Holy 11 Miles

11 miles, I can't believe it. I can't believe my training has me up to 11 miles already. It seems so soon. Okay 11 miles, surely then next week I will be tapering off to something like 5, right? No next week is 12 miles. Man 12 miles in my 5th week of training. I don't know if I am cut out for this. Training for a marathon is so different than training for a half. I mean I am still doing basically half marathon mileage during the week but I can't believe these Saturday runs. This is going to be 18 weeks of running far. Yesterday I completed my 11.5 miles in about an hour and 35 minutes. Again I missed my turn around street and ended up doing the extra half mile. It was again, an unbelievably beautiful day. I went in the afternoon, after lunch, which made for fabulous weather but not for my poor digestive system. I should've been smarter on that end and not eaten lunch or eaten something different. I started needing to go to the bathroom at about mile 1.5 and waited all the way until my run ended. Probably not the greatest for my body. But despite that, I felt fabulous. It was a good run. A-Bear and baby C met me at about 2.5 miles to pick up Josie and bring me water. Then they dropped it off for me at about mile 5 so I could get it then and then again on the way back. The run was especially beautiful on the way back, the sun was beginning to set, there was no wind and my pace was quicker. I just had fun, I thought about conversations A-Bear and I had the night before, I laughed out loud, and I did the air drums to the music. (Speaking of music I am in desperate need of downloading some new tunes) I remember when I got to the last mile, I was so proud of myself. I just couldn't believe I had made it and loved it. And I couldn't wait to get back to my sweet husband and baby. When I walked in I started looking for them, after I found the bathroom, and there they were, taking a nap together all cuddeled up on the bed. How could a person love anything more? Forget cooldown, forget streching out, forget the post-run nutrition; sometimes you just want to cuddle up with your family. Especially when you have the cutest family in the world.