Hey everyone! Some of you may have read about my training for my first half marathon over at running4daddy.blogspot.com. But for those who haven’t, I’m Melissa and I have a new found love of running outside. I used to run a few miles at a time on the treadmill at the gym, nothing too crazy. In the fall of 2009, I started to run more. I still stuck to the treadmill but upped my mileage to 5-7 miles a day. I was doing this 5 or 6 days a week and ended up in physical therapy with an IT band injury.
By this point it was December of 2009, and tragically, my Daddy passed away from Lymphoma. Dad lived life to the fullest, and taught me the balance of work hard/play hard. I knew I wanted to do something to honor his memory. I wanted it to be something that I loved doing, and I wanted to make a difference. After doing some research, I found Team in Training, and my older sister, Victoria, and I signed up to run the Lehigh Valley Half Marathon.
I started running again, only this time I hit the streets of the area surrounding my college, instead of the treadmill. It took a little time, but I am officially an ex-treadmill junkie, and I will never go back! I love running outside. There is nothing like waking up early and going for a run. It’s refreshing and freeing. And while it’s not always easy, it’s on those days that finishing a run feels the best!
The weeks of training flew by and I loved it. Sometimes though, I felt a little burnt out from training and I thought my days of long runs would come to an end after the half marathon. I planned to just stick to 5 and 10ks. My plans quickly changed on race day. I loved everything about the race, and I think it was around mile 12 that I decided not to give up on long runs and training. I ran my first half marathon with my sister and we even crossed the finish line hand-in-hand. We did it for Daddy and raised a ton of money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Nothing will ever top that experience!
After blogging for the first race, I got many requests to keep on blogging. I loved writing about my long (and short) runs, and I loved writing about Dad. There will definitely be all of that in this blog, and more! Since then I have ran 2 more half marathons, graduated, started a new job, and I am about to move into the great city of Philadelphia (in January, 2011). Stay tuned for my next big thing!
Hope you enjoy!
–Melissa
You are amazing!
Love reading your blog!
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