14 Miles!

I ran FOURTEEN miles today, an all-time distance record for me and my very tired body! So although there were sadly no balloons or cheering crowds when I finished -- just Jane, my fabulous, energizer-bunny-running-machine training partner and new best pal (I love you, Jane!) -- I finally ran that damn half marathon, and then some. I am so psyched, and so sore I can barely walk. But that's what Advil's for, and I'll be fine -- and still psyched -- in the morning.

The funny thing is, I felt the exact same way for the last two miles -- like I wanted to quit, or die, at every step -- that I felt two weeks ago during our TWELVE mile run. So that's progress. And now I know I'll feel this way again in two more weeks during our 16 mile run. And then 14 won't seem so bad. I got to 12 today and thought, "Hey, not bad at all this time." So maybe this training thing actually works, huh?

Jane keeps telling me I must not think about how many miles we'll run before we start, or how many more we have to go, once we're running. She says our limits are always just beyond what we've done. She's a regular runner-philosopher, that Jane is. We take full advantage of these hours on the trail to solve all the world's problems, and of course hash out our own as well. It is a wonderful and very cheap form of therapy -- an added bonus to the joy of breaking my own personal records, which hopefully will continue to happen every two weeks for the next few months.

Please see the comments below for another good one from my faithful (and always pithy) correspondent Agent 26, aka Ginny, and my response to her very interesting question.