I Made It To Taper Week!

Always love running with Jess

A week and a half to go and the Lincoln National Guard Half Marathon will FINALLY be here. Really it seems like forever ago that I convinced Jess (yes THE Run With Jess) to go to Lincoln Nebraska and run with me. She has a quest to run all 50 and when she said that race was on under consideration, I threw the dice and said “I’ll go with you and my BFF lives there so she’ll provide a place to stay!” Jess replied with a simple “Done”.  

When I started the training for this race I knew right off I wanted to be aggressive with training because this race is just 9 days shy of my one year cancer free anniversary! I know the marathon was like my big comeback but it didn’t feel like. Everything about that race was hard and it sucked and I hated all of it! Now here I am one year later, I’m finally back at my pre-hysterectomy weight (when they say it takes a year to heal, they weren't joking) and I’m feeling like the strong runner I was a year ago. To say I wanna ‘rock this bitch’ is to say the least. 

Last weekend was my last long run and I wanted to test my limits so I asked my boyfriend to pace me about an 8:45 pace, after an easy warm up mile. I knew he would push me, I was terrified of it but I was ready for it. My time trial splits were: 8:40, 8:35, 8:37, 8:35, 8:30, 8:30, 8:25 & 8:24! With  just a few miles left I was tired but each mile I knocked off my confidence grew and when I hit my cool down mile I was spent but I knew I could finish the half very close to that pace. 

I have a few short runs left this week and next, my longest being 8 this weekend and 7 on Tuesday. All I can say is I’m ready! Let’s do this!