Shamrock ON...

I read on a blog about a woman who dedicated each mile of her marathon to a different person.  She knew she would have to keep running, because at the end of the race she didn’t want to have to say that she walked anyone’s mile.  I have decided to do that for the Shamrock Half marathon...  I thought it would be hard to find the 13.1 people, but as I typed this, I realized that the hard thing was to narrow it down to only 13 people!  So, for 9 minutes 54 seconds, this is your mile...

Mile #1 is for... Emily G.  Because I’ll likely be running a little too fast for myself, all caught up in the moment.

Mile #2 is for...  Courtney H.  Because she’s the voice of reason who would say something very frank and very true about not running too fast for myself.

Mile #3 is for...  Bridget- because she’s my 3rd child and a “little terror”, which is likely what I’ll be feeling as I realize I have 10 miles to go.

Mile #4 is for...  Courtney M.  Because when you run the last 12 of someone’s 20 and they still kick your a**, you tend to think of them while you’re running.

Mile #5 is for...  Nicole.  Because she makes it look so easy & because by now I might have realized that I’m once again running in Virginia Beach, our home turf.

Mile #6 is for... Fay.  Because I finished my first 6 miles with Fay and I will always remember it.

Mile #7 is for... Gregory.  Because the last 7 years have flown by too fast to think about, hopefully I'll feel that way about the first 7 miles.

Mile #8 is for... Rachel.  Because about 6 months ago she gave me some sensible racing advice and for some reason mile 8 is where I always think of it.

Mile #9 is for Carla.  Because she drives me... I mean literally drives me to the races I need to run to train effectively, and makes me laugh while we’re getting there.

Mile #10 is for Colleen.  Because I’ve been a stay at home mom for rounding on 10 years now and never before being a mom would I have imagined I could run 10 miles.

Mile #11 is for SpeeDee, Pam and Linda.  Because it’s nice to have a "secret" cheering squad.

Mile #12 is for Katie C.  Because we were supposed to run the last one together and it was around mile #12 that I was really really lonely for her.

Mile #13 is for Tonia.  Because Thursdays are my favorite day of the week.

Mile #13.1 is for me.