I feel that I have finally reached an amazing place in terms of my physical ability! Today, I ran 8 miles (after running 10 last week, we are deducting miles in order to allow our bodies to recover before doing higher mileage again), and I felt fantastic! What's even more fun is that I am truly coming to understand well the rhythms and dynamics of my body. I have learned that I have "gears," just like a bicycle. I am able to run one pace and decide to move up or down a gear as my body tells me to. In addition, I have learned how my body will generally perform throughout a run. For the first two miles, I generally feel good about the run. I'm ready to go and am keeping a good and quick pace. By the second mile, I tend to become a bit sluggish and wonder if I'll be able to make it for the entire run. I get down on myself, but I push through knowing that it will get better. I usually have a few average miles in between, after pushing through the frustration. Then, in my final miles, I generally pick up the pace and finish strong. That is exactly how my run went today! I finished in under 11 minutes per mile, an excellent pace for me! Perhaps someday in my life, I will become faster... But for now, under 11 minutes per miles is fabulous for my body's abilities! I continue to feel confident that it is more important for me to sustain myself through an entire long run than to finish faster than everyone else. I am my biggest competitor, so I continue to push myself!

So, I have come to a point where I feel confident that if I were to have to race tomorrow, I would be ready! : ) What a cool feeling! This is a great thing, because now I must focus my energy on fund-raising. I have raised about one-third of my goal at this point. Approximately $1,000 is an incredible amount that I am so excited to give to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (!!!!), but it is only a portion of what I must raise. I am SO GRATEFUL for each donation that friends and family have given. THANK YOU!!!! If you would like to donate and haven't yet done so, please continue to think of me as I am waking at 5:30 AM on a Saturday to complete my training in support of cancer patients everywhere. :-) I am also hoping to come up with additional fund-raising ideas to round out my total. I'm inspired by other TNT teammates every week as they announce a new fund-raiser that they have put together. They continue to make raising funds and awareness for TNT a big part of their lives. I hope to be as strong in my commitment by moving forward with fund-raising.