Ahhh……Tuesday nights…how I love thee. Besides tomorrow being halfway through the week, it’s also my day off from teaching at the gym. I love that I get to come home after work and just have time for me and the fam!

Thanks for all the comments about the pickles. I’ve been trying to convince J to write a “husband post” for awhile, so maybe this is just the thing to get him on board! I’ll see what I can do……

This past Sunday was week 4 of our group training runs for Team Challenge. 45 minutes was on the schedule. We met at 8:30 at our usual spot and had another great turn out! Before we run I prepare a topic to discuss/educate for a few minutes since this is the first time most of these people are running.

This week I shared my experience from the Chicago Half Marathon. My best advice is to BE PREPARED. Lay everything out the night before and triple check your list. One thing that’s commonly overlooked is checking to make sure your iPod, Garmin, or whatever it may be is charged! You don’t want to be running around at 5am trying to find your headphones or safety pins to attach your race bib (race day is already stressful enough!). I also explained how it’s normal not to get a lot of sleep the night before the race and to not freak out too much over it. It happens to almost all of us, and we live.

Then we were off!

There are a few boys a lot faster than me, so when I started in the back of the pack I found it difficult to catch up!! I caught our fastest girl, Bethany, though, and ran with her for the whole second half. I need to learn to start with the boys and then fall back to see everyone else. It’s hard because I’m trying to run/walk with everyone. I want to get to know them all and let them know I CARE. I’m their coach, you know.

The speedy boys afterwards:

Nick, on the far left, is trying to set a PR of under 1:30. Holy heck!

Here’s the crew all nice and sweated up:

Can you tell it was Browns day? Also, see C in the middle?? He ran the entire 45 minutes with the team – I’m so proud of him!!

Anyways, what I tried to stress the most is that race day is what it is. You can prepare mentally and physically and just end up having a bad day (like what happened to me in Pittsburgh), or everything can just fall into place and you have a perfect day (like Cleveland!). The point is to NOT QUIT. It may feel overwhelming, and it may be emotionally draining sometimes, but you CAN do it. And my job is to help them get there. Pretty cool job, huh?

What’s the coolest job you’ve ever had?