The First 5

Yesterday morning I had pure greatness happen. I ran the farthest I've ever ran. 5.2 miles in one hour.

I was so excited that I did it. It was/is such a huge accomplishment for a girl who didn't think running was for her. Nobody can be sure what I meant by throwing up the ones since I ran 5 miles. I guess it just seemed right at the time. Let's just go with it.

While I was excited to have completed the 5 miles without dying, it wasn't all sunshine and rainbows.

First, it was in the high 50s, low 60s when I woke up yesterday morning. The sun was not out, and the wind was kicking on the Grand Prairie. Plus, rolling out of bed, putting on tenny pumps and running 5 miles before my morning coffee is not something I'm a fan of.

The first two miles were sheer torture. The wind was furious. And I'm one of those people whose ears ache when cooler air blows in them. So by mile two, my mom and her friend Lisa were tired of looking back at me with my fingers in my ears. We ran back by my house to get some cotton balls to shove in my ears to block the wind.

After that, everything was good. We ran 10s and 1s. Running 10 minutes with a 1 minute walk break is just enough to keep you sane.

When I think about running for an hour straight, it makes my insides feel sick. Why would anyone want to do that? One whole hour of nothing but running. Yuck.

But when I think about running in a series of 10s and 1s, it seems more doable. I think about each 10 as a separate goal. Ten minutes I can definitely do. I've been doing it for a while now. The one minute break provides just enough time to catch your breath.

So completing the 10s and 1s is the probably the only way I will be able to increase my distance. And that's alright with me.

I thought I'd have more internal struggles with the 5 miles, but they flew by. It didn't feel like an hour of running. I thought my mind would make it harder for me to complete it. But it didn't. And I'm so thankful for that.

I was ready to do something crazy, and I wanted to see if I could do it. And I did. Now that I know I can do it maybe I can make a 5-miler an option for me every now and then. You know, just to see if I still got it.

How was your long weekend?

What is one of your personal goals that you recently accomplished?