Today was a banner day (PB) for me in my run training. I wasn’t feeling too great this morning when I awoke. My sinuses were killing me and I had a bit of a headache. So the first thing that I did was take some sinus medication. Then I made some tea and toast with almond butter (which is my usual morning snack before working out).
When I finished my snack, I contemplated staying inside and not running but you know how it is…somedays you just need to force yourself to put on your running gear and get out there!
The weather was pretty good cool today. It was hovering in the high 40s, about 47 or 48 degrees which is difficult for me as I’m never sure what to wear. I dressed in longer shorts (just above the knee) and also put on a short sleeved tech shirt. I grabbed my polar fleece to head out the door when I decided to go back and grab a long sleeved tech shirt.
I drove to Memorial Park and sat in my car getting my TomTom GPS watch set up and turning on Pandora on my phone. I watched some of the runners go by and decided to wear my long sleeved shirt over my short sleeved one. This was a good call, because I ended up wearing it for the first 2 miles of my run. Until I was really warmed up, I really needed the extra layer.
I told myself that I wasn’t going to monitor my watch today during my run but to just take a nice easy pace. My goal was to simply run completely around the park, then add a little bit to make it to 3.1 miles (a 5k). About the 2 mile mark, I took off the long sleeved shirt layer as I was warmed up.
Then I didn’t even look at my running watch until I finished my first lap. I felt pretty good, so I challenged myself to keep going to get to 3.5 miles. When I reached 3.5 miles, I still felt good so I thought I would try for 4.0 miles. And to my surprise – I DID IT!! This is the farthest that I have EVER run without stopping in my entire life! A PB! I have done a few 10ks and some training runs that were 4 miles or more, but I’ve always taken walk breaks. What a great day it turned out to be!!
I felt so good that I posted my PB achievement on the “Slow Runners Community” Facebook group that I belong to. In 4 hours, I’ve gotten 524 likes and over 50 people have personally given me a congratulations and encouragement. (UPDATE: as of 12/17, I have 995 likes on the FB page…I’ve gone viral!)
My split stats from this run were very interesting. Mile 1 – 13:14, Mile 2 – 13:14, Mile 3 – 13:19 and Mile 4 – 13:18. I thought I was just running at a steady pace and it seems that I was. 4.5 mph, 53 minutes of non-stop running. I still can’t believe it!
