100 days yet to come

well, the hundred days are over. let's see what we've learned and what we've experienced.

1. i am soooo not a morning person
2. i might be a morning person if i could get myself to bed at a reasonable hour
3. no matter how cute the shoes are - the three inch heel is not a good idea, especially in vegas, baby!!
4. family are the best people to jump out and surprise you whilst running
5. mental strength is all the matters in the end
6. crying lets the boo hoos out :)
7. friends are the best to make you feel better....and chocolate!

so how'd the marathon go?  not so good :(

the weekend started off great! i went to the expo with my roommate and picked up my tag and bib - very exciting. then we went to lunch where i'm happy to say that i had no qualms about carb loading. got ready that evening, ate some pasta and went to bed at a reasonable time (for once). i did however, wake up at around 4am from a nightmare where i had overslept and missed the first two hours of the marathon and my roommate was watering the plants - weird. thankfully i did not oversleep. i got myself to the start line and stretched and waited with the 30,000 other participants. people are so nice before they begin a 26.2 mile jaunt.

and then we were off! and everything was great - it was a beautiful day and i was glad to be running. passed by the parents cheering me on and still felt great! then at mile 3 - yes that's right 3 - everything went to pieces. i started to feel some pain in my left knee. i thought - well, it kinda hurts but i can do this, just push through.

i kept running - walking just a bit until i realized the pain kept getting worse everytime i walked so i basically stopped walking. this of course meant that i ran much slower but i didn't realize how much until the half marathoners broke off and i was running pretty much on my own. so i'm running, staying positive, my knee is on fire, but i'm still moving forward which is a good sign right?! well anyway, i was going strong until this perfectly nice police officer told me i needed to run on the sidewalk until the next turn off because they would be opening main street to traffic soon. can you say crushed - i can - crushed. after that the emotional strength was holding on only by a straw. so a couple miles later, once the pain in my knee was causing so much pain that i could barely move, there wasn't much left to keep me going. thankfully, another nicer policeman had the good thought to ask if the runner who was crying and limping was okay. i calmly asked him where the next aid station was and when he said a couple miles i sat myself down on the curb while he called for a pick up and i cried my eyes out that i couldn't finish my run. at this point i also realized i was covered in a very thin layer of dirt - gross.

through some weird act of whatever i ended up sitting outside of shopping center waiting for my parents to pick me up - i know weird. but the nice jason's deli guy gave me a cold lemonade while i waited - that was nice. i got flowers, a bag of ice and the satisfaction of knowing that i had run 10 miles on an injured knee plus three more on a knee just waiting to act up.

the moral of the story, i'm supposed to be proud of how far i got - i'm getting there. right now, i'm still feeling the disappointment. this has however, proven to motivate me even more for next year. training starts in a couple weeks - ya know, once i recover from this one. and i have friends that are gonna go through it with me this time. registration for the 2011 houston marathon is july 27 - i'll be ready and waiting!!

i have 375 days to get ready for it - here i come!!

thanks mom and dad for the flowers! they are beautiful!

with God all things are possible

only two weeks left

so...i know that it's been awhile since i updated - my bad.

i left off with getting ready for a trip to vegas with my two best girls and that, my friends, is the beginning of the end. we had a blast where i made out with $950 extra in my pocket...oops sorry i meant $9.50 extra from my small brush with gambling :) darn those decimals. but did you know that the bellagio (yes! that's where we stayed) charges you money to use the fitness room?!?! crazy right - well, needless to say - i did not run while in vegas. however, wearing non practical shoes helped me get in some good foot conditioning - it's necessary to have tough feet to run 26.2 miles - right?

after vegas life calmed down - in my dreams that is. off to arkansas for thanksgiving with the fam! which was really fun. not at all what i expected - did you know that arkansas is really beautiful? and that the shopping is killer - it was news to me too! i drove up to dallas to meet my sister after work and then the next day we drove to arkasas - a good seven hours - it was fun too! unfortunately, i ended the week with a blow out on I-45 - bad news bears. it was a pretty terrifying hour of my life. even the guy who so nicely towed me away said he got out of his truck saying his last prayers - that's always a good thing to hear after the fact.

umm... let me think - what happened next? oh right - my brakes went out - great. went to the fix it place after work where the dude told me my brakes needed to replaced - but they close in 30 minutes so i will need to come back tomorrow. two death defying car rides later i had new brakes and now my car only shakes and pulls to the left (on account of the new tire i had to get). one more trip to the fix it place to fix the shaking and pulling left me with an $800 option or a less extensive $350 option, neither of which will fix the shaking or the pulling. so i asked if it was safe to drive as is and was told - sure - so i'm driving my shaky, pully car and gonna go car shopping soon - yay?!

christmas came and went in a whirl wind of crazy family adventure - super duper fun!!!! the whole fam came down and stayed in the same house - nine adults and one baby - can we say crazy again! annabel is even cuter and more the love of my life than before - if that's even possible. we had some good conversations and she managed to throw up on me a sufficient number of times - however, much to my suprise - the whole time i didn't have to change one diaper - not really sure how that happened. pretty sure the parents weren't too thrilled with that - oh well ;)

over the christmas weekend - i ran...can i get a drum roll please... 17.5 miles!!! yes you read that right - 17.5! can i get a what what!! i left the house the saturday after christmas and proceeded to carry myself 17.5 miles down the road! i was met at mile 9 by my wonderful brother, sister and brother-in-law who were my cheering section! it was pretty sweet to see them pop out to cheer me on - i did, however, proceed to run the entire rest of the way, in case they popped out again and catch me walking - oops. it was certaintly some good motivation.

10 miles this weekend finishes out my update.

extremely sore - check

painfully stiff - check

bottle of aspirin close by - check

the satisfaction in knowing i really can run this marathon - yeah, that's worth it!

love to you all - colleen

with God all things are possible.