Awkward 1st Day of Training Pictures

Remember those awkward first day of school pictures that your parents always took?  You hated it, but let's face it, you really loved it.  And now you can go back and remind yourself of how far you've come.  I didn't want to deprive myself of photographic evidence of the first day of marathon training because ***YAY IT'S FINALLY HERE!!*** (Fake it til you make it. In all actuality, I'm sick and feel like death right now. I had no desire to run today whatsoever.  I'm just too stubborn to sway from my running plan.)

It's also very weird to start my running plan right now.. it seems so early! The race is on April 15, and when I trained for the halves, I would start my training in the middle of January.  Hopefully the extra month (and extra 13.1 miles) doesn't kill me this year.

Anyways.  Less talk, more awkward Ilooksuperintense time:

For this one, I finally took the time to figure out how to use my camera's self timer:

Honestly the run itself was tough.. I just don't feel good :/ Supposedly there is a "neck" rule when it comes to working out: if your sickness is above the neck (throat, nose, head) then you should be in the clear to go ahead and run, but if your sickness is below the neck then you should abstain.  But obviously, you should take cues from your body concerning body aches, fever, etc.  

I tried to tone down my pace... I'd really like to be running 8 minute miles but sometimes you have to remember to go easy on your body when it needs it:

Recovering with stretching, foam rolling, and banana soy smoothie!

It's going to be a beautiful journey!