Runner's Rite of Passage

As I mentioned before, I signed up for a half marathon and the training I have been going through has been a huge part of me getting into shape and losing a lot of weight. Just for the record, I have lost (as of this morning) 40 pounds since I started running and eating right two and a half months ago. In the research and reading I have done about how to train for longer races I have noticed that a lot of people refer to a 'rite of passage' that every runner must go through, and that rite of passage is to run a 10 mile run. I fulfilled that rite of passage today. It was hard but it felt good to get through it. It was 2 miles further than I ran last Saturday, which is a little bit more of an increase to your 'long run' than is recommended but I knew that if I ran 9 miles I would not be able to stop there and would just want to do 10, so I just decided to do 10 miles today. There are some amazing running trails here is DC. Today I ran along the Potomac River here in VA and crossed over into DC at some point and then turned around and ran back. It is nice to see the beauty of this city as I run (it is way better than the treadmill). I could see the river and lots of trees most of the time, and across the river I could see the Washington Monument and the US Capitol. My half marathon is 36 days, so I still have a lot of training left to do to reach my goal, but I feel I am well on my way.