Julia, Here's the Deal...

So here is the deal, my sisters and I are very close.  That's us with our dad two thanksgivings ago, 2009, before my deployment.

Top Row L-R:Julia, Robby (step dad), Alice (mom)
Bottom Row L-R: Ashleigh, Wendy (me), Ariel, Meredyth

We are close in age, and have grown even closer as the time passes and the miles between us increase.
Here we are at my mom Alice Perry's wedding 26 (27, 28?) December of 2009, days before my deployment to Afghanistan.

Meredyth, Wendy, Julia

On Christmas Day 2009, covered in the bows from our presents, in Due West, SC.

Wendy, Ashleigh, Julia, Meredyth (front and center)

Here we are again for Meredyth's bridal shower in Virginia, June 2011.

So if four pictures don't do it for you just take my word for it, we are close. Byrd sisters mean a lot, they have veto rights on the men in each other's lives, they will listen intently to each other's whining and gloating, crying and blabbing, boredom and frustrations.  One day they may need to listen to your sobs the next lay out the news you don't want to hear.  My sisters mean the world to me.
Julia and I trained for last year's Army 10-miler together, I ran it with my best friend Ethan just a month after she left for Botswana.  This year I will run it again, a lone Byrd girl in a sea of meaningless people (meaningless because you are not a Byrd sister when that's all I want).

Lately I have been a bit jealous... you see Meredyth and Julia have this ongoing affair... and I want a Byrd sister love affair of my own.  Julia has been gone less than a year and I don't like it.  Yes I was gone longer and it was difficult, yes, she is having a life changing time and its good for her, shut up.

Meredyth is enjoying married life in Austin, TX.  Julia is semi-miserable in Botswana, Africa and I am still a student in Northern Virginia.  Don't get me wrong I am always enjoying life, beachside enjoying life at the moment, but everyone is away.
Back to this affair...
Meredyth and Julia have this on going blogpal and I want my piece of the Byrd pie.
So here's the deal.
Julia, will you take me, Wendy, to be your second oldest sister and second blogpal?
We need to do our 10-miler training again, and each week blog back to tell the other about our weekly runs.  Its not hard, half the time I will be telling you how I missed two days of the schedule and you'll tell me an antelope joined you on your run.

So will you.  Here is the training program in PDF form, I will also email it to you.

Training begins on Monday.

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall, Am I a Runner After All?

Tunnel To Tower 5K, Kabul, Afghanistan 2010

So... I have run a few 5Ks here and there, even one in full combat gear, the Army ten-miler this year, planning on a half-marathon in February and as it appears I have now been suckered into a Marathon in March.

I run fairly regularly, I am part of a local Hash (still need to be named) and there probably isn't a week that goes by that I don't log 5-15 miles... but a "runner".. oh my, I couldn't call myself a "runner" yet.  I'm not among those elite, the "I can run at any pace, anywhere, for any distance" people that I idealize and put on a pedestal, am I?

Julia trained with me for the Army Ten-Miler and we ran just about anywhere:

• Dirt "track" at a high school, for 20 laps; surprisingly one of my favorite runs
• Over the rolling hills of South Carolina, which I do not recommend 
• Blazing hot WO&D trail in Virginia "maybe we could just run later, when its not high noon" "YEP!", also not recommended
• The suburbia paths of Sterling, VA

She is a great partner, we encourage and motivate one another, we push each other to run harder and longer and its less competitive as it is sisterly love.   Unfortunately she went off to save the world one African country at a time and won't be back for two years.

I've also run on my own, since I was left for Africa I had to...  so I run through the woods, through shrubs, along highways, on the beach, through every residential area I know... and oh the bike paths.

Thats us, the super excited ones

Ethan ran the Ten-Miler with me since the Fireman is still recovering from foot surgery.  We joked and made rude comments and vulgar remarks and had offensive conversations and sang hymnals and cadences pretty much the entire ten miles.  It was great.  I haven't had so much fun for 90 minutes straight in a long time!  

I stopped by his place this evening to go for a run after the run we talked about the Marine Corps Marathon we have agreed to take on next year.  The agreement went something like this:

*ring ring*

W: Hey, Ethan, whats up?

E: (solemnly) Wendy, I think we might have to run the Marine Corps Marathon next year.  

W: (matter of factly) yeah I know, we are.  

E: What?! No! That was not the response I was hoping for!

This is my "Finish Line" pose

Army Ten-Miler Finish Line

So I found a training program and informed him we were "Intermediates" not "NOVICES" and he quickly disagreed.  

No, we are in the military and we ran the Ten-Miler, we aren't Novices.  So as we reviewed the training plan Ethan's cold feet turned attitude turned to an anxious excitement.  I don't want to wait til next year, let's do one soon.  

SOooooo... now we are training for the DC Rock n' Roll Marathon in March.  17 weeks away... the training program is 18 weeks long.  Good call Ethan, Good call.  

Hopefully by the Austin Half-marathon in February I will be able to come to terms with the all important title and finally consider myself a "runner".  Yeah, probably not.

 I'll get there one day.  

Tunnel to Tower 5K Shadow Run, Kabul, AFG

Marathon Training, Day 1