Valentines Weekend 2016 -Part 1- Where It All Began

I have been preparing for this weekend since September....I believe. That is when I decided to get my butt into gear and run another 10K for Turkey Day. I figured it would be a great way to eat a ton and not feel guilty. I trained for it and then I never signed up for an actual race......but Fefe why not???? Because I have holes in my brain and can't remember things since having kids. It's really annoying and getting bad.

 Instead I was totally lame and just ran 10K on thanksgiving. Who wants to pay 35-60 bucks for a race???

 I had Kade bring me water halfway and honestly I thought I wasn't going to finish that last mile :). 

That is when my mantras kicked in and I repeat -I am strong- -I can do this- until it was done. Not my most favorite 10k but not my worst either. 

After I was done I decided I would keep building my long runs on Sunday's. Yes, I do Sunday rundays and it's the only time I can fit it in. Plus, if you ever want to feel close to God, run hard, pray hard, and you will feel angels by your side, promise. Every other Sunday I would add a mile to my longest run and the following Sunday I would do 4-6 miles. I have a tight hip/knee and if I do two long runs two weekends in a row it gets cranky.

I got up to an 8 mile run right after Christmas 

and I had a few amazing people encourage me to do a half. I shrugged it off because I have little confidence, especially running, so I decided I wouldn't commit to anything. Besides back in July I started training for a race in September and TOTALLY chickened out. We ended up moving and having a lot of stress so i figured I just wasn't cut out to ever run one. I decided to keep logging runs and I would see how it went. My runs kept going fine and getting longer

 I calculated how long until I would be ready to race...February is where it fell and I researched races in the Idaho/Utah area and there wasn't much of anything. Only one race and it was Valentines Weekend, I looked up my husbands work schedule and he had that day off. I knew it was the race for me and I talked with my husband and he was so encouraging...he has witnessed the transformation running has had on my mind. We decided we would make a valentines weekend out of it and spend a few nights away from the kids...although it only worked out for 2/3rds of them. :)  I was hoping to have Lex weaned by the race but it didn't happen, and that's okay. He will only be a baby for a little while. Wish me luck on Saturday! I'm just hoping I finish at this point, haha.