Motivation Monday

Along with my random posts, I am trying to also have weekly reoccurring posts. What I mean by this is that on certain days every week I will post something that revolves around the same theme. For Monday, I will have Motivation Monday. As a literacy teacher I love alliteration! This motivation will come in the form of pictures, quotes, memes, stories, and anything else I can think of :)

Question of the Day: What keeps you motivated?

Weekly Workout Recap: 2/19-2/25

While I plan to just post randomly on here (my goal is at least one post per week!), I also love the idea of reoccurring posts. What I mean by this is that there will be some posts that will be consistent each week. This is something I look forward to on some of the running blogs I follow. One of these weekly reoccurring posts will be a recap of my workouts throughout the week. I follow my week from Monday to Sunday in my workout journal, so I will post this recap every Sunday night or Monday morning.



Monday, February 19- 9 mile run + rolling with my R8
*This was my longest run since my marathon in November. Also, I don't usually do my long runs on a Monday but we had a day off from school so I took advantage of it!*

Tuesday, February 20- 2.6 miles with my brother, sister, and nephew (this was split into two runs because we ran to a park, played on the swings with my nephew, and then ran back!)


Wednesday, February 21- 1 mile with my brother

Thursday, February 22- Rest Day from running + 15 minute ab workout

Friday, February 23- 4 mile run

Saturday- February 24- 7 mile run + rolling with my R8

Sunday, February 25- 4 miles with my sister

Total Weekly Mileage: 27.6

Marathon #3, Here I Come!

It's no secret that I love a good challenge and I also love setting goals! Since my last marathon 3 months ago, I have been debating on new running goals to set. Should I run another marathon? Do I try for an ultra?

I put the goal of running an ultra on the back burner when I realized there aren't many good 50k races in my area in the next year. So then I went on to continue debating about running another marathon... A few days ago, the Philadelphia Marathon announced that this was the 25th year for the marathon. Seeing as this is my favorite (and only marathon) I have ran, I knew this was the perfect year to run it again!

Source

I love everything about the marathon distance. I also love everything about running in Philadelphia.  Knowing that this is the 25th anniversary, I know it'll be a fun year to run! So today (Sunday, February 25th), I was ready when registration opened at 10 AM. I am really looking forward to running my third marathon in about 9 months!

If you or anyone you know is planning to run the Philadelphia Half, Full, Liberty Bell Challenge, or Independence Challenge, please consider using my referral link :) 

click here to register using my referral link!

Expect some marathon themed posts in the near future!

Question of the Day: Have you ever ran a marathon? If so, which one? If not, what marathon would you consider running as your first?

Welcome to Little Runner Em!

I'm so excited to finally have started my very own running blog! After years of following other fantastic bloggers, I have been telling myself to start one of my own. I've always pushed the idea aside, assuming it wouldn't go anywhere, but now I believe I am ready to take the jump into blogging! There are so many thoughts, tips, and ideas swimming around in my head that I would really love to just get out there to fellow runners and here is my opportunity!

Who am I?

For those of you who don't know me already, my name is Emily and I go by @LittleRunnerEm on Instagram. Insta is where I post snapshots of my running life (and sometimes my personal life) and now I'm eager to be able to elaborate on my running life and thoughts through my blog posts. I'm a twenty-something year old runner from New Jersey who doesn't have much of a "story" of how I became the runner I am today. Every runner has a story. Where they began, who inspired them, what personal goals they had. Sadly, my story is nothing exciting. 

My Story

I was never very athletic in high school except for being a member of the marching band. I am always quick to defend the argument that marching band IS in fact a sport. While I may not have spent my days running laps and competing in games, I spent my days marching around a field in all weather conditions and competing at competitions. I can thank marching band for my muscular calves and strong upper body that have been a HUGE contribution to my running.

In May of 2013, my sister convinced me to begin training with her for a 5k. A mutual friend of ours volunteered to basically coach us through the training since we really didn't have much of an idea of what to do. I was shocked when our first run of this training was a WHOLE 1 mile. I thought I was going to die. Before now, my extent of running was the mile run in school, which I basically walk/ran and was happy to finish in under 14 minutes. My body was surely in shock as I continued on with running anywhere from a mile to three until that September rolled around and we ran our first 5k over in Philadelphia.

My first 5k, The Four Seasons Parkway Run & Walk, with my sister, Ashley! 

All it took was one 5k to get me hooked on running!  Next thing you know, I was running a different 5k every couple weeks, striving to beat my last time. After a couple months, my sister and I signed up for the Philadelphia Broad Street 10-miler in May 2014. This would be my first long distance run and I was both scared and excited!

Broad Street was unlike any race I had ran. The support along the way was phenomenal! I was proud of myself for staying strong over a course of 10 miles. I never thought I'd say it, but I LOVED running long distance! I enjoyed running for an extended amount of time. It gave me a chance to think and really soak in the world around me. All it took was one year for me to go from training to my first 5k to long distance running.

My first half marathon, The Hershey Half!

From here, I went on to run my first half marathon about 5 months later. I decided at this moment that the half was my favorite distance. Not too short but not too long. Just right. 

Ashley and I conquered our first marathon together, the Philadelphia Marathon!

After much convincing by my sister, I decided to run my first marathon in November 2015: the Philadelphia Marathon. Training was tough and the marathon was tougher, but I loved it! Knowing that my legs could carry me for 26.2 miles was exhilarating! It took me another 2 years to build up the courage to run this marathon again in November 2017. Once again, I loved it!

My second marathon and second time running the Philadelphia Marathon.

Fast forward to now. I have run a total of 2 full marathons, 5 half marathons, 4 10-milers, and over 25 other distance races. I still would choose the half as my favorite distance. I could go on for days about all the races I've ran and how each and every one of those races contributed to my love of running, but then this post would be extremely long. I'll save those stories for other posts in the future :)

Like I said earlier, my intention for this blog is to elaborate on my running life that I share on Instagram, while also sharing my thoughts, tips, and ideas related to running. My goal is to eventually have a well-known running blog but I suppose that will take some time to work up to :) For now, I hope you all enjoy what I have to say!

Question of the Day: Tell me about yourself! Do you have an Instagram? If so, leave it in a comment so I can check it out!