The Adult Swim Diaper and You.

If you bathroom more miles than you actually raced...that's gotta be some kind of a record right? There goes my next successful failure on my Happy Gilmore path to fame. hahaha. but you gotta at least stop to laugh at yourself along the way or really; what fun is it?

Naperville Half Marathon; went a widdle something like this.... mile 1, 2, 3, 4- awesome sauce. running negative splits and carefully picking up the pace each mile and settling into a steady rhythm to hold 3rd place. I was working on a 1:20 half and then all of a sudden that fun little place in your stomach turns over, wakes up and was like Surrrrrprise! what you need to do RIGHT NOW is digest your breakfast, last nights food and be really sick about it. Porta potty hopping began there and never stopped. To those who witnessed me drop trow. I'm sorry and I'm working on my invention of the adult sweat - wicking swim type diaper that won't hold slog you down when you want to PR and keep running. After getting violently sick and sprinting 18 times to try and keep some sort of competivite position while losing my racing spankies (aka my "small pants") I finished in 1:31. Way off target but to waste 10 minutes to sickness on the course I was actually impressed with myself because I realized a sub 1:30 half was now easy.

All of the late nights, the early mornings, the lunch time nap runs. All of miles added up and made sense. When you understand your purpose and why you train like there's no sight of tomorrow; you stay committed. You stay focused. Early morning I spin bike; afternoon nap run pushing my son 8-14 miles, or now with the cold weather approaching; I run on the treadmill in my garage after he goes to bed each night to get in double workouts most days to average 95 miles a week.

Do or Don't; there is no try. If I try and fail, I will still be much closer time wise to the trials than a year ago and I can try again in 2020 because why not? I will be very much ready by then if not now. There is no stopping. You must do. I realized this all dragging and dead-lifting my own furniture out to the curb one day because I didn't want to look like a panzie in front of my neighbors watching me. I realized that I couldn't quit and I couldn't do something half way and leave it. I had to just do it.

The Plan and well, the 4 Year Plan

The 2016 U.S. Marathon Trials represent victory and the reality of what dreams can be achieved by constantly challenging yourself and pushing your training beyond what people say you are capable of. It is an example of what courage and hard work can demonstrate and to set an example for my son to aim high for his goals in life and strive hard to earn the success. I deeply admire, and respect elite level distance running and I have been absolutely hooked since freshman year cross-country when I first felt those steps of freedom running provided. The race, the training, the pain it's all a beautiful sport when you pour your heart into it. The Marathon Trials to me, is everything- success, the motivation to show others who struggle as single parents that you can still achieve victories, to inspire my son to never give up on his dreams, and to me- it's just my love and passion I want to share with the world. 

In terms of what I plan to do to make the qualification standard - I'm not afraid of the hard work ahead. I run with Cael (my son) over my lunch break, I use the spin bike after Cael goes to bed and before Cael wakes up I plan to move my treadmill over to my garage and start adding in morning miles. I resistance train and cross train at the gym on afternoons when Cael visits his dad.This is all i want to do besides be the best mom I humanly can. To show him not to give up on his dreams and that the most important goals in life take the hardest work to achieve and they are absolutely worth the struggle. I constantly fight for his rights in court because he is my most precious goal over anything.