners Zone in Anaheim. I had only done a few recovery runs since the half. It sure does take a long time for my 37 year old body to recover, doesn't it?


Fast forward three weeks when I find myself in the association office signing up for the Woodbridge 4th of July 10K. Did I mention that I had not run since the aforementioned run? I knew I was going to do this race long ago, but I kept thinking.....4th of July is sooooo far away...I have plenty of time. Anyways, as I am signing up, I am telling myself that I would just get a run in that day or the next as a little warm up. That didn't happen. Well, yesterday at 7:15am, I proceeded to venture out on what used to be a nice little trot for me. 6.2 miles never seemed so far. I felt hot, I could feel my heartbeat in my face, my legs felt heavy and I never caught my breath. I would like to blame this on being sick, but I can't. It was straight up lack of training. There was only three good things about yesterday - Mark ran with me; I burned 684 calories; I never want to feel that winded on a 6.2 mile run again.

New tires

If you call tires on your car "shoes", then I suppose I can call my shoes, "tires". Well, I got myself some new tires (a Mother's Day gift from my mom and dad). As I did with my last pair, I went to A Snail's Pace in Laguna to get fitted. Last time I went, I was told I had an overpronation problem. That was six months ago. This time, when I ran up and down the sidewalk for the sales guy, I found out that I gained some strength in my legs and feet and I no longer pronate like I did before, only a teeny tiny bit. I didn't even know it was possible to fix such a thing. Also, since I am now training for a full marathon, it was recommended I get a whole size and a half larger than my normal size. Last time was only a size larger. That being said, meet my new Brooke's:

Today I broke them in and they were great!

When life gets in the way

Hi, my name is Leanne and it has been 8 days since my last run. :::Hi Leanne:::

Ugh....I feel like I need to go to some sort of meeting for falling off the running wagon. But I just haven't felt up to running!! My body hurt and my mind was just on other things. I kept looking at my running spreadsheet and seeing the training runs that I should be doing just slip away. I wish there was a chart that had some sort of "Life Adjusting" feature. Like how many kids do you have? How many days did you have to sit in a teeny tiny room for Jury Duty? How are you feeling after the passing of a loved one? What is your attitude towards running right now? Is the rapture really going to happen on May 21st? (haha..what a joke that guy is) Then BAM! Out comes this magical revised running spreadsheet. Needless to say, I gave into my emotions and pushed running to the side......again. However, today I was sitting on the couch watching Pregnant in Heels (lame, I know) and all of a sudden, I felt the urge to run. So, I did just that. I threw on my running shoes and off I went. While it was a short run, it was a great run. I ran because I wanted to run, not because the spreadsheet said so. I guess you can call me a yo-yo runner right now. It hurts, then it feels great, I want to run, but then I don't want to, I hate it, I love it! AAAHHHHHH! I am confident I will get my groove back and it will all make sense again. Today was a good start.

I sure missed this

Last Monday I decided to take a little run with Brooke. I used to always take her in the stroller with me but stopped doing it when my runs began getting longer and faster. I figured this would be a great opportunity to take my little pumpkin since it was going to be a nice little recovery run from my 9 miler the previous Saturday. She was very excited to go, so I got her ready and packed her sports bottle, just like mommy. We took off running and I would frequently peek at her through the little plastic window on the cover of her stroller. She pointed out every puppy and bird she saw. I am so blessed to have a smart little girl who loves to be outside just as much as her mommy and daddy. Josh even joined us for about a mile of our run. I love my kids!

Are you a runner or a jogger?

This morning I met a co-worker for a training run. We are both training for the Long Beach Marathon and seem to be around the same pace. Today's run was scheduled to be 9 miles and at an 11.40 pace. We started out quite a bit faster than that, more like a 10 minute pace. At the time, it seemed like it would be difficult to run slower than that. Silly me! Considering I have only done the walk/jog last week and 4 miles this week, 11.40 was soon where I would end up. We got to that around mile 4 and stayed there for the remainder of our run. I blame this on me as I am sure Doug could have stayed at the 10 minute pace. I learned that the Back Bay loop is about 5 miles from my house. That, plus the loop, then back home will be perfect for my 20 mile runs (which is coming up faster than I actually want them to). Another thing I learned today is the difference between a runner and a jogger. Along our run, I mentioned I wasn't sure if you could consider our pace a run or a jog. Doug said that he once read, if you actually care about the difference between the two, you are a runner. I guess I'm a runner!

