Last night I decided to go for a run. I wasn’t sure how far I would run, but my last long run was 7 miles, so I was really hoping for 8.
I didn’t think it was going to happen. Between mile 4 and 5, I got the bright idea to leave the park I was running in and head up the sidewalk to a side street that had a few hills. Gotta start training on hills, right? Well, maybe not in the same run I was shooting for distance! It really wore me out. I thought my heart was going to pound right out of my chest. I jogged/dragged myself back to the relatively flat path in the park and felt like I had blown it: not even 6 miles in, and I felt wasted.
I’m not sure what kept my feet moving during those last 2 miles. Certainly not the music on my phone, because for some reason, it kept repeating the same few songs over and over, which was more than a little annoying, but as tired as I was, I didn’t want to deal with wrestling my phone out of my arm band and trying to figure out the problem with sweaty fingers.
When I hit mile 7, I just kept repeating to myself, “One more mile! One more mile!” It seemed like the lady on RunKeeper was never going to say “Distance: 8 miles”, but I finally heard those magnificent words and slowed to a walk to cool down.
After that run, I finally felt like maybe I really can train for a half marathon. I joined a running club and am looking into group runs to keep me motivated and accountable, to make sure I don’t let myself slack off. I already marked a group run on my calendar for Monday evening. I hope they don’t take off and leave me in the dust!
In my last post, I mentioned that I ordered a pair of earrings as my reward for losing another 10 pounds. Someone asked me to post a picture of the earrings, and I didn’t know how to do that in the comments, so I am posting it here. Here are the earrings that should be in my mailbox when I get home, if the tracking information is not lying to me:
They look huge in that picture, but I swear they are not gangster-bling-sized 🙂
Sweat & Sparkle 