Anything is possible, but you have to believe and you have to fight. -Lance Armstrong

This month was insane. I started off with the last week(ish) of my taper, ran a 3:09:29 to qualify for Boston, ran 19:07 in my first 5k with my running club. All the while studying like hell for an oral exam of epic proportions, which we will get to later. Oh, and I somehow managed to put in 127 miles. Not too shabby for 9 days of taper and 3 weeks of recovery after the marathon.

This week was great for running. I put in about 26 miles, including a 10 miler on Friday (my first double digit run since PDX) and a great trail run with the club yesterday. This morning, after tracking some friends who ran MCM, I went out for a run along the river. It poured rain all night, but was sunny and blue skies this morning. If you are ever in the northwest in the fall and happen to encounter one of these rare, sunny fall days, make sure you go for a run. I love running on fall days like today.

On my run this morning, I realized something. Scratch that, rewind it. Jess posted earlier this week about being a good runner. I've always just thought of myself as a runner. On my run this morning, I was thinking about her post and my own running career. From its beginnings as a hurdler in 7th grade, to xc/track in high school to the past year. The time I've invested into this amazing sport and the miles I've logged over the years are starting to shine through.

In high school, I was always a middle of the pack guy in track and a front of the pack JV guy in xc. I never qualified for an invitational or districts or state. When the regular season was over, I was done. Qualifying for Boston has changed how I feel about my own running. I finally feel like a good runner. I can now maintain 7:14 per mile for 26.2 miles when there was a time when I couldn't do that for one mile!

In my opening, I mentioned an oral exam of epic proportions. If you read this blog often, you know I am a grad student studying math. You also know that I received a conditional pass on my comprehensive exam in algebra. So Friday, I had an hour long oral exam to prove to the committee that I really do know what I'm talking about and should receive a pass on the test. The epicness of this test wasn't that it was an hour long oral exam, it was that if I didn't pass it, I wouldn't graduate in the spring. All the studying I put in paid off as I passed! Now I can get caught up in my classes and start working on my thesis again. Speaking of, I need to go read a few papers...