A Shout Out

I've got 2 incredible people helping me through this marathon training.

First off, there's Petey. He's been working from home on Wednesday mornings so I can do my longer short runs outside. Long distances on a treadmill are not my thing. He takes care of the kids while I do my long runs on Saturdays. He calls me every hour during my runs to make sure I'm okay. If I need him to, he'll go unlock the church so I can have a bathroom break. If I need more calories or run out of water and Gatorade he'll load everyone up in the van and come to my rescue. And while he's dropping off said goods, he'll have the kids start chanting "run mommy run." I call him when I'm a mile away from home and he'll start making my recovery drink, making food, making ice packs. He'll make sure I do a cool down walk and stretch--even when I don't want to. He tells me I'm awesome and wonderful and amazing when I think I'm just plain old nuts to do this. He keeps me going when I want to quit. All in all, he's amazing and I couldn't do this without him.

And then there's my best friend, Laura. She is pure motivation and inspiration. I call her after almost every run I do and she listens and gives me ideas on how to improve. She tells me what to do for skin chafing. She reminds me to put hills into my routes. She gives me ideas on what to eat before and after a hard run. She's completely honest with me and tells me how freaking hard it will be--I need that, I don't want it sugar coated, I want to be prepared. She's sending me new music to add to my play list. She reminds me that I can do this and what an incredible experience it can be. She cheers for me day in and day out. And during a hard run when I think I've reached my limit I imagine her running next to me telling me to just keep putting one foot in front of the other.

I'm a lucky girl to have these two wonderful people cheering me on. And to everybody else and their words of encouragement--thank you! I need it and it really does help me keep going.