Running Recap

The Army Ten-Miler is six days away, I thought you'd like to know how I went from zero to ten in one summer! Here is a recap of how my training went for the Army Ten-Miler. For those of you who follow the blog I've made a comment here and there about running and how its been going, but I thought a retrospective of the summer of running would be appropriate.

Over Memorial Day weekend my sister-in-law went to a conference in Washington DC that was run by and organization called TAPS, Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors. Their purpose is to provide support, in any number of ways, to families who have lost a loved one in the military. Liz was impressed by their programs and when presented with the opportunity to run the Army Ten-MIler on the TAPS team she said yes. Then she called me. Somehow, probably because she said the phrase "Christian would be so proud" I agreed to run with her.

My first training run came end of May/beginning of June and I've been training ever since. I thought for sure I'd be able to run 2 miles with no problem...not so. I was sucking wind and my feet felt like lead and I thought my heart was going to explode. I stopped short of the two miles. Was I going to make it?!?

Thanks to the encouragement of many friends (thank you Jadon, Meg, Jess, Jen, Laura, Liz, Amy, and Mr. MacKay) I kept going. Each time I needed to add mileage I had a friend with me cheering me on. Any time I needed to add a mile I had someone with me to keep me going. I wanted to hit Jadon when he made me run up the hill to finish three miles. I thought four would be impossible at the Fire Cracker Four on July 4th, but Mr. MacKay stuck with me for the last mile and made encouraging comments all the while. I think Jess was with me for five miles, at the crack of dawn before it got hot...such a good friend. I made six when I went to the North Country to visit Liz and the Nordberg clan; that was a great run! I knew then that I would be able to make ten. Amy made me keep going and going and going when we did seven. Two weekends ago I jumped to nine. That was a hard run, but my mom and her cousin Meghan met me a little more than half way with water... so fun to have a little cheering section as I met them by the lake.

Those, along with countless other runs in between make me feel like I'm ready! I really do feel like Christian would be proud. To all of you who have asked me about how training was going and to those encouraged me along the way, a big hearty Thank You! One special thanks to Kristin Suidak, mom of Olivia who takes violin with me. She has been a great encouragement and source of information along the way. Plus a great mom, I love teaching Olivia!

One more shameless plug... If you are interested in supporting me in this run I have a page on the TAPS website where I am raising funds that will go directly to families who have lost a loved one in the military. Every donation is greatly appreciated! Hopefully the link below will work, otherwise you can just paste it into your address line. Thanks to all!

https://www.kintera.org/faf/donorReg/donorPledge.asp?ievent=273178&supid=223384751