Biting The Bullet

OK, I did it...I bit the bullet...after months of saying, "No, not this year." Or, "It's just too tough to travel."  I shelved the excuses and signed up for the Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon.  Here's the kicker, I am running the half this year and looking extremely forward to it!  I ran the full 26.2 miles in 2007, 5K in 2008 (I was three months pregnant with Allison) and the full 26.2 last year in 2009.  I actually enjoy running half marathons.  The recovery is non existent compared to the full marathon.  Plus in the OKC Marathon, the last 6 miles of the full are a cruel joke.  ALL.  UP.  HILL.  Thank goodness, I will miss that part this year and already be sipping some delicious cold beverage by the time I would be climbing the hill.
I originally thought I would miss the Oklahoma City Marathon this year because my running buddies, Alesha and  Brett, will be living it up in Paris.  Yup, you read that correctly, Paris.

Anyway, I have been running with my friend Shaynna and loving every second of it!  She is awesome and such a motivator!  She even deals with me when I have to push Allison in the BOB running stroller for 10 miles.  She even offers to push too!  Now that is a true friend! I have been following her training schedule with her and decided, why not?  I am going to go with her!  So here we are!  It is less than a month away and I am ready to go for it!  The best part of all of this...in our little bitty town of only 14.000 people, there are at least 12 people that I know of running the OKC half marathon!  Twelve people, can you believe that?!  Four of the twelve are a father and his three teenage daughters...now that is wonderful!  So for this run that I love so much, please wish us luck!  Here are a few of my favorite moments from the Marathon!

Crossing the finish line of my first full marathon in 2007.  What a glorious feeling!

After my 5K in 2008, pregnant with my sweet little girl!

Allison's Godmother, Alehsa, after her first half marathon!

Alesha and I in 2009.  We both completed our second full marathon last year!

And with my ultimate running buddy, Allison, at 5 1/2 months old!  What a blessing!

The bigger picture of this marathon is the Oklahoma City Memorial.  It is such an emotional run and such a wonderful thing for the state of Oklahoma. The people of Oklahoma took an incredibly tragic event developed such an uplifting event to never ever forget what happened. I can't wait to run those streets again.  It will be great to have a pacing buddy and WE CAN DO IT!  We'll just say our runner's prayer, "Oh Lord, please don't let my feet fail me now!"