Stay Strong - Run Long

"What a freaking day". These are the words I kept uttering to myself and to my pacer Byron as we very slowly approached the finish line of the Free State Trail Run 100k . It was an incredible day and an awful day mixed into one 14 hour and 45 minute stretch. One with dramatic highs and traumatic lows, but one that I won't soon forget, nonetheless. The decision to do the 100k started just days after the 2012 12 hour Equalizer . I missed my goal of 100k (or 62 miles) by 5 miles in the 12 hour event. I was obviously elated to have completed the 57 miles and had a great time with friends and family that were able to join me, but something was missing. The 5 miles has haunted me ever since that day in October. 5 miles. What if I would have drank more? Could I have done it? 5 miles equals one extra hour on the course. In the grand scheme of things, one hour doesn't seem like that much, but on that day it did. 5 miles and I would have been able to coin myself as a "

I sit here at my desk the morning after one of the biggest tragedies in marathon history with a heavy heart. Just to be clear, I was not there but I have "lived" it through Facebook, news articles, and my friends first hand accounts. My heart is heavy and I'm conflicted. On one hand I am ecstatic that all of the people that I know who were there are accounted for and OK physically. One friend of mine finished, literally, 3 minutes before the bomb went off. I had been watching her times on the feed all morning. She was having a rough day. I could tell from the times. When I saw her time come up as 4:06 I was relieved and filled with joy for what she had endured. Her times over the 26.2 miles were steadily getting slower so I was just happy she was able to finish. At that moment, I sent her a text message congratulating her as a "BOSTON FINISHER". She is our running club president and one to always return a text, always picks up the phone (even during a run) a