Seizing the Day

Today I have start my blog with big thank you's to my PaPa Jim and my bestest Angie for their donations to my fundraising effort. I can finally say that I have begun! For anyone who hasn't donated yet, tap that link! I want to go the New York City! But more importantly, I want to support the fight against stroke. 80% of strokes are preventable, and education is the key. The National Stroke Association does amazing work getting the word out about stroke, and providing educational opportunities for medical professionals so that we can provide the best care for our stroke patients.

I am going out to the local businesses today to see if any of them will help me in my fundraising quest. Check back to see who decides to help. They will get major kudos here on my blog, of course.

Yesterday's training run was really good. My training plan called for 7 miles, so of course I did 8 miles. It was actually a mistake. I thought I was taking a 7 mile loop - but I'd forgotten, with all the different loops I do which one is which! So, 8 by mistake. I ran strong with only minor aches in the knees in mile 6 that went away so I could power through the last mile. I felt amazing. I was able to push my pace up the hills, which I think (?) is the right method for training runs - push the hills and get stronger while training - then the hills won't seem so bad on race day, right? I kept a fairly steady pace throughout - about the pace I hope to achieve for the marathon 11:00 -11:30 min/mile. I did speed up on some of my down hill miles - I think I got a 9:45 in there somewhere around mile 3 or 4. I will have to be very careful on race day not to let my pace get as variable as that - but I have some time to work that out.

Today was the first day of school for my three biggest mushrooms. Like every year, I am both very glad that they are going back, and yet a little nostalgic and sad that they are another year older - growing up so fast.