February 28th - redemption!

Marathon #24 turned out to be exacty what I needed in many ways. After a disappointing marathon in Myrtle beach and outside events, my mojo and confidence seemed to be rattled. Hyannis was crucial in turning the ship around. A friend wanted to run a 3:15 so we went out at that pace which felt relaxed. 1st half we were pretty much on pace and I seemed to be in a groove. It was a two loop course so we started out for the second time, this time we were alone for the most part. At 17.5 my friend fell off pace and as agreed prior to race I kept going. I was a little tired but pressed on. Splits for the last 10 miles were: 7:18/7:12/7:14/ 7:06/7:12/7:07/7:09/7:07/7:10/7:15. Overall I finished 27th out of 357 runners with a time of 3:13:35! I am very satisfied with this. The fact that I was able to stick and hit my pre-race time goal was very good. But what I am most thrilled about is I have seemed to find my groove after 2 weeks of trying circumstances. I have been reading the book 'the long run' about NYFD firefighter matt long who was run over a bus and nearly killed. Given a 5% chance to live, he survived and after a grueling 3 years came back and ran the new York city marathon ( he BQ'd 1 month prior to his accident) reading this on the plane put things in perspective: losing a job is serious and stressful but I was not close to death. Matt is living proof of how resilient the human spirit can be! I have nothing to complain about. Yes there is stress about not having a job but I will rebound and I am determined to turn this into a positive! No excuses! It's just an obstacle that I will overcome! Eye of the tiger!