After I had my decent Brooklyn Half Marathon there was hope that I was starting to feel good about running again. I ran the day after the half for an easy recovery run and it felt good to be out there. During the week I had a less than stellar run but was just happy to be outside.

I ran that, and it felt good.

The there was this past weekend and it clicked. I rented a house in Cutchogue with a couple of my buddies for Memorial Day weekend. One of my goals was to try and do a long run in order to build on my Brooklyn Half momentum. So on Sunday we headed out from Cutchogue to Greenport. Two of us by foot and one by bike. It was fantastically beautiful day in the 70s and I felt good. I logged a total of 9.25 miles and my pace was just under a minute slower than my marathon goal pace. My legs felt a little beat up at the end but overall I felt good — emotionally and physically.

Things are going well on your run when you reach this. (c) Stacey Cooper

Wanting to take advantage of the great weather I headed out for an easy recovery run the next day. Pace-wise it wasn’t pretty but again it felt good to be outside and to be running. I was sweating and happy about it. It has been so long since I felt that and I am so ecstatic about it.

I often wrote last year about how important it was to feel confident going into my marathon training and I still feel the same as I approach this year’s training. Being able to feel happy about running is huge right now.

What was also huge, was Fred the kidney stone. He’s finally gone! I had my second procedure yesterday and he has finally been blasted to bits. Knowing that the pain and discomfort I have been feeling will finally go away is another mental boost for me. I really did not want to go into marathon training with him still hanging around.

It’s so good to be feeling positive about many things in my life right now.