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| Theodora and I happy as clams to be running another marathon! |
*Going to show off some of the MarathonFotos that I bought in this post. $85 and I don’t think the quality is all that great but…still nice to have them.
Okay, it’s been decided: I am running the Philadelphia Marathon.
I know, you are saying but Ericka, we already knew that!
What you didn’t know is that I was having a back and forth in my head about it. I mentioned it but it was driving me up the wall, truly.
Well, don’t you know, all it takes is one GRAND marathon race report read to get me all on board again. And THIS is why I love love love my blogging community.
Oh, you guys have taken me from feeling like a lonely runner to a runner with tons of friends online and offline — encouragement and inspiration out the wazoo!
It was Ali, Emily and Lauren’s weekend experience that really made me want to run Philly. After I read their reports of the Manchester Marathon — which they ran on the spur of the moment when New York got cancelled — I really wanted to do Philly.
I read all of their blogs religiously and the triple dose of awesome got to me on this race, especially since I saw that Ali got a crazy, unbelievable PR!
There are so many of you out there that have inspired since we’ve “met.” Earlier this week, I was inspired by Melissa and Cherie for accomplishing their hard-earned goals! Every time I read about someone running a great race — or a not so great one but one they learned from — I am all ready to get out there and do it again!
That being said, I am ready to run Philly. Ready physically? Hmm, great question. Ready mentally? I think so.
As much as I said I was going to take it easy in this race, you fellow runners know how it feels getting to the starting line and just wanting to crush it. You taste success and you want to taste it over and over again.
Can I run a faster marathon three weeks later? I don’t think so. But I’m going to see how my body feels and go with it. I would like to find a pace group and stay with them. I couldn’t find any of them during MCM and given that Philly is smaller, I don’t know if I will be any more likely to find them this time.
But, I liked Glenn’s approach to kind of aiming for runners ahead of you to stay with. Maybe I’ll do that. Marathons are trial and error. The reason I want to keep running so many is because I can only better perfect my skill.
I already know a lot of people are going to encourage me not to set expectations or push my body too hard. Don’t worry, I’ll be okay. It’s probably silly to even hope for another PR but I still have it.
Could I end up looking like this at mile 18 (instead of 26, where this photo was taken)? It’s possible but it’s in those moments that you push yourself hard hard hard that you learn soooo much:
That being said, I’ve got to take it easy the next 10 days. Like, STOP RUNNING. Harder than it sounds, really. I admit, part of it has been feeling uncomfortable about my body. The only thing that makes that feeling go away usually is running. Well, screw the voice in my head — it’s winter and I’ve got legs to refresh!
I’ve been eating a lot of junk food in the past couple of weeks and it’s starting to mess with my head. I know I’ve gained at least 5 pounds in the last several months and I can just feel it on me. I know I know, what’s 5 pounds? I just feel the old “demons” creeping into my head. Well, that is for another post. Instead, I will focus on how amazing it felt to PR at MCM and how lucky I am to have two tremendously working legs.
So, it’s on! Philly, here I come.