Continuing on

Not sure when I'm going to get to posting about the race, but I think I've become a runner for life.
I'm going to do a half marathon in the spring (probably the Martion Marathon in Dearborn - http://www.martianmarathon.com/), and I'm gearing myself up to be serious about some things in the months until then: losing weight and doing more cross-training.

There is something amazing about having the strength to finish a marathon, and I want to continue feeling that way. At the same time, I think the other demands in my life led me to make some choices about how I proceeded that were less than ideal. Not that I had a whole lot of leeway, but I prioritized what I thought would get me through the run. Now I want to shift a little bit and focus more on maintaining whole-body health. I feel like this is combining the marathon training with some of what I did to lose weight initially back in 2005. I don't think I'll run a full marathon again, but I want to improve everything.

The Sunday a week after the race, I ran 2.21 miles, and did the same route again on Thursday. My Thursday run was in 22:40 - a 10:15 pace. I was definitely pushing it, but it felt good. Today I did 5 miles in 55:38 and didn't feel like I was working hard. I'm going to continue to take shorter runs when I can get to them, and try to get to the gym occasionally. I'll ramp up soon, but right now it's just nice to know that I can still put one foot in front of the other.