Slip, Slide and Away!

*The following post is about a subject you're all probably tired of reading from me. Quite honestly, I'm getting tired of it myself. Nevertheless, these are the things that swim around in my head when I miss a long run....for the 2nd straight week.

Saturday came and went without me running my long run.

Sunday came and went without me running my long run.

This is not good, kids.

I sulked. "This sucks. I can't do this. If I can't even get up to run 15 miles, there's no way I can run the full 26.2. Maybe I'm just cut out for the half, 10Ks and 5Ks." and "26.2 miles is too tough. Maybe I'm scared to run the full marathon."

I schemed. "OK, when I get back from church, I can get into my running clothes, crank out 10 miles, get back, jump in the car, and go to my meeting. If that doesn't work, I can do it while the kids sleep, after I mow the lawn and before we have to go to my in-laws for dinner."

I negotiated. "Maybe this year, I'll just run the half in Des Moines, get a feel for the course, and then sign up for the full next year." or "I'll train for the Lincoln Marathon for next May."

I justified. "I never really was motivated to do this. There was probably a reason I hadn't signed up."

And then, a moment of clarity. I asked myself, "Why am I even doing this? Why a full marathon?" My answer: "Because when you ran the Lincoln Half, you wanted to be a marathon runner. You want to see just how far you can push yourself. Because you've never done anything like this before and you've never backed down on a challenge. Because you think you can do it."

For 2 weeks, I've missed my long run and it could be the best thing that happened to me.

p.s. - you may have noticed a new profile picture. This should indicate 2 things:

1) We got Photoshop on our laptops.

2) I'm in full-on college football mode! Be prepared for a Husker preview and some bold predictions!  

Please try to control your enthusiasm.