Week Twenty-Three: Thursday

Today’s run was enlightening. I finally get it.

The whole catalyst for this experiment was that I would be driving, usually to a fast food restaurant, by people on the road and think “Why are they doing that? What the hell is wrong with them?”. Then I would go back to thinking about what I would do if I won the lottery. (First Thing: Buy island)

I get it now. I set out to run 5 miles and went out as soon as I got home from work so that I would not get distracted by that adorable little child of mine. I set out on my usual path and was getting miserable somewhere during mile one. I had been so down on myself that I felt that I had to power through because of this stupid blog that no one reads. So I suffered for the next two miles when I finally hit the zone. This has happened before, but I so appreciated it this time. The zone is when you are not really exhausted and you could run for another hour and it would be no big deal.

Not only did I finish my 5, but since there was a break in traffic where I cross the street I did another mile. I would have done another 4 except Mrs. Fat Guy was expecting me at the house. Not only did I run that extra mile, but I sprinted the last ¼ mile. Granted, my sprint is more a trot, but still.

The amazing thing about this is that I did 6 miles in 57 minutes. I ran at a sub 10 minute mile pace. On the one hand this is great because it proves that I can do it. On the other hand, I am going to have to really focus this last week on maintaining an 11 minute mile pace for the marathon so I don’t burn out.

So, I get it. I felt so damn good after that run. I won’t go so far as to say that it makes up for the fact that I have not had a drink in 3 months and am about ready to use an entire bottle of mouthwash in 20 minutes in order to get a liquor buzz. But after some crappy runs and skipping training it feels very good to be able to run 6 miles and still want to do more.