Anxiety, fear, nervousness, trepidation, and nipple rings

What can I say... It's 17 days until the magical moment when I cross the start line and HOPEFULLY the finish line of my first marathon! I finished my last long run this past Sunday around 12 miles with only moderate knee pain afterwards that was gone by the next day. Planning to keep up with some short runs and a lot of biking and swimming in the next couple weeks to keep in shape. Just beginning to realize how far 26.2 miles is and am wondering what in the world I was thinking way back when that I decided it would be fun to run a marathon. Starting to get a wee bit anxious and I can only imagine it's going to get worse. But I am going to do it!

Wish me luck!!!

VA Beach Rock 'n Roll Half Marathon

Crossing the finish line!

On Sunday September 4th I ran the Rock 'n Roll Half Marathon in Virginia Beach. There were 14 bands playing along the course and the energy was amazing. There were sooo many people running - more than 20,000 - and the start was very crowded. I took off at a pretty good pace once I got out of the crowds but started having terrible knee pain around mile 5. Ouch! There was no way to stop running in as little clothing as I had on so... It hurt pretty bad for the next 2 or 3 miles but then the legs were pretty much numb and I just kept going until the 13.1 mile marker (see the picture above!). The pain was pretty excruciating after the legs stopped moving at the finish and I was pretty much crippled for the next couple weeks, but not so much I couldn't make it to the beer garden for a couple of oat sodas first.

The whole trip to Virginia Beach for Labor Day weekend was a blast. Made it out for a night of drinking, limboing, frisbee and horseshoe throwing, skinnydipping in the Atlantic, dancing with Chad's beautiful sister, and late night fishing with sexy Chad before the race. And then had an awesome day out on the beach and on Chad's boat for naked wakeboarding after the race. Check out pictures from the trip at:

http://www.kodakgallery.com/BrowsePhotos.jsp?&collid=404735463106&page=1&sort_order=0

That's all for now. Will write again soon.

D.

2005 Hood to Coast Relay

On August 26th I flew to Portland, Oregon to participate in the 2005 Hood to Coast Relay Race. The race is 197 miles starting from the top of Mt. Hood in the middle of Oregon and traverses west across the state through Portland and finishing at Cannon Beach on the Pacific Coast. It is broken up into 36 legs of varying lengths and difficulties and is run by teams of 10-12 members. The first person on the team runs from the start line to the checkpoint at the end of leg 1 where the second team member is waiting to hand off the "baton" (or slap bracelet as the case was). The second team member takes off running for checkpoint 2 where hopefully the third team member is waiting and ready to run. All the teams rent vans to travel from checkpoint to checkpoint while their team member runs. There were 10 of us on the team, made up of mostly Georgetown law students. We started at 5:00 p.m. on Friday August 27th and crossed the finish line on Saturday at 7:14 p.m. - yes, we ran continuously for 26 hrs 14 mins at 8:00 mile pace to cover the 197 miles from Mt. Hood to the Pacific Coast. I myself ran legs 6, 16, 26, and 36 for our team, a total of 23.2 miles. It was awesome to be chosen to run leg 36 and get to cross the finish line for our team. The first sighting of the beach from about 2 miles away was amazing and made the sprint in to the finish line exhilirating. After crossing the official finish line, we got the whole team together and crossed the ceremonial finish line together hand in hand. It was an amazing experience! Please check out my photos from the race and the rest of my Oregon trip at:

http://www.kodakgallery.com/BrowsePhotos.jsp?&collid=735070172106&page=1&sort_order=0

Hope all is well and will try to update again soon! Be good.

D.