Martha-In-Training: How Good it Feels to Accomplish Your Goals

I love running.

I'm sure I've talked about it enough over the years and I'll admit I do have a love/hate relationship with it.

When I'm in the zone it's all I want to do. My body craves it.

Then I take breaks (often well needed as I have a tendency to push myself too hard sometimes) and can't understand why I ever wanted to get off of the couch.

But that runner's high is exillerating when you feel it.

I've gotten goosebumps just feeling the air and taking in my surroundings on some runs.

I started really running the summer I graduated from high school. I had run some gentle cross country in middle school for track days but I was more interested in the soccer team, the volleyball team, and believe it or not the basketball team. Yeah, all 5-foot-3 of me made the basketball team.

The summer after I finished high school I worked with a girl who was big into fitness.

So I decided that I would start exercising too. My dad was a runner so it seemed natural that that's what I would do.

I started going for runs around the neighbourhood, slowly building up to longer and longer distances.

Last Sunday I ran my 3rd half marathon.

It started up by Mel Lastman square and ended right by Lake Ontario at Ontario Place.

What a beautiful run it was too. The weather was incredible - sunny and warm with enough shade every now and then to keep from completely overheating - and the course took us down Yonge Street then through a more secluded and tree-lined area that I had never been through before.

Once we ventured back into downtown Toronto we were 17 km into the run and the finish line was starting to feel more real.

So I ran.

21 km.

I even managed to sprint the last few hundred metres to the finish.

My goal was to beat the 2 hour mark and as I rounded the 16 km marker at just under 90 minutes I had a good feeling I was going to do it.

Once I spotted the finish line and saw the clock I ran with everything I had left and finished in just under 1 hour and 55 minutes.

And now I've added this big beautiful medal to my small but growing collection.

Warrior dash in 2011, my first half marathon in 2010, and my second half marathon in 2011.

Tomorrow morning I'll be running the Sporting Life 10k for the 5th year in a row.

I'm excited because it's a great course to run, because I expect to see a lot of people I know at the finish line, and because for the first time ever John is running it!

I'm so proud of him - I'm torn between wanting to run beside him the whole way and wanting to sprint ahead so I can try to capture the moment he crosses the finish line.

And because I want to be a little bit of a braggart (if you've participated in any runs check out this website to see your times!) I'm posting the record of my runs and gun and chip times.

My half marathon times have improved vastly - from 2:11 to 2:06 to 1:55!

Last year's SL10K isn't on there, I think because the organizer changed.