8 days & counting...

Today was my last "long" run before Little Rock -- 6 miles -- piece of cake, right? WRONG!!! The 1st mile was rough. It was very windy and my legs felt SO tired. I about decided to call it a day but decided that I just couldn't let that happen even if it meant walking the whole darn thing. So I continued and decided to take in the sights of my surroundings rather than focus on the aches & pains. I enjoyed watching a hawk soar overhead, in search of its morning meal and tried to capture it on my cell phone but wasn't able to. As I made my way to the other end of the pond, I saw something I've never seen before -- a duck sitting in a tree.

I've never seen a duck in a tree before...

Close up

Ok, so maybe this is not that strange but it struck me as odd. Then I got to thinking, I'm like this duck in the tree. The duck looked really out of place to me -- ducks can fly so why should it seem unlikely for one to be in a tree. Like me, I'm feeling really out of place with this upcoming marathon. But why? I'm a runner and I've been here before so why should I feel strange? While I was pondering this question, my garmin beeped to let me know I had gone a mile. My pace was 13:00. Are you kidding me? A mile without a walk break and a fairly decent pace for someone who's nursing a very sore knee. I decided to keep running and didn't take another walk break until I reached mile 3. After a 1/4 mile walk break, I started running again. At mile 4 I looked at my garmin to find that I was off my race day pace by 1 minute!!!! WOW!!!! Mile 5, I made up the 1 minute deficit and finished at the 6 mile mark. It was in that moment I realized that ducks sit in trees and 43 yr old back of the packers run marathons! Bring it on Little Rock!

After a GREAT run, I had the privilege of taking a 2 mile walk with my favorite new mom, Susan, and her sweet little boy, Isaac. Wished I would have taken a pic of them instead of using up my cell phone memory on the duck...live and learn, I suppose...

Gotta run...

Lisa =)