Long Run

 

I absolutely LOVE this poster! It's a nice reminder for all these runs that I have coming up. Today's scheduled run called for 5 miles.You can say I was pretty nervous about running this far; however I tried to stay optimistic. It wasn't that long ago when I couldn't even run one mile without walking, the fact that today I was going to be running 5 miles made me nervous, but if I don't keep adding miles I'll never know how far I'll truly be able to go. Besides no one ever said I had to run all 5 miles, it was just my goal to be able to do so. AND if I want to do not just one, but three half-marathons next year, I'm going to have to start doing longer runs. There is no time like the present to get started!
I took the kids to my brother's place in Gainesville, VA and he watched my little one's while I ran. I told him, "I'll probably be gone at least an hour." I really had no idea how long it would take me, I just figured about 10-12 minute mile pace. He lives in a nice community, but it's not very big so he gave me some directions for a loop outside his neighborhood. He said I could take it either way, but it would probably be easier to head straight through the roundabout. Sounded good to me.
The weather today was tricky for dressing. It was cold at my place, but I opted for capri's anyway since I figured running 5 miles would probably make me pretty warm. I grabbed my wind breaker and gloves before leaving the house too...just in case. It felt cool so I went ahead and bundled up in my gloves and windbreaker. Off I went!
I liked the idea of exploring a new area while I ran since I figured it would keep things interesting. I remembered a trail through the woods near my brother's community pool so I headed over that way first. Hurricane Sandy did a number on the trail - felt like I was doing the Warrior Dash with all the trees I was leaping over and crawling under - LOL. When I was done I was sweating so bad and breathing hard...figured I'd gone at least a mile and a half - WRONG! It wasn't even a mile yet. I ended up stripping off my gloves and wrapping my windbreaker around my waist.
I circled back towards my brothers house and then headed out of his neighborhood. I passed a school and then the playground he mentioned, but I forgot to turn left, so I ended up hitting a dead end about half a mile later. Circled back around towards the playground and went left and ended up heading up at the time what I thought was a pretty big hill. This is when I hit my mental block. I glanced at my Garmin and I was around 3.4 miles or so. I went back and forth in my mind with should I walk or keep running, and ended up just slowing down my pace. The first two miles I was averaged an 8 minute mile, and now it was closer to a 10:30 minute pace.
When I got to the top of that hill my Garmin read 4 miles. I was elated! Yea...I'm SO close!! I started down the hill and then noticed that I was at the base of another hill. At this point I was ready to kill my brother! I told myself I'm running up this b*tch! Oh yea, I was breaking out the curse words. So not happy at this point of the run.
It was a long half mile slow, steady climb (I think I was doing a 12 minute pace, it seriously felt like I was crawling). My legs felt like lead. I just kept picking an object to "run" to, and once I got there, I picked another. I was SO HAPPY when I finally got to the top. I coasted back to my brother's on the pure joy of not walking up that damn hill.
Today's stats: 5.35 miles in 59 minutes. YEA BABY!!!!