500 miles!

Earlier this year I set a goal to run 500 miles in 2012.  I expected to get to the 500 mile mark last Saturday during my half-marathon long run but due to sickness I cancelled that run and figured I would just hit the mark during a weekday jaunt with Lynn.  A few weeks ago my old neighbor, Lisa, asked if she could run with us the day after Christmas and, of course, we welcomed her!  Lisa is the gal who trained alongside me for my first ever 5k in 2008.

Lisa, Renee, me, Molly in 2008 at my first ever 5K

 As it turned out I only needed to run 2.74 miles on Wednesday to hit my 500 mile mark.  Who better to run my 500th mile with me than the woman who helped me run my very first 5k and the woman who is currently getting me out of bed at 6am three days a week to be sure I'm in training mode for my very first marathon?! 

My training plan for Wednesday called for 7 miles so I hopped out of bed a little bit early and ran a mile before meeting Lisa and Lynn.  I didn't tell them this was "the day" so when I stopped half way through our run and yelled out, "excuse me, I have an announcement to make!" I think I took them off guard.  I continued and stated I had officially run 500 miles this year and high-fives ensued.  I was elated! 

We got back to the neighborhood and I went inside to get some water while Lynn and Lisa returned to the their respective homes.  I still had another 3 miles run and I wasn't exactly excited about it.  Did I mention it had snowed a bit the night before?  Well, I had and I took advantage of the snow to snap a photo to document my milestone for the year.