Salty*

That's what I am today.

and it's a good thing.

Why?

BECAUSE I RAN 10 MILES THIS MORNING!

Seriously, honest to goodness. I hauled my cookies out 5 miles down the trail and back.

and I didn't die. and I didn't want to. If anything I actually might have enjoyed myself.

I made a commitment to myself to be the tortoise today. Slow and steady and I would make my way. And it worked. I didn't focus on my time and I didn't try and pound out more than I could. I settled into a groove and it worked surprisingly well. I might have even for an hour, felt a little bit of that "joy" that they talk about in Born to Run. I smiled. I actually felt my body being strong and lifting me up with every step.

For the first time ever, I was able to run the first 7.25 miles flat out without walking. I made the decision to take a Gu at that point since I hadn't eaten breakfast and was probably burning up my calories pretty quickly. (The chocolate Gu, it's delicious!) After taking the Gu I went ahead and kept on going. It wasn't until the last 2 that I really started to feel a bit of pain. Good pain, but pain none-the-less. At roughly 1.5 to go I worked in some intervals just to give a little bit of recovery time. Run a song, walk 30 seconds. Repeat. Then I pushed out the last quarter mile with a little pep in my step because HELLO! I JUST FINISHED MY LONGEST RUN EVER! (only 5 minutes of walking during the 2 hour time frame. totally awesome)

Thanks again to the man upstairs for giving me a glorious day to test my mind and endurance.

*So now I'm salty. When you run and sweat alot and it evaporates and the salt is left behind on your skin. I'm pretty much a walking salt lick. Chloe is loving me right now.