If I kept a running journal...

this would be worth writing about. I was recently talking to a friend about my marathon training and I told her how hard my 18 mile run was. She told me she was going to go home and look up how her first 18 mile run was. She emailed me a couple of days later and shared what she had written.
Who knew losing toenails was common amongst marathon runners? I didn't. Then again, I hadn't ever run 18 miles in one day until last week. I've been averaging about 30 miles of running a week. Next week I peak at 40 miles and then it goes down until my race on June 2nd. Yikes! My feet have never been pretty, but they now scare my kids. Naomi frequently asks me why I have boo boos (blisters) on my feet and Elizabeth about died when I took the polish off my toenails and she saw how bad my nails look. Aaron just keeps kidding me that our bodies are not made to go this far. I have been soaking my feet in hot water with Epsom salt at night, followed by an ice pack on my right hip. It's hard to believe I am self inflicting all of this pain, but I really do love it! Despite all of the physical challenges, the biggest challenge of my training is finding the time. Aaron has been so supportive and takes the boys to their soccer games on Saturdays so that I can get my big runs in. (Consider this my one and only running journal entry).