Week 10 - The Road to 26.2

A good six miles to get back in the groove...

The halfway point of training and I was still lagging...but I finally got back outside to do my long distance walk/run.  This was huge and long overdue.  I had been avoiding it.  Part of the reason why I had not been back outside to do my long distances was that I could not settle on where to actually do them.  I wanted to get training miles in a new location.  I wanted more elevations.  I wanted new surroundings for inspiration and motivation.

After blogging last week about getting back to the basics...I started to think about the very first soccer game that I went to.  It was at the Maryland Soccer Plex...as the winds of a hurricane were starting to swirl in the warm August evening air.  I was forever changed.  So as I made my way around the paths outlining the Plex...I thought about how different things are now from back when I first attended that game.  Back then, my goal was to just get to the gym five days a week.  Now, I'm training for a marathon.  It  felt amazing as I ran the hills.  It is a whole new space to hold all the work I will do to get these 26 miles.

As I walked and ran...I saw two teams playing cricket, their were little girls doing soccer drills, a mixed age group of adults playing soccer, girls and boys teams warming up, grounds crew caring for newly seeded fields, and lots of goals stacked and turned in various positions around the paths.  It was perfect.  It added one other thought to my brain space while I get the miles...wondering if I will work up the courage to take an adult soccer clinic once those 26 miles are behind me.  Would I be a keeper?  A mid-fielder? Part of the backline? Could I be a forward?  All of which points to the fact that following the game of soccer has changed my life.