10 miles today, hoping for a three hours run tomorrow. This is going to be my most intense ‘getting in shape’ week in my marathon training for next month, just working through it.

Back when I was 18 running the Maine Marathon for the first time, I never went for longer than 15-18 miles in one day doing laps around my block in 5 or 3 mile increments depending on the route like now in my training. I remember reaching mile 18 in the Maine Marathon for the first time and feeling struck with fear of whether or not I could finish the entire event, popping a jelly bean for runners in my mouth thinking it would be my fuel to the finishline 8.2 miles later. It's wild to think I did my first Marathon without any gels and barely going to the water stations. Now I wonder if everything that I went through physically to finish the marathon was a big deal compared to the emotion of accomplishing a huge goal, meeting a standard to finally be a 'marathoner'. I'll be really proud of myself if I finish the Maine Marathon and MDI Marathon this October, at 29 eleven years later… and have a Halloween violin concert on top of it all.