Every finish line is the beginning of a new race

On October 9, 2011, I will become part of the 1% of the population to run a Marathon. Crazy huh? I guess that means that tonight's run starts my long journey of training. I am not quite sure what I am doing yet, but I'll figure it out. As I did with the half marathon, I will just follow my training program and see were it takes me. I read the quote "Every finish line is the beginning of a new race" on the back of a running groups shirt last Sunday. I really didn't take in the full meaning until tonight. Crossing that finish line on May 1st was really just the beginning. Who would have thought that Lil Wayne could teach me something about running?

OC Half Marathon 2011

Two years ago, if you would have told me that one day, I was going to wake up at 4am and run 13.1 miles, I would have bet you one million dollars that I wasn't. I used to despise running (just ask my old soccer and basketball coach) and I never have and never will enjoy waking up early. The morning of May 1st felt different. Even though my alarm went off and it was still the middle of the night/4am, I was actually excited to wake up. All the months of training and pulling out my calculator to figure out what pace I should be at was finally going to pay off. I jumped in the shower, not to get all dolled up, but simply to wake up. I had laid out everything the night before. It basically took up the whole top of our dresser. Shoes, bib, timing chip, chapstick, GU, ipod, garmin, shirt, sports bra, Capri's, visor, directions on where to get dropped off, fave running socks, compression socks and flip flops for after, sweatshirt (in case I am cold after the run) and my sparkle skirt. After my shower, I went down the row of items and started prepping for my big morning. Mark and I left the house by 4:45am. The kids all stayed sleeping and Mark would come back for them after dropping me off. He dropped me off at Fashion Island. There were all kinds of runners, some in costumes, some in sweats, some even with balloons tied to their waist. I started questioning whether or not I was dressed appropriately. My tank top wasn't quite warming me up. Oh well, I'll probably wish I was cold in about an hour. I followed the crowd to the start line. People were holding up signs saying Corral A, Corral B and Corral D. WAIT! I was Corral C! There was no C. Being the smart person I am, I plopped myself in between B and D. All I could smell was sunscreen and Eucalyptus. By the time I got to this point, it was about 5:20. That gave me about 40 minutes to kill. I sat on the curb and people watched for about 10 minutes. Groups of women were laughing. Husband and wives holding each other to keep warm. Groups of friends taking pictures. Then, I saw the sweetest thing ever. An elderly man, maybe in his 60 or early 70's was standing in front of me with his son. The way his son was dressed lead me to believe he wasn't running. The son was helping his dad with his camel back, making sure he had easy access to his water tube and strategically placing his Gu and snacks for during the run. He kept saying "does that feel okay, dad?" The dad would just nod...I never heard words come out of the dad. Makes me wonder how many races they have been doing this for. As the sun started coming up, I figured it was time to stretch. I did some lunges and few other things I don't know the names of, but they felt good. I also spelled out the entire alphabet with each foot in the air, one at a time. I read somewhere that this helps stretch out your shins. Try it...it really does! I started chatting with a couple of ladies who were also there alone. This definitely helped kill time. The anticipation was starting to get to me. Finally...6am! I closed my eyes, bowed my head and asked God for the strength and energy to make it through this. Someone sang the National Anthem (not very well). All of a sudden, the sunscreen and Eucalyptus smell turned into fart smell. I guess everyone was nervous. They did a count down....oh, I was so excited. We started to move, slowly. The we stopped. Then another count down. I am guessing for Corral B. We moved, then stopped. By this time, I had to pee...really bad. Too late now! Finally, a third count down. This had to be me. Yup..it was! I made my way over the start line. I glanced at my garmin and saw 10.25 pace. This is what I was hoping to finish in,so I figured I would just chill at this pace. We made our way to MacArthur and holy ocean view! I probably had a smile on my face for the whole second mile! Where were the photographers then?? it was down hill for awhile, which brought my pace up to 9.30. The rest of my journey went as follows:

