I just finished running my 25th race. That makes me a silver racer...lol. It just worked out to be my third 10K. Overall I have done the 3 10K's, one 5-mile run, one half marathon and 20 5K's. I think it's finally becoming second nature for me. The lifestyle of a runner is gaining on me and I have more races already scheduled. Right now I am trying to do two each month. That's as long as I can manage it. This 10K had a very different element about it. You see about 2 weeks ago I started having some pain in my left foot. After some research I am pretty certain it is metatarsalgia. It's common to runners who are adding too many miles too fast. Yup, that's pretty much what I did. So in order to reach my half-marathon goal I have to scale back my training a little while at the same time increasing it. Sounds crazy doesn't it? Oh well - it's doable. I will spread my long runs out a little more and add shorter ones more frequently. The weird thing about this...

Do you ever get tired of that question? I think I have answered it in a hundred different contests. (none of which I've won so far!) For the runner it seems more logical to ask the rest of the world, Why don't you run? That makes much more sense...those answers may seem superficial except for the very few legitimate ones...and my mind is blank...I started to say unless you don't have legs, but then I've seen too many successful runners who run with a prosthetic limb....Now they might be very well qualified to ask the rest of the world what their obstacle is to running! It's kind of amazing to see stories like that though, isn't it? Or to hear such inspirational stories. You've probably all seen the video now of the father who pushes his son in a wheelchair in his races. Those are the types of stories that give us that extra kick in the butt to get moving down the road in the morning, aren't they? And although I did begin running out of desperation du...

I didn' mind taking a couple of days off since my thighs were so sore! But trust me, it was a great sore to be! But today if was off the couch and out the door for my first post half marathon run. I was really sore and mentally prepared to walk...but it was great! I took it easy just like I'd read and did a little less than 3 miles. While I was running I was reflecting on the half marathon. One of the things I thought about during the 13.1 mile course was so many things that I had read over the last couple of years. I've read runner's world magazine and use their site to log all my miles even. I get their "Daily kick in the butt" motivational statement too. During the race Sunday so many things that I had read (and lacked opportunity to try) just kind of came up in my mind. I would think a question and then I'd remember an answer or possible solution. I'd implement it to see if it would really work for me or not. This proved something I've ...

Okay, so now on to the mental part of running. This is my toughest challenge yet to be sure. I only got in 10.5 miles on Friday. There were lots of factors that caused limitations. I just ran and didn't calculate until I got home and was pretty disappointed really. I hope to run light this week. I think that was one problem Friday is that I put in longer miles and ran more days. The half is this coming Sunday and I'm having thoughts of ditching! Is that crazy or what? I know I can walk it and set a PR! And the main thing is not how well I do - but just that I finish it. If I crawl or roll across the finish line at midnight that's fine - I will have finished it...and that's what matters. Isn't this the same as life with faith? We just have to be finishers, not always come-in-firsters! We gotta finish what we started. For many it's too easy when things get tough or too challenging to just want to ditch it all and throw out our faith. Even though that's re...