Don’t Stop Believing. You have to keep the faith. I almost stopped believing. Had a good 10 miler 10 days ago. Then a good run a couple of days later. Got a little too confident and decided to run a little faster at last Tuesday’s Gibb’s Hundred run. Woke up Wednesday morning with one very sore hip. Thought I was back to zero again. Was ready to toss in the towel.

So I took a couple of days off, and with the hip feeling better again, I did a slow and steady 5k at the Moonlight Madness race in Winston-Salem. Much better result on Saturday morning. No additional pain. So Sunday was the big test. If I had any shot of staying on track for a marathon in November, I had to knock down 12 miles.

Need to give a huge shout out to one of my besties, Stephanie Tickerhoff. She joined me for my 12 after she had already run 10 miles. So she logged 22 in her preparations for Chicago, Bob Mills was there (at a different pace than me and Stephanie) and also did an awesome job in logging 20 miles. It was one of those days where we agreed that we would have probably not done as well and walked a lot more if we were alone. If you are trying to come back, or just getting started, running with a group can make so much difference. It is a lot easier to keep going when you have someone you know you can count on to help you make it through.

So the really big test came Monday morning. I gingerly swung my legs over the side of the bed and slowly stood up. A little stiffness, a little achiness, but no sharp pain. I still believe.

Now, let’s all hope and pray for cooler weather as these runs get longer and longer!

Junction 311 Endurance Sports