Renewed Hope & Brand New Confidence

I apologize for my lack of posting lately.  With summer coming to an end, moving into a new apartment and starting up my last year of law school, I just have not made the time to post!  But, I do have good news about my training!

Last weekend one of my best friends, Sarah "Pikul" Dyerson came up to Minnesota to visit.  It was her first time here and I was soooo happy to have her!  We had a great weekend which included some margaritas, the MN state fair (lots of deep fried food on a stick), and a run around the lake followed by brunch on the rooftop in Uptown.

Pikul is training for her second marathon right now as well and is in about the same place in her training that I should be in.  Pikul runs with LLS's Team in Training.  She has had much more technical training and instruction than I have had so talking with her about training is always very informative.  Throughout the weekend we talked about my running post-injury and both of our training.  Pikul shared with me some things that she has found help her and what not.  Heading out for our run, we planned on running around Lake Calhoun; 3 miles.  She is a much more conservative runner (yes, Pikul...conservative...not slow!) than I have been in the past.  She does a great job at starting off slow and conserving her energy to make sure she will have the energy to finish and hopefully to push herself harder at the end of her run.  So, I wanted to stick to her pace, start out slow.  Not only to just conserve my energy but to allow my body to warm up; something I had kind of forgotten about.  I also forgot how much easier it is to run with someone else.  We made it around the lake once and I was surprised we were already done with one lap, so we continued for a second!  I made it 6 miles without walking!  That is by far the furthest I have been able to run since my fall.  It felt AWESOME!!!  My legs were obviously a little fatigued, but my knee held up really well.  I did have pain after and made sure to ice and take anti-inflammatories.  But that run made my confidence improve so much...I actually feel like this marathon is doable and I won't be walking 10 miles of it!

After our run Pikul and I went to brunch on the rooftop @ the Cafeteria in Uptown and then I had to bring her to the airport :(

The next day I headed out for another run.  I was planning on going just 3 miles at my new pace, but it was going so well that I kept going.  I have to constantly remind myself to keep at the slower pace and I check my pace probably every minute or so which is annoying, but eventually I won't have to look as often, I'll just be able to feel it.  I made it 6 miles again!  I was so happy!  I definitely feel so much better and hopeful that this marathon might not be a horrible experience but a good one.  One in which I can be very proud of.  Running a marathon is in itself a great achievement; doing it after having 2 fractures in my knee, a slightly torn meniscus and cartilidge damage and missing 7 weeks of training is something I never thought I would be able to do.  I went out for a long run last Friday with the goal of running 12 miles.  Some people were concerned I was uping my mileage too quickly but I felt I could do it.  I wanted to challenge myself but promised I would listen to my body, and I did.  I made sure to hydrate and gu and I finished my 12 miles with an average pace of 11:30.  It's not what I would have thought my pace would be if you had asked me in May or June, but if you had asked me in July, I wouldn't have thought I would even have been able to run 12 miles yet!  My legs were fatigued afterwards, but the next day I wasn't nearly as sore as expected.  I did ice bath and ice a lot during the night.  So I am very happy and confidence in where I'm at.  And I am so excited to run the marathon with my old roommate Sarah Pruitt.  She and I haven't seen each other since last October so we're just looking forward to doing this together and aren't concerned with our time.

I will be going to KC this weekend for the beautiful Lauren Hutchison's wedding!!  I used to cheer with her at KU.  I am so excited to share her and Colin's day with them and to see lots of my great college friends!!!  It will be a crazy weekend.  But, Saturday morning Pikul has a 20 mile run with her team in training group and I am going to attempt to run it with them!  I know it seems like a HUGE jump in mileage, and that's because it is.  But I think that it is best to attempt this run with other people and with controlled training conditions.  I will have support of other people which always helps.  I am staying positive about my ability to do this run, but know that I will most definitely have to listen to my body and not push too far.  The last thing I would want to do is hurt myself further so I know that I might not make the whole 20 miles running, and that is fine with me.  I'm hoping I can make 18 @ least!  So, we'll see!  Wish me luck! :)

Fundraising...I need to thank my Grandpa, Terry McDonough and Patti and Jeff Sahr for recent donations.  Every dollar helps!  I'm a month out from race time and still have quite a bit to raise!  So any donations you can make would be greatly appreciated!  Visit my fundraising page and donate: http://pawschicago.kintera.org/teampawschicago2011/kellymcdonough or send a check made out to Paws Chicago with "Team Paws-Kelly McDonough" in the memo line to 10601 Zinran Circle, Bloomington, MN 55438 and I will send it on to the charity.


Thank you again everyone for your donations, prayers, and support!