5 miler!

WOW! I ran at least 5 miles today - first time EVER!! I'm so proud of myself!! I've never run that far before, and it felt pretty good. I met Tabitha and we drove to Patapsco Valley State Park and ran their Grist Mill Trail.

The trail is a 2.4 mile (one way) paved trail that follows a river and is very scenic. We maintained a really good pace and when we got to the end of the 2.4 mile section we kept running through a dirt trail (turns out it was a mountain bike path which we were very lucky not to run into any since there wasn't a lot of room - great trail just the same!)...I'd guess it was about .25 mile trail. I love trail runs! I actually sprinted most of this bike trail (probably a good thing too because once we exited 2 mountain bikes came out not long after...thought I heard someone hooting and hollering - LOL!). I think sprinting on a trail is different then a paved path - your jumping over limbs, creeks, up hills, down hills. It keeps you on your toes and is a lot of fun (what I had been hoping the NorthFace Endurance race would've been like).
We were hoping to get some water at the Visitor Center which was at the end of the bike trail, but it turns out they don't have a water fountain there. UGH! So we looped around and followed the main road back to the "start" of the paved trail. Got lucky and passed a picnic area that had a water fountain! Gulped some water, used the potty, and started on our way back to the vehicle.
We ended up stopping about a mile in to get more water (different Visitor Center) and then ran the rest of the way. We don't have a GPS or anything that tracks distance so I set my timer for 60 minutes when we started. It went off when we were almost back at the vehicle, I reset it; total run time: 65 minutes.
I am so proud - only 2 stops for water/potty. We've started talking about looking into those water belts for our longer runs - it'd be nice to have somewhere to stash our keys as well.
When we had about half a mile to go my toes on my right foot started to hurt. I thought it was kind of funny, but I guess they were tired of pushing me forward. Now that I've been home for a bit my left heal is hurting some too. I think this just means more stretching before and after. It'll feel good to run our normal 3-3.5 miles on Tues and Fri. This coming Sunday I have an all women's 5K that I signed up for! I'm super excited. My Sister is going to watch the kids and Chris volunteered to man a water station then we're going to both help clean up.
I'm starting to really enjoy running!