Why I Run

I realized yesterday, that every step I take on these long run days gets me a step closer to being the person I want to be.

I set a personal best Saturday by running 24 miles. My previous high had been 20 miles. By the 20-mile mark I thought, "hey, every step I'm taking right now is the farthest I've ever gone at one time."

My legs are trashed and tired. I'm dehydrated like a mofo. My face is wind/sunburned. My butt developed some sort of heat rash out there that's gonna be around for days. But I'll be damned if I don't feel absolutely great about myself.

Nobody close to me has ever run that far. It doesn't jump off the top of my head if anyone I know has ever run a marathon. I guess it's kind of rare.

Okay, enough self-aggrandizing. Ooh, wait, the best part was when I went to McDonald's for my post-run meal. I got a Double Quarter-Pounder with Cheese, Large Fries, Large Powerade, and a 20 piece McNugget (for those of you that want to know, that's approximately 2380 calories; gross).

I'm making leaps and bounds towards my goal and it's still fun at this point because I'm progressing nicely. At some point, I'm going to hit a wall in my training and it will become difficult to be motivated or to find the time (I was running for around 4 hrs and 40 mins yesterday), but right now it's as exhilarating as ever.

Barring injury, I'm confident I will finish the ING Marathon in Atlanta in 6 weeks, but that's only the first big step of the journey.