8 Mile Run

I had a rough run Tuesday and was not feeling like running the rest of this week.  So to be honest.  I didn't.  I took a much needed break and boy did it do me good.  I took yesterday off so that I could run this morning.   I was able to sleep in until 8:30 yesterday and catch up on some much needed sleep.  Since we chose to send our son to another school, I have to get up up earlier to make sure he gets to school on time.  That sure does wear you down and I even try to nap everyday for at least an hour.  Still doesn't do any good.

Anyway, last week I found a running club on Facebook because a friend had commented on a status update.  I didn't make the run last week but was able to run this week.  I needed to get 9 miles in this morning but was only able to get in 8 due to getting to Sunday School this morning.  I really enjoy running but I refuse to skip church to go run.  To me, running is not that important to skip church.

I have said in previous blogs that when I finish running I am not happy with the pace that I had for that day.  I think I have finally learned that pace really isn't that important.  You just need to enjoy the run and be happy that you have the ability to run.  There are a lot of people out there that don't and you have been given that ability.  I kept thinking this throughout the entire run and it really kept me going and allowed me to just purely enjoy the run.

I have become so wrapped up in my time whenever I run that I was not running to enjoy it.  It was more like something that I had to do.  Not something that I wanted to do.  To be quite honest, I was beginning to hate it.  Since, I got the mentality that I mentioned earlier I am a HAPPY runner.  I know that may sound funny but it is true.  I am truly happy while running and after.  Knowing that honestly the time isn't what matters, it is finishing.  Knowing that you have done something that you honestly didn't think that you could do is rewarding in itself.  If you would have told me that I would be training for my second half marathon a couple years ago I would have told you that you have lost your mind.  I hated running a mile in junior high let alone 13.1 but here I am doing exactly what I thought I wouldn't.

I have about 48 days or so until the Women's Half Marathon and I can't wait.  Then two weeks later I get to run the Middle Half. I was wanting to do that one last year but since the Women's Half was my first one ever and the Middle Half was 2 weeks later I chose not to do it.  I had knee issues in training and I didn't want to risk injuring myself to the point that I wouldn't be able to run again.  This year I have learned my lesson from mistakes that I made last year in training so this year should be fine. I just can't begin to explain how excited I am.

I plan on running a 3 mile recovery run so until next time.