13.1...what?

what do chaffing, spandex, salty dried sweat, achey knees, the runs, and the feeling of accomplishment have in common? they're just a few of the things i've been experiencing since i started training for a 1/2 marathon with russell. i can't emphasize enough that it is a 1/2...people who run for 26 miles are just plain crazy. back in may, russ and i started talking about doing a race together. there has been a running fever in my family and several brothers and in-laws have been running, racing and participating in 1/2 and full marathons, and apparently we were downwind and caught the running bug, at least till we finish our race, we'll see what happens post mortem, or post run. anywho, so when we went to hawaii in June, we started training,just running 3 miles everyday. We got back and started on hal higdon's program.
which we have loved. both russ and i are amazed at what we have been able to do. we've ran a couple races, a 5k & 10k, to get us used to the "race" feel..which is pretty incredible. we got some free shirts, so it was totally worth it. the longest we've gone is 8 miles and tomorrow we run 9 miles...i'm hoping i don't have to "drop the kids off" in the middle of it...yikes. I might be taking some tp, just in case. anywho, we are excited and nervous to be doing it, but happy that we're doing it together. the race is saturday, october 2, up in Leavenworth, Wa, for anyone wanting to bring signs and noise makers to cheer us on. Leavenworth is a cute little town that will be celebrating Oktoberfest the same weekend. so hopefully we'll be alive to celebrate along with the locals...sober of course, but drunk on brauts! will anything sound worse after running 13 miles? a huge juicy bratwurst?? also we're celebrating our 5th wedding anniversary in october...so literally, we're running into 5 years with flare...or quite possibly with flare-ups. all in all, we're enjoying our workouts and just loving each other!!