Did you think I had gone the way of the do-do?

Is that even how that is spelled? Whatever, that doesn't really matter, you get the point. Nice that it takes a total stranger making a comment about a post in my blog to get me to start writing in it again. I should do it more often. Since the title of this blog relates to running, I suppose I should write about that. I've been doing a lot of running lately. Actually, that's a lie. I DID a lot of running over the summer training for a half marathon in September, and I've been pretty lazy since. I'd never run a race any longer than a 5k, so this was a HUGE jump for me! While I was really spent by the end of my training (not to mention the race itself), I find myself looking back and missing it... so I'm now "training" (I'll use that term loosely) for a 15k the first weekend in November. So when you're running a bigtime race, they tell you that there will be race photographers on the course and you should smile for them. They're pretty hard to miss, they're the people sitting along the course with neon yellow/green vests on with cameras. So I posed for EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. Probably not the best idea (I had visions of pics being posted where I look really great running, happy and all, but instead, I look like a total dork). But one picture that was taken of me was taken very close to the finish line. I had been running the whole race with my running buddies, Natalie and Chris, and they were in front of me. I didn't want to finish far behind them, so I poured it on with everything I had left in me and just powered through to the finish. The picture that was snapped of me: of ALL the people at the race, of ALL the photographers, the one photographer I didn't see, where I wasn't even looking at the camera, who is in the background of this picture? My mom. She was trying to take a picture of me with her phone (she missed the shot, only got my shadow), and she was in tears. Good tears. I had to buy the picture, it was that sweet of a moment. So whether I'm running for myself, either for the mental or physical benefits, I will always have that picture in my head that I'm also doing this to make someone proud of me. Good luck to all my marathon-ing friends on their race this upcoming weekend: I'll drink to you from poolside.