Last Sunday *thinks* yea it was 2/11/07, I got to run 12 miles over the first half of the official Boston Marathon course. The run was organized by Don Megerle, the team coach. He's amazing. That's about all you need to know. Moving on, I'd have to say it was by far the most enjoyable +10 miler run I've done and I attribute that entirely to President Larry Bacow. 

I started off running as usual and not too far into the run, I came upon Prez L. Bacow and decided to stick to him because, heck, he's run 4 marathons, he oughta know what's a good pace. And he definately does. I usually start out way too fast and then burn out by mile, iunno, 5, 7,...you can imagine how dismal the rest of my runs are. But Bacow kept a really steady pace throughout and by following his lead I still felt energized at the end! I think there's some mental aspect contributing to my feel-good run too.

Usually I run off to the side or away from clumps of people. But this time, running behind him and alongside various other runners made me feel like the run was more of a group effort. I wasn't going it alone. Which is a tremendous weight to lift off my shoulders. I've never run a marathon before, never even ran in highschool...in fact my reason for deciding to run a marathon was because I hated running. That seems counterintuitive, I know, more on that later.

All this to say, I have to break mental barriers daily that tell me I can't do this or I'm too slow or I'm not a real runner. Sometimes they win (skipped practice this morning whoops), but for the most part, I'm slowly bringing this dream into reality. And as long as Bacow doesn't mind having me in his wake on race day, I feel all-the-more confident that I can do this. :o)

p.s. his son, Kenny, runs alongside him. How cool is that?! And Michelle Paison--like, the FASTEST girl I've ever met--also is running the marathon with her mom. I think parent-kid teams are so awesome. Anyways, until next time. byes.