run jackie run!

You may not know this about me...but back in the day, I was pretty fast. Maybe even very fast. In elementary school I won every 50 yd dash or 100 yd dash during field days. On the street where I grew up, grown men (think my Dad's age when I was 10 or 12) in their late thirties or so would always challenge me to a race in the street. I won.

Fast forward to junior high and high school, and let's just say track was my thing. I played lots of sports, but my true talent were in these legs I had. When I played basketball, I was known to run faster than the ball and had to get 17 stitches to prove it. Oops.

But...I have realized once you get out of high school and college, no one wants to race in 100yd dashes anymore. Yet, I still have this passion and burn in my gut to run, run, run. I can explain the feeling I have, or the passion that lives in my belly. My husband laughs at me when I watch college track and field on the Big 10 Network. He thinks it's so boring. I love the butterflies that come when I watch the runners get themselves situated in their blocks. I love the quiet of the crowd before the gun goes off and I love the stretch in the end.

I was never a long distance runner. I was a 100m, 200m, 400m hurdle and leg of the 400m relay kind of girl. I ran my first long distance last year as part of a relay team for the Detroit Free Press Marathon. My leg was the final at 4.6 miles and I loved it. On Saturday, my husband and I are running the University of Michigan/Michigan State 5K Tailgate Challenge, before we leave for our vacation. I will report back on how I did. Please pray for speedy legs!