Watch out, Oprah!

For those of you who don't know, I began my Dana-Farber Marathon Challenge with the primary goal of raising $15,000 for cancer-research.  I actually never put much thought into the fact that I'd actually have to travel 26.2 miles on foot.  This is definitely a good thing because it is scary for someone who isn't a runner.  In fact, prior to the start of my training, I had been almost sedentary for 1.5 years.  


I was scared to exercise too much when I was pregnant with Augustus because I considered the pregnancy a gift that may never come again.  My intense chemotherapy and radiation should have made me infertile, and I certainly didn't want to ruin my pregnancy just to get a run in.  Around 32 weeks, I had to go on complete bed-rest which meant I was staying horizontal until Gus made his debut.  Around 7 weeks post-pregnancy, I went out for my first run in months and felt good.  Unfortunately, the very next day, we were in a car accident that managed to again ruin any chance of me running.  My entire hip area was so bad that I could barely get in and out of bed for a couple weeks.


Fast-forward to September 2010, when I got the crazy idea that I could run a marathon.  The day before I submitted my application to join the program, I figured I would test my athletic ability.  "I'm sure I still have it," I reasoned with myself.  My body did not feel the same way and decided that my run was over after 1.1 miles.  However, with a little hard work and some great advice from Jack Fultz, I have been able to really step it up.  


So you may be wondering, "what's the story with Oprah?" Well, like I said, I had no real running goals for this marathon except to finish before the sag-wagon came through.  That remained my goal until two weeks ago when I went for a group run.  One of the amazing ladies I was running with was sharing a story about how Oprah ran a marathon in 4:30 (4:29:15, to be exact).  At that point, I had no choice but to change my goal.  How could I let Oprah beat me?!? Thus, I have set my sites on beating Oprah's time.  To break it down, that means I will have to run 26 consecutive 10.27 minute miles.  Challenging?  Yes!  Impossible? No!  Today I ran 6 consecutive 9.7 minute miles.  Game on, Oprah!