Mile 2 - Feeling great, still at a 9.3 pace. Saw two guys coming out of the bushes. Hmmm..
Mile 3 - Found Team Sparkle (Kelly, Elise and Carrie) on Ocean Ave. It was great to see some familiar faces. Still feeling good...still at a 9.3 pace.
Mile 4 - Wondering what I got myself into - In my head I said "I still have 9.1 more miles to go."
Mile 5 - Mile 7 - Felt wonderful. I was enjoying myself and felt no pain. I stopped for some water. At one point I heard "wheelchair coming through". I moved over and saw a team of people pushing a handicapped gentleman in a wheelchair. This would be the only time that day that I cried. I felt so proud of his team members and so thankful that I was healthy enough to run on my own. We just take so many things for granted.
Mile 8 - Just finished going up Dover. That wasn't so bad. Still at a 9.3 pace. Beginning to feel a little pain, but I know that Mark and the kids are right around the corner. So excited to see them and have a quick little break
Mile 8.75 - There they are!!!! I saw Carlie first, then Mark. Brooke was sleeping in her stroller. :( Mark had the Gu ready. I ran up to him...he handed me the Gu and said..."keep going". WHAT??? I was supposed to stop and rest for a few! UGH! So I kept going.
Mile 9 - I starting feeling a little heavy. I needed water to wash down my Gu. It was all stuck to my teeth, so I wiped it off with my shirt. I was also staring to feel really salty. My pace was now at about 9.45
Mile 9.5ish - found water. AWESOME! I've never loved water so much
Mile 10 - saw some guy spraying down people with what looked like a insect repellent sprayer. I ran up to him and said...can you get my hands? He looked at me funny but sprayed my hands. Turns out, it wasn't water...it was some cool and fit crap that made my hands tingle and smell like mint.YUK
Mile 10.5 - Some residents were outside of their homes on their driveways spraying their garden hose water in the air so the runners could run under it. I can finally wash that crap off my hands.
Mile 11ish - Another hill? OUCH! My pace is now about a 10 minute mile. :( However, I am now on borrowed time. I have never ran this far, EVER!
Mile 12 - Saw these girls, which gave me enough laughter to get to mile 13

Mile 13 - I was so excited to see this mile marker. It was almost over and I didn't feel awful. I saw the finish line and was so excited! I DID IT! I ACTUALLY DID IT!! I crossed the finish and within seconds, I saw my mom, dad and sister. They threw water over the fence for me.

I had to double check my time.

YUP! I did it...I made my goal. I wanted between 2:15 and 2:30.

The competitive side of me is wishing they could subtract the extra .12 miles I somehow ran. Oh well..I made my goal for my very first half marathon ever. Mark and the kids were still in the parking lot, trying to park after meeting me at mile 9. It was that crazy out there. He caught up with us within a few minutes. I was so happy and thankful that my whole family was there.


I immediately new I wanted to do it all over again. Not that day, but soon, very very soon.

2011 OC Marathon Expo

Friday and Saturday was the OC Marathon Expo. This is where a bunch of vendors set up their goods and try to convince you that you MUST have their product or you won't survive the marathon. This was also the place to pick up your packet, consisting of your bib, flyer's, shirt, coupons, various food and timing chip. I was pretty excited to go and check out my first expo. I brought along Carlie and Brooke with me. It was held out the Costa Mesa Fairgrounds, later to be known as the finish line. As expected, it was very crowded. The first thing I saw that got me excited were these signs.


Just knowing these are the very signs that would be guiding me through the course the next day was pretty cool. Just outside the expo is where we picked up our bib.


But not before posing for a picture first.


Once we made it inside, it was pretty overwhelming at first. There were people and booths everywhere.


I managed to find the Team Sparkle booth pretty quick and got to say hello to Elise and Kelly.

Carlie found an opportunity to win some money.


Brooke found her new favorite drink, Yakult. She managed to drink 6 bottles while we walked around the expo.


She also found balloon's!


I ran into a booth promoting the best marathon EVER. Running the Vegas strip at night. YES PLEASE! I hear it sells out within hours. I will probably be one of those crazies on my computer at midnight, waiting for registration to open.


I ended up purchasing compression socks to help with my recovery and I bought a Halo visor and Halo headband. I sweat like crazy, which usually leads to getting my salty sweat in my eye, which burns. Needless to say, this exhibit caught my eye.


It turned out to be a fantastic event. It was the perfect hype for what was to come the following day. Check out my goodies!

Final training run before the half

I was semi dreading going on a run yesterday because of how unproductive I felt on Tuesday. But...I knew I had to do it. I figured I would do four miles and then be done with it until the race. To my surprise, I felt pretty good. I didn't have side cramps like the day before and my legs felt stronger. I am guessing my body needed Tuesday as a little wake up. Judging by my last few runs I am thinking I have improved my pace from about a 10.5 minute mile to a 10 minute miles. I am pretty excited about that. Let's see if it will hold up for Sunday!!!!!

