Back Into the Swing of Things

Today is the day I pick myself back up from the ditches of non-runnerdom. I can safely say that my cold is partially non-existent but this was not the reason I was held back from running this week. On Wednesday, I was admitted to the ER at St. Joe's Hospital for an acute, intense side abdominal pain. This pain feels like I have bad cramping right beneath my left ribcage and a couple inches further below that point. Doctors think it's some kind of colon problem but of course, they're not entirely sure. I have to start seeing a primary care physician. This pain has attacked me on four other occasions since last October so I know it's not just a fluke.

I feel fine right now though. I was able to catch the encore presentation of "Spirit of the Marathon" with my friend, Redladee. The inspiration was exactly what I needed to fit my head around the thought of me running 26.2 miles. At times, I got a little emotional when a runner would share how much running has impacted a positive change in her life and helped her to get through the bad times. Running is such a powerful catalyst and I'm sure glad that I became more serious about running in 2004. That summer was the first time I had ever had a thought of participating in a 5k. I bought my first RW magazine with Suzy Favor-Hamilton on the cover and after reading the issue, I wondered if it were possible for me to run 26.2. It felt like 100 miles to me at that time.

I thought about the distance on the reservation between my hometown of Kayenta and the nearest community called Dennehotso (where my mom's family is from). It is about 25 miles. As a kid, I thought it took forever to go from Kayenta to Dennehotso just to visit family. I wasn't sure if I could actually run the whole distance! But now here I am. I like how running makes me feel about myself. I may not be the ideal-celebrity-type size 2 body but my body kicks ass at what it can do and in longer distances I can run faster than girls 50 pounds lighter than me. It's so kick ass! haha

This is approximately mile 15 between Kayenta and Dennehotso.

Thanks for all the comments on my 10k. It truly was a beautiful course.

My next race is in two weeks. I'm running two legs of a 1/2 marathon relay (Valley of the Sun). These two legs add up to 6.9 miles. In the process, I was able to get a co-worker who is now a good friend to run a leg of this relay with me. She ran cross country in high school but yesterday she indicated to me that this was her first official race of any kind. I was so excited for her. Now she's thinking of 1/2 marathons we could do next. It's great. If that's the case, I think we'll be putting San Jose on our list this fall.