2 days till Big Sur or Bust!

o.k. I know this is a little gross, but I must post. About 3 weeks ago I went on a 20 mile run for my training for the Marathon I run this Sunday. Yikes! Little nervous, but also very excited. Back to story... well, I really bruised my middle toe on my left foot, it really hurt. It turned a gross color ( lets be real, it was black) and I feared it would cause my toe nail to fall off. I have a trip to Hawaii in 5 days and I was hoping that my poor little toe nail would stay attached to my foot so I wouldn't look like a freak on the beach with 9 toe nail. Everyone wants to look there best on the beach. Right? Well, I know I do. So about a week ago I noticed my toe nail was lifting, I think you know where I'm going with this. Still thinking it would be the biggest bummer to have only 9 toe nails I tried my darnedest to keep that little piggies( This little piggie went to market, this little piggie when Home) cover in its place. I vowed to not touch it, thinking that if I did it would move around and run it's natural cores of coming off. Not touching worked for about a day and a half. I had touched and now it was preparing to abandon my toe forever. At first I panicked. NOOooOOO! This can not happen! I need that toe nail to look my best for Hawaii. If I lose it, my girlfriends that I am going with will shun me, will look at my feet funny, will laugh and make fun of my one unpolished toe. *I have a mind that can get a bit dramatic here and there. My girlfriends would never do that to me, and that is why we are friends and I love them. :) So with my mello-dramatic mind sounding the alarm to fix the problem before my social demise was realized. I thought that if I MADE my toe nail stay where it was at least till after Hawaii, I would be able to forgo all the fear I was facing. I would like to think myself clever at times. I like to fix things that break, or in this case come unglued (biologically). In that Phrase I found my answer! SUPER-GLUE!!! YES! I will super-glue my toe nail to the top of my toe and like magic no one will be the wiser. I will keep it a secret. I will still look my best on the beach and my flip flops will not have to be ashamed to know me. I thought I was so smart. I knew just where my art supplies where from my days of Interior Design. I Unscrewed the cap, and let the mini operation begin. This procedure was quick, but after a few days proved to be not successful. The lifting started again. Nature was beating out science. Darn you nature and all your beauty crushing outcomes. I did not have another solution for the problem, so I decided to just wait for inspiration to come to me. I wasn't activily looking for an answer, but I was being as careful as possible with my fragile nail until I could find another way to keep it on. After a couple days of babying my toe and it's delicate topper I came to term with the fact that it was not going to last much longer. I could see it's end nearing like the sun set on a beautiful day, I could not force it's presence and comfort to stay, but had to say my last goodbyes and wish it well. Everything would be alright. Coming to grips with my naked toe was therapeutic. I have been feeling a little unsure about how I'm going to run this Sunday, losing the toe nail has become a testament of pride, of strength, of letting go of perfection and recognizing that what we accomplish in life is more important then what our middle toe looks like. I'm Letting it be a mini badge of Honor that I have ran 20 miles and on Sunday it will be a reminder of what I've done and what I can do. I look forward to walking on the beaches of Hawaii, digging my toes into the sand and if anyone stares at my feet I will tell say with pride how my little piggie lost its top.

Let me bring you up to speed

Welcome to my running journal. It's o.k. go ahead and keep reading. It's obvious that I want you to. Why else would I create this blog? I thought it would be a good idea to write down my running life for my friends and family to read. I don't think I'm special for loving running. Millions of people all over the world love it with me. There is something about it that draws people in. I have enjoyed the activity of running for more then 5 years now. I call it an activity, because I never felt like it was exercising. I never made running a chore or a way to lose weight. I just purely enjoyed it. I started with just a few miles whenever I got the urge to lace up my Nike's and year after year my running improved.

Like many people I have a bucket list. Here are a few of the BIG things on my list:  travel Europe for a Summer, own a dog, get married, be a mother, and last, but not least... run a Full Marathon. I've been slowing working up to the last one on the list my doing smaller races: two 5k races, a warrior dash (great fun) and two Half-Marathons. All those races were quite lovely. I trained for the two halves, and found that I rather enjoyed myself while doing so. I loved the freedom I felt on a run. It cleared my head of any stress or negative thoughts I may have had that day. I also fell in love with the feeling I got after a long run (5 mile or more). You get this sort of high from it. It's called endorphins. Often called a "runners high" It's a happy chemical drug that your body produces when you are pushing yourself to your physical limits. 

I run the Big Sur International Marathon along with hundreds of other runners on May 1st. It's going to be the most incredible experience in my running life thus far. I signed up last year and knew exactly how many months I would need to train. I began in January. I wanted 4 months to get ready because I knew that it was going to be a little bit of a nerve racking training. Normally things like this don't phase me, but let me explain... First is the fact that this is my first marathon ( I already think I may like to do more) and I've never trained for such a long run before, I wasn't sure how I would handle it( I'm handling it quite well, thank you),  Second of all I have a lot going on in my life right now.  I work full time in a city I must commute and hour each way to and I'm enrolled in full time School. I don't know why I thought it wise to train for a marathon right in the middle of one of the busiest 6 months of my life, but I did, so here I am with this blog about my running,which is yet another commitment I have made. Oh, well. I think this will be therapeutic.

I will wrap this up. So January was a great month for training, I was on schedule, did all my runs. Recorded them and maybe I will post that later. February came along and I started school and my training really suffered. I didn't get back on track till last week in February. I had to join a gym for my early morning and late night runs. It got a little chilly. About a week and a half ago I found a great training program online and I've been trying to stick by it as best as possible. I have smaller runs during the week and on Saturdays I do my long runs. On the 26th of February was an 11 miler and this last Saturday was an 17 mile run.  I will be writing about all my Saturday runs and only if my mid week runs are really interesting will I write any thing about them. Keep an eye out for my next two posts which will be about my 11 miles and my 17 miles.

Until then my friends
Enjoy!
Shawnna Law