Running things

My husband runs marathons. And running marathons while living in Europe is insanely awesome. Instead of running in St. Louis, or Oklahoma City, or something - he has ran in Belgium, Germany, Netherlands, France, and Greece (so far). Uh, yeah.

Most of his marathons include travel to a cool city of some sort. Which is really fun. And *may* result in some envy.

So a friend and I decided that we wanted to run a half-marathon -- to help us lose weight and to get a fun trip. We considered all sorts of places... Spain, Ireland, France, Italy. We opted to be a bit more sensible and signed up to run our half-marathon in Brussels, Belgium. 

With signing up for the run, I committed to train for it. (I've walked a half-marathon before - because I signed up to run but never trained, so walking was really my only option.)

Training had been pretty discouraging. Most of my runs have been 15-17 minute miles with a LOT of walking involved. But something has shifted in the past week. My legs feel strong. I feel better about even trying. And I take the dog. So, here is what's been happening.

Charis fell asleep the first time I took her. 

Part of my training is actually walking. So I got the entire family to come along!

This run made me feel amazing! Not only because of my improved time, but because of this...

The first time in my LIFE that I have ever ran an entire mile!!! Woot woot!!!! I had to message my husband immediately after (I was on a steep uphill, a good time to walk and catch my breath). 

These hills out here are giving me some amazing legs, too! Win, win, win!