Marathon training begins TODAY!

“The beginning is the most important part of the work.”  Plato, The Republic

Before the run! My Super SIL and me :)

Today was the first run of our training program for the Philadelphia marathon, which is in November. How exciting it always is to start a new program! We have decided to do our long runs on Fridays. My SSIL is a nurse and works every second weekend and we both have Fridays off...so it's perfect. Also, it'll be nice to have the long run done, allowing us to enjoy some summer festivities on weekends :) 

The first long run of the program was a 1 hour 15 minute run at a pace 30 seconds slower than race pace. Nice and easy. It ended up pouring rain through most of our run, reminding us how truly hardcore we are!

After the run. Every piece of clothing is stuck to our skin!

After completing most of the long runs alone during my last training cycle, it'll be really great to have my SSIL as a partner for this round. Her pace is a bit faster than mine, but we'll only be doing the long runs together and those are mostly at a slow and easy pace. 

My goal for this marathon is to not be injured on the start line, and I would be thrilled to come in around 4h45m. That's the pace I'll be training for...and I know it's realistic. Of course, we never know what race day will bring, so we'll see.

Cheers everyone!!

First trail race - 9km and lots of mud!

"By leaving your comfort zone behind and taking a leap of faith into something new, you find out who you are truly capable of becoming." Unknown author

Before my first every trail race...socks and shoes are still nice and clean, and I'm feeling good about this new experience. Uber H ran with me and even carried the water for us...as well as took a few pics :)

(Left) This is the second loop on the bridge, we are more spread out. On the first loop, we had to stop because we could only cross one at a time. (Right) Most pictures taken during the run were like this one...blurry, but I was smiling.

Trying to sidestep some deep mud!

There was only one real technical difficulty and it was the MUD...serious crazy mud (it looked like it was done purposely). A few people lost their shoe and had to stick their hand in to pick it up. Messy! But really a lot of fun. The atmosphere on the trails is completely different than during a road race. Not better or worst, just different, perhaps a bit more variety and fun. I'm definitely going to try something like this again...hopefully with less mud holes.

After the race! :)

Cheers everyone!!!