Let's hope it's not hot and humid on marathon day...

I know, I've slacked on the blog this week. In my defense, I was in Florida visiting family. "Florida?!" you're thinking, "Well that must have been lovely! Warm weather! Sunshine! Family! I bet you got some good runs in down there!" Well, dear reader, you're thinking wrong. Yes, Florida was warm, and even sunny sometimes. Yes, I saw a lot of my family which was nice considering I don't get to see them nearly as often as I would like. But the running, or lack thereof, left a little something to be desired.

Let me tell you something: Florida is HOT, and my God is it humid! and HOT+humid= not fun running conditions. Normally I go to Florida with the best of working out intentions. My running gear is packed and ready to go in my bag, but the moment I arrive in the sweltering heat all motivation to run, or do anything much more than flip over on the lounge chair to tan my back, goes straight out the window. "Not this time!" I told myself, "This time I'm training for a marathon! No silly heat is going to stop me!" A nice thought in theory, but the heat is a formidable opponent, and one that I am not used to facing. On the first morning when I attempted to take a 8 mile run around the neighborhood, I ran 4 miles outside and then high-tailed it to the gym to run on the treadmill in the relative coolness of the (very minimal) a/c. My runs on the rest of my trip went similarly, and ended with me only completing 6 or 7 miles each day. Then, to top it all off, my knee started bothering me. I wasn't even running that much and now my knee decides to start acting up! UGH!

I was frustrated to say the very least, but on my last day, I woke up bright and early, had some cereal, a little bit of coffee, downed a bottle of water and rode my Grandfather's bike over to the gym. Considering how the rest of the week had gone, I really wasn't expecting much from my stupid body, but I wanted to get in a little gym time before spending the majority of my day smushed in an airplane seat, not to mention I was feeling pretty guilty about missing the track workout that night. I hopped on the treadmill for a quick 1 mile warm up and then switched over to the Arc Trainer. The humidity was already beginning to take its toll on me and my knee was sore from the treadmill, but I was suddenly very determined to get a good workout out of this. I decided to create a "track" workout for the arc trainer (basically copied an old one that we did at the track with Jack). I'll be honest, it didn't feel so great while I was doing it, and people kind of looked at me like I was a crazy person, but when I was done... wow did I feel good. I even forgot about the fact that I would be missing the actual workout later that night (which may seem like a small accomplishment, but a day earlier I was almost ready to shell out 200 bucks to take an earlier flight so I could make the track... crazy, I know).

Anyways, I got back to Boston last night and I am happy to find that the weather is still cool and crisp, just how I like it. Let's hope it stays like this for awhile and doesn't heat up too much in the next couple of weeks because, that's right, the big day is just around the corner... less than a month to go (yikes!).

Fundraising News: With the addition of a couple of checks that I still need to send in, my fundraising total is now just over $9000!!! With just one month to go until the big day, I'm in great shape to make my goal of raising $13,000... thanks everyone for your support!