16 Miles In Billings. MT!

I spent the past weekend in Billings, MT with my dear friends Julie and Corey and their lovely little Carolyn (4 months).  My program called for a 16 miler.  Since Corey and Julie were the ones who turned me onto running a marathon, they got excited about helping me.  Corey had a whole map, plus a full, single-spaced typed page of directions for me.  He had mapped out a flat, 16 mile course that passed many major landmarks of their courtship-like their college, the bars they hung out in, places they committed wild acts of…well, you get the idea.

I headed out Saturday morning with the Camelbak filled up and my hopes high.  One good thing about running in a place you have never been is that all the unique scenery distracts you during the run.  I stopped a few times for short breaks.  The whole thing took me a little over 3 hours.  An average pace of 12 minutes a mile, certainly not fast but my goal is to finish this marathon, not get injured or prove myself an great athlete. 

I had forgotten my running tank top and Corey loaned me one of his.  Corey is someone I consider a truly gifted athlete.  He could do minimal training and bust out a marathon about anytime-he has ran two so far.  So I felt like I was wrapped in his strength as I crushed those miles.

The next day, I flew home.  I reflected on how so many barriers I thought were just insurmountable, are really not.  They have been revealed as a mere mental boundary I have placed on myself.  I never THOUGHT I could run that far so I never dared to TRY to run that far.  If you put my photo up in front of the average person, I certainly would not be picked out of a line-up of people most likely to be able to bust out 16 miles-but I can and I DID.

I just sort of started to think about all the people out there who are probably capable of doing something like this and they just don’t even try-accepting limits and mental messages that are just not true.  I grew up asthmatic and overweight kid.  I honestly never saw myself as someone who could compete, who could run, who could do some major athletic feat-but I am pretty freakin’ far into running this marathon.   What else could I do that I didn’t think I could do?  Under what other pointless limits am I burying my true potential?! 

I have about 7 more weeks of training to go.  I have 2 more 16 milers and then 2, 18 mile runs and a bunch of shorter runs in between.  Then I begin to taper for the race.  It is September 23 in Omaha, NE.  The walls are coming down and you will see me hammer out 26.2 miles!