131

Miles, that is. For the month of July. 131! I'm not bragging, I'm just stunned. The highest mileage I've ever had in any given month has been 80, and that was back in March.

Tonight, I closed out the month with a 6 mile run. I was supposed to run 4 at Marathon Pace, but I knew that was not going to happen. At mile 4, however, I committed to running 1 mile at the 9:08 pace. I came in at 8:49. A bit too fast, but hanging on for the whole mile felt great!

Mark rode alongside me, and it was nice to have some time to talk. When I hit that mp mile, I had to stop talking. I told him that he should take advantage of the fact that he could speak to me and I wouldn't have anything to say, because I really couldn't carry on a conversation. He didn't take me up on that offer. He says it's because he knew eventually I would slow down and he'd have to listen to me then... hmmmmmm. Poor guy. It must be insane living with me!

He asked me the dreaded "why?" question last night. Why do I want to run 50 miles? And for goodness sake, why on earth 100? My answer, a brilliant one... I have no idea. Maybe because I feel like if I can do it, I should as we never know what the future holds for us. Because if I can do that, I can do anything? Because if I do that, no one could ever take it away? Or maybe I'm just insane and there is no hope for me?

One thing is for sure. I love the support that my friends and family afford me as I venture into the training for these events. It does take time away from the family. It does require the family to sacrifice some things in order for me to do this. My prayer is that I can always keep them first, while still achieving my personal goals. Balance is crucial, and with a large family, it is difficult to find. True balance is never really found. What we do manage to do is put the efforts and time into the things that are most pressing at the moment. We have seasons. When we have a newborn, we are in that season. During the holidays, we have another season, vacation, another. Family illnesses, another. As long as my family knows that I will be there when they need me to be, than I can rest well.