Early Mother's Day gift

Mark gave me an early Mother's Day gift! Since I have been running in my Coach or Vestal Sunglasses, he got me a pair of Oakley Commit SQ's. They definitely aren't making any fashion statements, but wow....what a difference. My other glasses slide down my nose, fog up and are heavy. The Oakley's, on the other hand, are lightweight and don't fog up. What a difference! I'll admit it...I love them. Just don't expect to see me cruising around in the mini van wearing them.

On the road again

After 6 days of being in bed instead of running, it was time to hit the road again. On Wednesday night, I dusted off my Brooke's and headed out for an evening run. Since this is "taper week", I kept it short. Three miles felt quite a bit longer than usual. I felt like I was running in mud. It hurt and I'm scared. 13.1 miles this Sunday - UGH!

If only I had known.

Last Wednesday, was the first time I had run since the OC Chili Run. Brooke had been really sick with high fevers, so I stayed home the days prior. (With the exception of a work Happy Hour on Monday night - I know, I felt guilty, but she was in good hands). I felt like I was at the point where I needed major motivation. I started to feel like I HAD to run instead of WANTING to run. I was also tired of running by myself. :::insert pity party here:::: I will research these feelings later to find out if this is common in the final weeks of training for a Half Marathon. Anyways, I asked Josh to join me and told him he could just ride his bike. He was happy to accept the invitation. So, off we went for my "scheduled" six mile run. Can I just say, nothing says motivation than having your 13 year old son look back and give the cutest smile EVER!! If you know Josh, you know the smile I speak of. I ended up completing six miles at an average 9.55 minute mile pace. I was pretty excited about it. I felt great. Now, for the bad part. The very next day, I woke up with pink eye in BOTH eyes. I even went to a doctor to confirm. I also had a sore throat, aches and a small fever. SERIOUSLY! I took Thursday and Friday off to spend with my kids, not to spend in bed. Friday was supposed to be a 12 mile run for me! So, here I am, Sunday night. Still have the aches, still have blood shot eyes and am still feeling very run down. I did some research and read that it's better to let my body rest and completely heal for the race, which is in one week, than to push it and try to get a few more training runs in. I also read that losing one week of training shouldn't hinder my fitness level much. I sure hope that is true! If only I had known this was coming, I would have done the 12 miler on Wednesday. UGH! If only I had KNOWN!

OC Chili Winter Trail Run Series - Race's #2 and #3

ABOUT THE SERIES
I first learned about THIS series around January sometime. I was too scared to sign up for the February race, so I passed. I did, however, sign up for the March and April races. Looking back, I wished I would have signed up for the 1st one...oh well. I rarely run trails, so the March race was probably about my 2nd time this year running trails. Prior to the March race, I looked up the February results and saw that the last few people finished around an hour and a half. This set my goal time at anything faster than an hour and a half. I just didn't want to come in last.

RACE #2
The morning of the March race, I figured out my pace goals. If I wanted to be an hour and half, I had to run faster than an average of 18 minutes miles. I wasn't sure how this was going to work out since I wasn't used to the climbing. The race pretty much began with uphill which lasted for two very long miles. This gave me some opportunities to briefly, and I mean VERY briefly, speak with a few people. I met a very nice man who gave me a few encouraging words to help me up the last few hills. His name was Jim. Jim left me in the dust. I was watching my garmin and even with walking and some jogging, I was at a 15-16 minute mile. So, mid race, I up'd my goal to an hour 15 minutes. The end of the race finishes with about 3/4 miles on flat fire road. When I came out of the trail onto that fire road, guess who was walking off to the side? Jim! He helped me up, so I figured the least I could do was to help him finish. It was my turn to give the encouraging words. We were able to sprint our way to the finish. Our finishing time was one hour and 44 seconds. WAY better than I thought. I felt the climbing the whole next day and it hurt! Age group results can be found HERE.

