Marathon Man

Written by Malissa

That's right, Owen just signed up for his first Marathon. The race is November 12th and the training has begun!

Yesterday I walked into the office and Owen had this look on his face, the kind of look he gets when he wants to buy something. The first words out of my mouth, "what do you want?" To my surprise he didn't want to buy anything. He said, "I can't believe I'm going to say this. I can't believe I'm even thinking this, but I think I want to start training for a marathon." I wasn't shocked at all. I instantly told him to sign up right then. You see, I've always had a feeling he would run a marathon and for two reasons: he's built to run, it's in his DNA, his dad was a marathon runner. His drive and determination; when he decides he is going to do something, nothing can stop him.

I would be lying if I didn't say that I'm a little nervous and sad. I'm nervous because almost eleven years ago Owen's dad died of a heart attack while training for his 6th marathon. And I'm sad that his dad is not here to share this experience with him. I just know they would have had so much fun training together. I think this is going to be a good healing process for him. He has been reminiscing  about when he helped his dad train for his marathon.

He is following Hal Higdon's Marathon training progam and is keeping a detailed journal of his marathon journey. I am very proud and excited for him. He truly is an inspiration to me!!

Malissa's Thoughts About Her First 5k Race

Written by Malissa

Now that I've had a few days to digest my first 5k race, I wanted to jot downs a fun things that I learned from the race.

I shouldn't start in the middle of the pack. Because I'm a slow runner, I was forced to start at a faster pace than I'm use to.

I learned that running is a mental game especially when there are other runners on the road. Because I usually run by myself, I wasn't use to people passing me. I'm not going to lie, it messed with my head a little. I had a hard time just focusing on my pace.

That it really does help when you have someone cheering you on. I was really tired torwards the end of the race and out of the corner of my eye I see Alicia, Jhanvi, Michael and Udit walking up the hill to look for me and as soon as they saw me I heard Alicia cheering, "Mommy you're doing a great job! You're almost there!" It was exactly what I needed to turn my jets on and sprint the rest of the way.

Even though I just started my running journey, I can be an inspiration to other runners. After the race a lady came up to me and said that seeing me sprint at the end pushed her to sprint.