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Hi guys! I feel like a lot has changed since I used to post a lot more a couple of years back. The difference between my first marathon (2010) and my tenth marathon: one of them I just wanted to finish, and one I was desperately trying to hit a certain time goal so maybe, possibly, I could come close to a BQ. Just wanting to finish was my goal last week, for the running of my tenth marathon. Isn't life freaking funny? Spoiler alert: I did finish, and it was an hour and two minutes slower than my first marathon, and idgaf. The difference between now and then is that I've realized some things can be measured empirically: like the time it takes to finish 26.2 miles, and some things cannot be measured- like mental health. I could wax poetic about the struggles of having mental health issues and how it affected me, but I'm so over it. I signed up for a marathon, struggled with anxiety & depression and then things got weird and I stopped running, finally saw a therapist, got medicated and now I'm back to normal- maybe even better than normal! Albeit, maybe 10 pounds heavier and slightly out of shape. Anyways, this marathon. I looked back at my training log and it is pitiful- my longest long run was 16 miles twice, and I averaged maybe 25-30 miles a week on peak weeks (I will mention, I'd go to at least two hours of intense power yoga classes a week). Add to that, I had created a really cute training log journal and then ... very sporadically used it. About a month prior to the marathon, on another botched long run (I was hoping for 20, only got 16) I realized how poorly under trained I was, that it was too late to switch to the half, and that I was just going to have to suck it up and do the full and try to have a good attitude about it. Fast forward, about a week before running this marathon, I discovered a beautifully fabulous running group in my vicinity- including a trail running group that runs at the very same trails I frequent solo- as well as a group that meets about 5 minutes from my house almost every morning of the week before work. I started with a wonderful 7 mile trail run, then a Tuesday and Thursday 6am run. I am not a morning person. But I RAN IN THE MORNING and I survived, and it actually worked amazingly with my schedule. The more I ran with this group, the more I actually loved running and the more excited I got about this marathon! There were no nerves, no expectations of time, just to finish. I felt so supported and accepted by my new running group, plus feeling like I wasn't the only crazy one in this city. Packet pickup had me all sorts of excited. Race eve I attended a wedding of my college roommate, but the BF and I snuck out early and went to bed at a reasonable hour. It was basically the ideal pre-race evening even with such a crazy day before the race. I woke up excited and refreshed, and minus some pre-race confusion, the race seemed to start really smoothly. It was like 75 degrees though, and pretty humid. I started two corrals behind where I was placed because I knew I was going to be running a lot slower than originally planned. I took it easy the first half- 9:50 - 10:30 minute miles, felt great! Even when things got dicey around the 17th mile and I needed to refill my water bottle (yes, it was THAT humid) and then got crazy windy, I never once guessed not being able to finish. I got it in my head I'd finish under 5 hours, no matter what it took. And I did- 4:54, and a LOT of chafing and I earned my medal. I have decided I can't be as obsessively focused on tracking workouts, making crazy detailed plans and doing hard workouts all the time right now, which kind of sucks, but keeping myself half-marathon ready is much more do-able. And hey- new running buddies! I'm looking forward to trying to (attempting) to become active here like the old days of the loop in my sparse free time. Yay, loopsters!

I prefer the word autumn over fall. I'm odd that way. I'm odd in lots of ways. Go figure. Autumn running conditions in northern Michigan can be dicey and moody. One day it may be a nice day and the next is horizontal rain and wind and in the 40's. Well, not this year! It's been one glorious day after another with incredible colors and blue sunny skies. I guess it's our "dessert before dinner" because they are predicting a LOT of snow for us this winter. We'll go from glorious color to solid white soon I'm sure. I decided to run at lunch time today since it's Sunday and I had a full plate of things to do this morning. I ran to the Black River and back and got my total weekly miles over 20. 18 running miles and 2 walking miles. That's the most mileage of any kind in quite a while. I remember so many reasons why I love running. I'm glad I'm back at it but don't plan on doing any racing except maybe the local Turkey Trot if I can squeeze it into my budget. The sunrises have been equally stunning.... The temps are crazy though!! Mid 70's in late October? When I was a kid, our Halloween costumes always had to fit over our snow pants, winter jacket and boots. This was today for my run.... that was a bit WARM for me actually but I soaked it in knowing that our high in 48 hours will be 50F and in a week they are predicting our first snow. I have loved taking pictures of the amazing colors this year... take this one for instance.. it's sumac and the reds they can display are fantastic! This group was on the side of the road right near my grandma's house. She's pushing 94 now and still lives at home on her own and drives during the day. Lastly... the house update..... No good news so far. The sellers have a full price cash offer waiting behind mine and right now the sellers don't want to extend my purchase contract because the mortgage company is slower than molasses in January and if my contract expires, the other buyers move into action. That means they can sell the house for more money since my bank won't be ready before the contract expires and the back up offer is for full price, another $5K over the purchase offer they accepted from me. Unless the sellers have an ounce of ethics and honor, the house will be sold to the other buyers despite all that I have done to have the house move-in ready. My bank can't close until at least the 30th or 31st and my purchase contract expires on the 27th. Yes, this is heart breaking but there are worse things in the world. I'll keep you posted. They may still agree to have me buy the house and pass up an extra $5K from the other buyer. In the meantime, my mom seems to really enjoy having me living in their basement! And so does their dog, Blue. He's a hound dog.

Glad you're back to happiness in running. Looking forward to more bloops!

yay for running again ! and mental health too.. after a bad asthma attack recently, I realized that breathing is not over-rated.. nor is being not depressed.. The depression meds will have odd effects on weight - for my experiment of one, the first added about 10-15lbs, another two in combination were neutral but after going off the Prozac, the other on its own added 10lbs - couldn't run it off in any case. don't worry about the weight, for a while anyway. new running buddies are good too.. excellent !

It's nice to have a marathon that turns out better than you anticipate, as it often goes in the other direction. Meeting that supportive running group was a godsend! Winters in Iowa are a tough time to train for a marathon, but in January '09 I was slogging thru the slush trying to get ready for Birmingham/Mercedes when I ran into another old fart who was training for a half in Florida. Not only was he almost my age, he had - like me - been in Peace Corps/South America, spoke Spanish, and ran at my pace. We have been best friends ever since and still run together. "Miracle" is a bit too strong, but it was a stroke of incredibly good luck!

Congrats on finishing your 10th! Health is priority #1 in all forms, good for you, the chasing of fast times can resume on #11.