She's a-running

I've hated running for as long as I can remember.  Then I began graduate school...

The stress and chaos of grad classes led me to only one logical choice of what to do with my not-so-free free time... run.  I think it was the fact that running was the only time that I wasn't worrying about all the reading, studying, and preparing for clinical that I needed to be doing.  When I was running, it was just me and the road.  So I began training for a half marathon and last March I ran the Leesburg Half:

My parents & I after the Race

I guess you could say that after that, I caught the running bug.  Because in September I ran another half, the Virginia Beach Rock & Roll and I convinced these 3 to do it with me:

All four of us before taking off for the Beach Half

Fast forward, I got convinced that running a FULL MARATHON would be a great idea! Crazy, I know, but so far it's been fine.  I'm half way through my training, and have worked back up to the 13 mile mark.  I was feeling pretty good, then mother nature stepped in and thought it was a good time for day light savings time (you know, fall back?).  It's great because for one day everyone got an extra hour of sleep, but now my running routine is botched!  Like it's not hard enough to train through the winter, now I get to train in the dark too? I don't get home from work till 6:00pm or later, and now by 5:00 its pitch black.  So, this runner will now be attempting the impossible... waking up around 5:30am to get in a run outside before going to work.  Treadmills just won't be cutting it to finish my training for the Walt Disney World Marathon  in January, I need fresh air! So tonight I gave myself a little further motivation to wake up and get moving- I got new running shoes, fresh running socks, and some cold weather running gear! We'll see how this pans out- wish me luck Mickey!