RACE #3
The April race happened this past weekend, the 16th. My new goal? To finish in less than an hour. It was very hot this time and I don't do well in heat, so I was worried. This time, Alex ran it with me. We had the opportunity to run the trail a few weeks ago, so the practice was nice. This time, I knew what to expect. The race started and about a half mile in, I realized I forgot to set my garmin. DARN IT! My average pace, timing, EVERYTHING was off! I felt like I was running blind. I tried to run as much as possible knowing that the pain would be gone after the second mile aka the top of the hill. It was so hot that I could feel my heartbeat in my face. I made it to the top and was glad that part was over. Immediately after the top of the hill is a fire road that is all down hill, which is right before you hit the single track. I knew that my best bet was to pass as many people as I could on that fire road before I hit the single track so I wouldn't get stuck behind anyone. So I ran as fast as I could without falling on my face. I managed to pass quite a few people and made my way into the single track. My finish this time wasn't as strong as last time and since my garmin was off, I had no idea what my time was, so I pushed as hard as I could. I came around the corner and YESS!!!! 56 minutes was on the clock. Finishing time - 56 minutes 20 seconds. WOO HOO! Alex did great too. He finished in one hour and three minutes. Not bad for an old guy. :) Age group results can be found HERE. After the race, they serve Chili, which I opted out of this time. I just had water and bananas. BUT...guess who I saw getting Chili? JIM! He didn't beat our race #2 time, but he still did great considering he is nursing an injury.

FINISHING THOUGHTS
I have learned alot about my body since I started running. How fast I can go; how hard I can push myself before I puke; what my legs are capable of; how my arms can get sore from running; how I start kicking the inside of my right ankle as I run when I start getting tired; how important posture is; how important it is to relax my shoulders. Then, just when I thought I couldn't learn more, I did thanks to these races. I learned how beautiful the pay off is when you get to the top of a hill; how motivated runners really are; how far a few encouraging words can go; how to control my run when going down hill; how going down hill can sometime be more painful than going up hill; and most importantly, how important coffee really is before a race.

Hump Day 10K

Last night was scheduled to be a 6 mile run, so basically a nice little 10K. Being the OCD person that I am, I spent most of my day obsessing on which route I was going to run. In the meantime, I managed to eat 2 pieces of pizza, an avocado egg roll, two mozarella sticks and a salad for lunch. It was from BJ's and it was free so what was I supposed to do? I wasn't quite sure how that was going to work out for me later on. Fast forward to the evening. I decided to run right after Mark got home. 6 miles should take me about an hour, just enough time for dinner to be made. Yay me! I took a route that I had gone on before, but I did it backwards this time. It ended up being more like a 7 mile run, but that's alright...I had plenty of calories to burn. The rest of my evening went like this: Finished my run --> inhaled dinner--> ate ice cream--> got heart burn--> took tums --> took shower--> took more tums--> moaned myself to sleep. This will probably be the last time I eat buffalo chicken pizza on the day of a run. I am happy to say that my average pace was 9.57 minute miles. (The below calculation didn't take into consideration all the stop lights I had to wait at) IF I can keep up that pace for the entire Half Marathon, my finishing time would be about 2 hours and 6 minutes, which is 9 minutes faster than my goal time of 2 hours 15 minutes. Keep your fingers crossed!
*****UPDATE - Approximately 6-7 people are out sick today, which has been apparently caused by food poisoning from BJ's.*****

Shins are people too

....at least my shins think they are. Some days they are happy and they leave me alone, but other days, you would think I slammed them up against a wall. It feels as if they are trying to break out of my skin so they could be set free. I try to drug them as much as possible so they stop complaining. I also try to give them some rest whenever I can, like last night. I decided to go to the gym instead of running. Last night, according to my training calendar, was a four mile night. I figured I would just do the four miles on the Precor machine. Same idea, right? If you don't already know, you burn about 100 calories per mile when running/jogging. Give or take some depending on how intense of a runner you are. The Precor machine, as I found out last night, was a little more difficult than I had anticipated. 4.19 miles on the Precor machine will burn 569 calories! It was tougher than running, but my shins are happy. So, the next time you eat too much cake at work for the guy's whose name you don't know sitting in the cubicle next to you, do the Precor Machine.

Double Digits!

