TGIF!

Phew; what a week! I don't know that I have ever been so incredibly happy to see the calendar say Friday!

All of my health issues are the kind that while they are always "there" they have highs and lows. I have days where I feel amazing and I barely even think about them; then there are days like the last few where I can barely make it through work without throwing in the towel. Fevers, nausea, pain, blurred vision, exhaustion, it has all come for an unwelcome visit. I honestly don't know how I managed to stick to my training plan and get in a 9 and a half mile run last night after work.



What better time to focus on the exciting upcoming adventures you have than when you are feeling less than great? I have to have something to look forward to, right?  So, now is the best time to share that I am one of the lucky people that got selected in the lottery for the 2015 Berlin Marathon!  I never get selected for races that are done by a lottery so imagine my surprise when I woke up on November 20th to an e-mail in German that made me say "It's in German, but I THINK I got in!". Lee was still trying to sleep and it took him a second to become coherent and then it sunk in and he must have realized "Oktoberfest" in his mind because he said "Got in?" "Wait. To Berlin??" (we all know it wasn't the running that was the first thing he thought of; it had to be the beer). This was the first year I actually entered the lottery for Berlin and I can't believe I was actually selected.

At this point (since we are only about a month and a half away from race day) everything has been booked and my training has been underway for awhile (I actually only have three long training runs left!).  Training has had new challenges this time around; I have so much more exhaustion and pain that I have had to be very flexible with my training schedule. And, just a few weeks ago one of my doctor's said I have some joint issues which means visits with two more specialists and I had to get re-fitted (and buy all new) running shoes.  On the upside, the training itself is going pretty great; I'm keeping my target pace or less on all of my training runs, and, when I have to skip a run I'm able to re-work my training schedule to fit it back in to the schedule in the same week.

I think I may be most excited to carb-load with a bunch of pretzels. :) Who else is running Berlin in 2015??