Amish Country

Bree, Anna and Me. So happy they came along.

I ran a half marathon in Adamstown, Pennsylvania on Saturday, Amish country. It might have been my best one yet. Mitch had a golf tournament, so I took Anna and Bree along with me. We journeyed up to Amish country and enjoyed ourselves.

Running is very therapeutic for me. I usually shy away from wearing a watch when running. I have learned to really listen to my body and how I am feeling. It takes my body about 25 minutes to get completely warm. The first 25 minutes are always the hardest part of the race for me. There are many days when I have no idea how long I am actually going to run. Sometimes I go out and come back 30 minutes later or two hours. It all just depends on how I am feeling.

Saturday was just a good running day. It was one of those days when everything just all came together. I felt great when I woke up, I had no stomach pains, and the weather was perfect. The race was much harder than I had imagined. I don't why I thought it was just going to be flat. I felt like I was climbing mountain after mountain.

At mile six I looked up to the sky and saw a sky full of clouds, but no rain. I looked over to my left and saw an Amish man on his horse plowing his field. There were no crowds to cheer me on, just Amish people riding their bikes. I felt so much joy. There was almost tears. So much happiness, peace, and joy all found in running. Stride after stride, step after step, I was so comfortable.

I decided to wear a watch for the race. I thought, why not? I was running a very small race and wasn't exactly sure of the mile markers. At mile 1, I ran 7:30. Which is faster than my normal pace. I try to keep about an 8-9 minute mile. Miles 3-8 I battled with this older man to keep my pace with his. He finally went ahead of me until mile 12. The watch kept me going strong and hard. I kept 8 minutes miles, mile after mile (except mile 9).

Running is all mental for me. I have to think about a race in stages. The first three are the hardest, but once I get done with them I only have 10 left. And once I get half way done, I think to myself, "it's only 6.5. You do that all the time. To the the Lincoln memorial and back." Once I started keeping 8 minutes miles, I know it's not fast, but I just wanted to finish strong. As I got nearer to the finish line, people kept on telling me what place I was in compared to other woman. So, of course my ego got the best of me and I wanted to finish strong. My upper thighs were on fire. I am a lazy runner, probably why I enjoy it so much. My upper thighs usually don't get that tired, again I am a lazy runner.

All in all I finished 6th overall for women, again it was a small race. But it was really exciting. This woman who had been tailing me for five miles finished literally 2 seconds before me.

First race of the season was amazing. I write this to remember. I can't wait for Brooklyn next month, especially since I get to run with Abby following Jason's trail (he's so fast).

Happy running.

Amish Country.