Sunday, April 6, 2014

20 Days until the OKC Marathon

Week 15 report: A Girl named Karlee

Weight: 135
Miles ran this week: 30 
Miles ran so far in my training: 389

I love ZUMBA and in 2011 I was totally consumed by it.  I even told my BFF Penney "I think I love ZUMBA more than running!"
Me in my crazy ZUMBA days
 Yep, I was one of those ZUMBA chicks that you see at the Y.  One Sunday I was at class and this girl named Karlee asked me if she could take a picture of me holding up a "I LOVE Oprah" sign."  She was trying to win tickets to one of Oprah's last shows (which did happen for her!) Your girl NJ loves to pose for pictures, so I did so.

 I continued to see Karlee at ZUMBA and noticed that she wore running shirts, so naturally I thought I would ask her about running.  I found her to be very knowledgeable and passionate about running.
 Made me feel like falling in love with running again.  Through getting to know Karlee I discovered that her husband was Fernando.  I had known of Fernando for years as his running record is impressive.  Fernando helped me train for the Johnston's 2012 Half Marathon with a goal of 2:10.  He helped me to understand that I would need to run a minimum of 4 days a week if I wanted to improve my time.  It was raining almost the entire 1/2 on 4/29/12.  At mile 11 Fernando joined me and ran with me a while and it really helped me. I crossed the finish line at 2:15, a new PR for me but 5 minutes off of my goal.  I may have fallen short of my goal but I had fallen in love with running again. 
 Karlee told me that I should hook up with the Start to Finish program and do group runs with the group.  I remember being nervous about the first time I did a group run.  Would people like me?  Would people run with me?  I felt like a 12 year old girl. I went and did a group fun and the rest is history.I am so glad I met you Karlee because YOU CHANGED ME AS A RUNNER.   You led me to S2F and I am a better runner because of it.  
20 Fingers for 20 miles
NOW FOR THE BEST NEWS OF ALL!  I RAN 20 MILES YESTERDAY, HOLLA!  Kathy and I did our peak training run yesterday for the OKC Marathon.

 We knew we would need a crew to get through the mileage on this one.
 Joni joined us at 6:00 am for 5 miles.  When we finished up our run I had noticed that her picture was on the GORUN van. She looks beautiful and happy on it. At 7:30 Mandy joined us and we did 6 miles with our S2F groups. Helaine had driven in to run the last 9 miles of our run with us. Abi, Mandy and Joni joined us for a portion of it as well.
 I don't think I could have ran that far without the help of these awesome Women.  At Mass last night I felt God's wonderful love and the blessing of many wonderful running friends. 
I now know that I can run 26.2 miles and that many of you have helped me on this journey.  Let the taper begin.....

  

Workouts for week 16
Monday: AM 5 mile recovery run
Tuesday: AM 5 mile run
Wednesday: Extreme Ride
Thursday: PM BEER RUN? 4 miles who is going?
Friday: REST
Saturday: 12 mile run preview the PF course

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