GLANCING BACK

This morning when I got up, I immediately flipped on the TV. Today is the Chicago Marathon. It's 7am and the temperature is already 70 degrees. I remember back to 2003 when I watched this and made my mind up to run it in 2004. I wanted to be part of the thousands of runners at the start and feel the excitement for myself. There was no doubt in my mind that I could be one of those out there.

I got up and headed out the door for a 4 mile run. One mile for every year since then. One mile to glance back to where I have come from.

Mile 1 (2003) After 15 years of not running, I began to run again. I was up to 3 miles. I completed my first 5 K race and was thrilled with 34:50. I made up my mind to run the Chicago Marathon in 2004. In 1988 while training for the Columbus marathon, I injured my knee on my last 20 mile run. It was important to me to finally take a shot at the marathon distance.

Mile 2 ( 2004) My sights for focused on the marathon. I began the season with a 10k in May. That day when I finished the race, I officially signed up for Chicago. I started increasing my mileage. I used Marathoning for Mortals by John Bingham as my guide. In August, I ran the Chicago Distance Classic Half Marathon. Then in October completed my first marathon. I was on top of the world.

Mile 3 (2005) I made the decision to sign up for Chicago again. I did my half earlier in May at Indy. My friend DeeDee also had signed up for Chicago. My training was right on track. This year I leaned toward Jeff Galloway training. In September , I ran a PR at the USAF half marathon. When October came, I lined up for my 2nd time in Chicago. Unfortunately at mile 22 my knee began hurting so bad that I walked the last 4.2 miles.

Mile 4 (2006) After recovering for my ITB injury in my right knee, I began spin class. There I met Mary who introduced me to the world of biking. I loved it and bought my first road bike. I decided no marathon this year. Because I can't swim, I decided to do some duathlons and half marathins this year. I really enjoyed doing the 2 sports.

Cooling off (2007) A quick glance at this year started with siging up for the Flying Pig Marathon. I had no desire to run Chicago again. After the marathon, my focus was truely the duathlon. I enjoyed every race that I did. A highlight also was going to Louisville and volunteering at Ironman. How inspiring. That's when my goals for 2008 began popping in my head. I needed to learn how to swim as soon as possible. Because I knew that 2008's big goal would be a half Ironman.

In all of this, I realized how lucky I am to be able to dream something and do it. I hope I can continue and always have the faith to go on.

Waddling to the future..............