7 miles

Today I ran 7 miles. Despite going to bed last night bone tired after a full day of teaching and nail biter of a basketball game. And waking up this morning to the alarm (it's never a good sign if I sleep all the way to the alarm) and with annoying post nasal drip. TMI for some perhaps but those are the facts. So, all that being said, I attribute the success of today's run to the following:

• Intervals - 1 minute walk: 3 minute run; 
• Seeing good friends at the start; 
• The sun; 
• Completing both weekday short runs this week; and 
• Some good old fashioned stubbornness

Saturday is my preferred running day but since I worked yesterday it fell to today. I love teaching new member class (even on Saturday) but being "on" all day is exhausting for someone with introvert tendencies. Add to that the head cold I've been battling all week, I wasn't sure when I went to bed last night that I was going to go out at all. But I set the alarm anyway. As mentioned above, I slept through to the alarm and was not thrilled when it went off. But I knew in my heart that if I did not go out and at least try I would not be happy. I thought maybe I would try 5 and see how I felt.

Photo credit to Maggi
Left to right: Julius, Me, Russ and Maggi

When I arrived at the Schuylkill River Trailhead at Betzwood, so did Maggi, Russ and Julius. They prefer to run on Sunday and I was excited at the chance to see them. We are not on the same schedule nor the same pace so we all knew we'd do our own thing but starting out together was a real mood booster for me. The bright and abundant sunshine was icing on the cake.

I headed West on the trail for a very short distance to hit up the 21.5 mile marker then turned to head East. I was still debating my distance for the day. I'll spare you those details but in the end I realized that I should go 3.5 miles out as intended and if, on the way back, I should decide I didn't have it in me to run the whole 7 then I would walk back. On any given day - including race day - there might not be enough in the tank and 7 miles is 7 miles, right?

My wonky heart, which has been well behaved of late, did remind me several times on the first half of today's run to slow down. I think the fatigue and the snot factor was the difference.

It was chilly today (31 at the start) but by the time I turned around I was warm and was even able to take my gloves off. There was a very light wind today blowing West to East. On the turn around there was a wind chill but I was still comfortable.

I felt like I was running faster on the return trip. I didn't check my intervals at the turn around so I have no way of knowing for certain. But it doesn't matter. Just that the fact that I felt that good on the return trip is exciting. I more or less chased my shadow on the return trip; a pleasant distraction.

In the end, I finished all 7 miles. At the 20.5 mile marker on the way back, I felt good enough that I gave up the intervals and ran the rest of the way. :) :) I'm very excited and ridiculously proud of this.

Keep Smiling and Keep Moving
- Paula