in comparison to myself...: +all things go, all things go

It happened again - this Marathon-bug thing is definitely contagious. The Chicago Marathon was such a good race to run. If I could do it all over again, I absolutely would. My training began back on June 4th - the first week of working Orientation back in Nashville. So much of my training runs parallels my adjustment time of moving and working and adjusting to a new life here. Then, the culminating race which included a brand new adventure to a city I have never been in before. It's been a great 4-5 months commitment and I serioulsy am looking forward to another one. I know it's early to say that, but this race was different than the first marathon I ran. No, I didn't take any of those lessons less seriously, but this time around, I ate better, I trained smarter, and I didn't get injured at all. I put on a few pounds because I needed some more muscle. That's a mental hurdle in and of itself.

I will never get over how much I need people in my life. Never ever ever. Running can be such a loner's sport, but that doesn't mean that it's lonely. Most of my training was done by my lonesome (out of choice, too). But I did get to dabble with the East Nasty Running Group runs this Summer and it was a highlight of training to run into Jordan (during her half-marathon training). It was great to run some miles with Kelsey during her visit and it was just nice to have people like Sarah, Devon, Kelsey, Greta, and so on who always knew I was in the midst of training and were sweet to plan around it or ask about it. This time around training was a lot lower key. More miles, actually, but a lot less need to talk about them. In fact, I think I may surprise people from time to time when I say I run, because I just don't talk about it as much. It's just sewn into the fabric of my everyday, and I love it.

Below is a pictoral storybook of Chicago-land with Devon, our friend James, and the Holladays! After figuring out all of the logistics for such an epic run, I think it's time to set my sights back on Nashville and run a local race... we'll see.