New Longest Run Ever!

You know what is freaking awesome? Pushing yourself beyond your limits. Doing something you never thought you could do before. Moving towards a goal, one step at a time, checking off one training run at a time, moving ever so closer to the coveted finish line. Today we took another big leap towards that goal, checking off the 16 mile training run, leaving only two more longest runs of my life to go before the big 26.2.

Today wasn't quite as exhilaratingly good as last week's 15 mile run, but I think that's because I logged in 43 miles total this week, and it's not really surprising my legs were tired. I did great the first 14 miles-- I hit the wall there and pushed myself through the last two against a wall of unusually chilly wind for late November in Florida. Aside from running 16 miles in 2 hours and 39 minutes, my big accomplishment today was clocking in at 2 hr, 9 min, 30 sec for the half marathon length of 13.1 miles, a full 15 minutes better than my half marathon time last January. Slowly but surely I've improved my half marathon time in this training, from 2:24, to 2:16, to 2:14, to 2:09.

Someone asked me this week what my goal will be once the marathon is over. Though doing a triathlon is in the back of my mind, I'm not sure I want to tackle that one just yet. Who knows. Maybe I'll work on goals in my life that aren't athletic in nature, something that doesn't require me to dedicate 18 weeks of my life to training!

Onto my amazing son... he did the cutest thing today! We put him down for his nap today at noon, usual time, and he laid in his crib babbling to himself for awhile. Typically he'll do that for 15-20 minutes or so, talking himself to sleep. Today though, it was 1:15 and he was still going, so I went in there to check on him and was greeted by a roomful of stifled poop smell. I took him out of his crib to change his diaper (after all, who can sleep with pants full of poop?) and he looked me in the eye and said ever so sweetly, "I'm sorry, mommy". Sorry, I suppose, for having pants full of poop and not going to sleep! I just melted, gave him a hug and assured him it was ok. As soon as I laid him back down, I didn't hear another peep out of him and he went right to sleep.

He's so cute!!!!!!!! I'm so lucky to have such a sweet, intelligent little boy! He is what I'm thankful for this Thanksgiving, and every year to come!