Forward

No long Sunday run for me today. This morning I slept until my kids told me it was time to wake up, about 7am. I got up lazily and started the day lazily, exactly what I needed. I have spent most of the day wishing we lived in a one level house in a one level world. There are way too many stairs in my life.
I signed up for a fall marathon right after my baby girl was born. I wanted to have a race on the books and reason to train. I wanted to have something for me while so much of my life is being lived for my kids.

I decided on a 16 week training plan, this meant training started within a few weeks of baby being born. I was able to do this because I had ran throughout my pregnancy. The day before I went into labor I ran 6.5 miles. So I had a base, a good foundation to draw from.

I stuck with a 3 day a week training plan, and even that was hard some weeks. A lack of sleep and not using daycare meant that I had some very tired and very early runs. But I listened to my body, I knew what I could handle, and I got it done happily.
I came into race week feeling antsy and anxious....but happy. I felt good about my training, I felt good about where I was at. I was ready to put it to the test.

My husband sends me the perfect texts before I race. I look forward to them at each starting line. I know I will smile and often I tear up. This year he told me to focus on forward. Moving forward, keeping my shoulders forward, leaning forward, always focusing on forward. It was perfect and it helped me through those miles. As the miles started wearing I just kept saying forward. When I felt myself leaning back and putting the breaks on I would remind myself to lean forward and would feel my body get back into it's groove.

Forward.... what a perfect word to have firm in my mind for that race. A word that came back to me over and over again for so many different reasons reminding me where I was going, what I was doing, and how to get there.