La Sonya

I have been wanting to run a marathon again for quite a while. A marathon is 26.2 miles. It might sound crazy to pay to run the distance but the money helps make sure I'm safe while running on the 163 in San Diego and that there are medical personal every few miles. I also got an awesome medal and finishers jacket. I digress. . . I convinced my ultra marathon friend, Chris, (an ultra is a race over a marathon) to run a with me, which was much easier than I thought it would be. I started training in the winter and did a shabby job at it, compared to the first marathon I ran when I trained following a plan to the T. Once my friend Kimberly, whom I affectionately call BerlyKim, realized I wasn't planning on a new PR (Personal Record) she was game to sign up and join me for the race. I had graduation on Thursday and the next day drove down with my friend Hillary (she was my support team--driver after, cheerleader, bag carrier day of race etc). Best laid back weekend ever! R...

Running 13.1 miles is a lot. Running up-hill for 6 of those miles is also a lot. My goal was to run the whole thing, to keep the movement of my feet going even if it was slower than my walking. I wanted to push my body to go. Mind over matter, my mind is the master my body is the slave. It was hard. The mile leading up to the top and turn around point was hard. I had already been passed by the other girls running with me and by the beautiful Kenyans who were championing out the race in record time and it was exhausting. I found myself slowing way down once I got to the bottom of the mountain; the last few miles were slow and hard. Towards the end, I found myself running with different people, pacing myself off of them. One lady who I was keeping in time with slowed down and I turned to her and said, “You can do it, let’s go, you’re my pacer”. And she did, we talked a little and she kept going. She ended up passing me and going beyond my pace. There where other people who I ran with, ...

Photos by Bethany Gerber Before the race Musings of an international runner. I can't believe that a year ago this month I first thought about running a half marathon. Me, the person who had never even ran a whole mile. I wrote about the fear of running and of committing to run the race. It was scary, it was big and I was sorely out of shape. I did it though. I ran my first half marathon . Brittany helped me, I owe her lots and lots. It's amazing to go back through and read what I wrote about running, how I learned to love it and gain the energy from it. I continued to run during the summer and once I got here to Tanzania I looked for my daily route I could take. Here in Usa River I found such great places to run and run I have been. I even got Kellie, the Havilah volunteer, to run some days with me. On the first day of meeting the volunteers from Cradle of Love I found out about a race taking place on the slopes of Kilimanjaro and I knew I was going to run another race. WAIT ....