17.5 miles!

17.5 miles... 17 and a half.  I gotta tell ya ladies and gents, it was a lot better than the 15 mile run.
I'm gonna say right now that I love my mother-in-law.  She stuck with me the entire time.  I slowed her down... A LOT... but she stuck with me and helped me through it.  LOVE HER!!!!
There were a lot of things that were different with this run.  One of them was that I hadn't run for a week.  I got sick this week and couldn't run so I was completely wingin' it!!! NOT going to do that again.  But I think the biggest difference, and what helped me through the run, was that Kevin and I didn't do anything on Saturday... I mean, yeah, I cleaned windows and he pulled a bush out of the yard but we didn't travel anywhere, or do anything that wasn't in outside of our normal routine.  That played a big role in my mental state the day of the run, I think! I also slowed it down quite a bit... and for being sick the week before I'm gonna say that I think 16 minute miles wasn't bad!!! Maybe I'll shoot for faster next time... but maybe not....

So, I got to thinking on this run about what really got me inspired to try and Galloway a marathon.  There again comes my wonderful mother-in-law who introduced me to the Galloway method and The Back of the Pack.  When she decided to run in the Missoula marathon over a year ago, she started posting things on Facebook from Pam Gardiner who is the co-director of the Galloway group for Run Wild Missoula.  Pam and Sue talked a lot about the Back of the Pack mentality of being proud of finishing and doing it for the health of it, not for the time of it.  Her blog a while back here literally brought tears to my eyes as she described who I could find at the Back of the Pack.  THIS is what I wanted from exercise and running... I don't care how fast I am.  I don't care if I'm the last one crossing the finish line.  I don't have a beef with anyone that calls me slow and I don't feel like I have anything to prove to anyone about how fast I am (I do have something to prove with whether or not I can do this but that's another blog).  So I decided to go for it.  I'm gonna Galloway a marathon because I can.