I can remember when I turned ten years old and how happy I was to hit double digits. It was such a highly anticipated birthday! Double digits in running seemed more of a bittersweet in my opinion. I knew it was coming, according to my free training calendar. I just couldn't decide where to do it and how I was going to do it. At this point, my furthest run had been 8 miles at a 10.25 pace. Well, I get bored easy and often change things like the placement of my furniture or the items on my desk. I even change shower curtains and any other item that will give me an excuse to hit up Target. This habit is not on Mark's list of "Reason's you married Leanne". Running is the same for me. I never run the same place multiple times in a row. I enjoy not knowing what is next. This is bad because Mark doesn't always know where I will be. I try to give him an idea, but I sometimes will change my path. I recently started carrying a copy of my drivers license along with Mark's phone number, just in case. So...if you are reading this and don't know me and find a girl passed out somewhere, check my shoe wallet. I decided to take this milestone of a run to the Back Bay Loop. After all, it is part of the OC Half course. I somehow managed to talk my innocent brother in law into running this with me. This past Saturday was THE perfect day. It had rained the night before which left crisp clean air and blue skies. Alex and I met on Bayview, by the Mariott and caught the loop from there. The first 2 miles were pretty obvious on where to run. After that, we found ourselves asking a variety of people where the loop was. Kind of hard to believe you can lose a loop, right? Come to find out, we were on track the whole time, with the exception of one wrong turn, but it was a quick one. We saw several beautiful homes during our run. We did some walking, but that was okay because it gave me time to bond with my brother from another mother. I do have to say if you run the loop, and you come up off Galaxy, prepare yourself for the most beautiful view EVER. The bay, the blue ocean, sail boats, paddle boarders and palm trees. WOW! Words can't do it justice. We reached a point of no return. We were about 5.5 miles in so we had to finish it now. We ran along PCH and Newport Dunes. We even passed some campers that were cooking pancakes and drinking their coffee. YUM! That right there is motivation enough to run faster so I could get to MY coffee. We started walking again around mile 6.5. I would like to blame this on Alex, but I can't. I welcomed the break and opportunity to take in the sights. We decided that at mile 7 we would run the rest of the way. Mile 7 came faster than I thought but off we went. I heard Alex next to me for a while but I just kept on running without looking back (sorry Alex). I got to the car and about 7-10 minutes later, Alex showed up. Not bad for a guy who hadn't run in about 8 months (with the exception of our trail run where we got lost the week before). He is six months older than me, so I figured I could cut him some slack. 10.5 miles and two hours later and it was done. I felt great! I did have a mound of salt on top of my hat from all my sweat though. Alex and I rested on the grass in the sun and stretched for a bit. We chatted some more and spoke about church, our beliefs and God. Seemed appropriate since He is the one responsible for all we saw that day. Thanks Alex for the motivation and thank you, God, for my life. Amen.

What's with the title?

At 37 years old, I have to ask myself why now? Why this late in the game did I decide I wanted to run? It started in January of 2010. I was the heaviest I had ever been (non pregnancy) and I HAD to lose weight. So...I started to run. My first run took me 40 minutes to run 1.92 miles. It was so hard, but I did it. I continued to run 3 times a week and over the next 7 months, I lost 40 pounds. Oddly enough, I was more excited about my accomplishment of being able to run harder and faster than I was about the loss of the 40 pounds. I never really ran more than 3 or 4 miles at a time. I figured that was my limit, with the exception of the Mud Run at Camp Pendleton, which was 6 miles. Mind you...I was dead the rest of that weekend. After a few month hiatus of running over the holidays, I started back up again this January. I decided what better motivation than signing up for a half marathon (13.1 miles). I felt crazy, but what do I have to lose, right? I looked on the website and saw that I had 3.5 hours to complete the half marathon, which is a 16 minute mile pace, which is a nice little walk. So, if all else fails, I could walk it. So...I signed up. I downloaded a free training program and started my training about 2 months ago. It came time to run 6 miles. I was nervous. The only six miles I had ever run was up hills, in mud and over walls and I was MISERABLE. So...out I go. I start running and the first half mile sucked as usual. Second was good, third was alright...the fourth was better. Then it happened. I hit mile five and I felt GREAT! My heart rate settled and I found my groove. I felt so free and so strong. I was actually enjoying myself. I was able to notice everything around me. The trees looked beautiful, the air was so fresh...I noticed all the things I never gave myself a chance to before because I would stop running before mile five. If only I had known about this magical mile. I now look forward to long runs...I look forward to mile five and beyond. So why the blog? I read that it's great motivation to blog about your runs and experiences. As you may have read in my "about me" section...I love to talk. I figured I'd kill two birds with one stone. Besides, I think everyone around me is getting tired of hearing me talk about running and all the weird things I see on the road. That being said...welcome to my blog. I hope I can at least inspire you to find your mile five, whether its through running or something else.