Opening Day

Well ladies and gents - today is the first day of training!

I thought it would be good to post my thoughts and feelings before I take my first run.  It will be a good way to judge where I'm at, knowing where I started.  Once the running gets under way, I'll be sharing regularly how it's going physically as well as mentally during training.

On the whole I feel nervous - it seems like a gargantuan task ahead of me.  In my life the farthest I've ever run without stopping is about 3 miles.  I'm not sure how I'll fare with the additional 10, I'm really anxious and have a tenancy to create doubts very quickly.

But I've been praying about training without doubt!  This summer, my friend Lauren told me that running is 90% mental and if there's one thing I know about myself, it's that I can build a tower of doubt in no time.  I'm going to constantly be praying that my mind wouldn't jump to doubts about my knees, if the weather will be nice enough outside, how I will find the time to do long runs, if my pace is alright, how hard it will be to breathe, and on and on the list could go, you get the picture.


As far as today's run goes - I feel pretty confident!  The first run on my schedule is only 2 miles, I can definitely do that!  I'm also not sure yet if I'll be actually "running" today.  A friend of mine who ran the Pittsburgh Marathon two years ago suggested doing a few of the short runs on the elliptical to minimize the strain on my knees.  The miles will really add up week after week and I do have some knee troubles already, so today I'm going see how I feel when I get to the gym after work and pick the treadmill or the elliptical then.

By the end of the week I'll have about 9 miles in the book (Literally! My sister got me an awesome running calendar for Christmas!) and I can't wait to see how it goes.  I'll be sure to post an update on my first week of training, as well as the running gear I got at Christmas soon.  There are so many thoughts racing through my mind but the dominating thought for the day is: "First day, 2 miles, totally doable".  

Wish me luck!




Don't forget that if you'd like to sponsor me as I run for Team L.I.V.I.N.G. Ministry you can do that online here, making sure to mention the Marathon in the comment section!  Please feel free to search around the L.I.V.I.N.G. Ministry website while you're there!