7 Miles before dawn

Yes this morning I joined my running girls and we completed 7 miles before the sun was even completely up.  A good way to get the day going I would say!

Yet in thinking about this mornings run, I thought (not for the first time) about how far I've come in my running journey.  Back when I started running, 7 miles seemed crazy in my best moments and an impossible dream for me in my worst.  I had no desire really to ever run any further than a 5K or 10K distance, and even those were a stretch.

Even after 3 half marathons (that I trained for on my own), I still wasn't so sure about this full marathoning business.  Sure it was a great accomplishment, sure people did it, (I only knew one person at the time who had completed a full marathon), but that was for "real runners", of which I did not count myself as one.

But then came the decesion that changed my running journey and in no small part my life forever- I joined MIT! And suddenly that dream I had held quietly in my heart for a long time of being a marathoner didn't seem so impossible anymore.  Thanks to my first MIT coach's (Julie) encouragement I signed up for that very first marathon- I always joke that Julie forced me to run a marathon against my will, but really she just believed in me, as did so many other people at MIT- they believed I would cross that finish line. Even when I wasn't so sure, they were postive I would finish, they believed for me when I didn't.

So today when I ran that 7 miles in the morning, pretty much without a second thought, I thought of all those coaches and friends who helped me take each step in this incredible journey! 

Run On Friends,
Heather

"Running keeps me in touch with what is outside, both outside of myself and outside in the world, and I need that." Kristen Armstrong

First Marathon Dream Come True!