This week is a 30 mile week!

This morning, when I was running, I was amazed at the fact that this week will be a 30 mile week. A 30 mile week, wow! To me, this is a true milestone.

This had me thinking back to when I first started running. I mean, I ran in high school, but that didn't count. I was slow, could not run for very long, and had issues with hurdles...I was just lucky they needed people. I first really started running in July 2007. I was peer pressured into doing a half marathon. Lucky for me, the half wasn't until April 2008. This meant that the "official" training didn't start until January. I looked up a training schedule, and it started at 2 miles. I remember thinking, "2 miles. How am I ever going to run 2 miles?" I started off awful. I couldn't even run .25 miles, and I had to get to 13.1 miles. I wanted to give up right away, but peer pressure is a funny thing. My first run was some running, but mostly walking. That's how most of the beginning runs were. But I kept on pushing, and for the next 5 months I worked up to 3 miles. Then after that, I worked all the way up to 13.1 miles.

Dad was in Iraq while I was training for my half marathon. After every additional mile I added, I sent him e-mails updating him on my progress. Every additional mile was a distance I had never run before. This is from an e-mail to Dad on December 4, 2007, "WooHoo! I ran 3 miles last night! I did it without stopping once. My pace was around 11:40. Kinda slow, but I did it!"

I remember that 3 miles being a huge milestone. Then, I reached 5 miles. Wow, 5 miles...I was a real runner then. Little did I know then, the week of July 26, 2010 I would run 30 miles in 1 week. And never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that my goal for October 10, 2010 would be 26.2 miles!

It is amazing to me how far I have come in the past 3 years. It kinda makes me wonder what kind of runner I will be in July 2013. :)