BAM!

Today I ran my first half marathon—a precursor to the big event in April—and I kicked butt if I do say so myself. As you can see from my results (click on the image to see it big enough to read, especially us folks who need bifocals), I managed to keep up with the Joneses, literally.

The absolute highlight was around mile 3.5 when I ran by Dick Hoyt pushing his son Rick (www.teamhoyt.com). I've watched them for so many on TV doing the Boston Marathon and I cry every time. And today, I got so choked up, the woman running next to me asked if I was okay. It took a few minutes to breathe evenly again, I must admit. It is such an amazing thing that they do, but then I realized, as I hit mile 11, it's a pretty amazing thing that I've decided to do. I enjoy the running so much these days, I forget that it is actually hard work and that there are many people out there who could never do what I am doing, whether because they have no interest or aren't physically capable or just think it's plain crazy. And I couldn't do this a couple of years ago myself.

I do wonder though if I will be prepared for the emotional part of the Marathon as I am not sure there is really training for that part. If I keep going as I am now, I'll be as ready as I can be for the physical challenge (the long run this weekend is 16 miles), but when I hit mile 20 and see the kids and families and hopefully Emma cheering on Team MGH, how do I not just fall apart and continue running for 6.2 more miles? Megan, one of the MGH team captains, said she cried there for 15 minutes last year and then had to run Heartbreak! It's a daunting thing.

But rather than worry, I'll do what I can between now ant then to train physically and prepare mentally by resting, eating right, and trying not to sweat the small stuff.