end of week 5

Well, this post is titled "Before I ran 9 miles and After I ran 9 miles (aka I can't believe I freakin ran 9 miles)"

School started and I can definitely see why running was so challenging for me last year. Life was great when I had no schedule. I lazed around all day (read, slept, ate) and then it felt great to get outside and run.

I was scheduled to run light on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday leading up to the dreaded long run today (Saturday).

After meetings all day on Monday, the last thing I wanted to do was run. But I did and it was tortuous. 45 minutes. Arrhhhh! My body hurt the entire time.

Tuesday brought a first.....I skipped a run. I was just so tired (again, meetings sucked my energy) and I knew that it was going to another bad one.

I decided to run on Wednesday. The run was actually better than the previous one. But again, I was exhausted the entire time. My pace was so slow....I was even passed by a woman running on the other side of the street....quite depressing.

Then with the first day with the kiddies, a long day of get to know you games and classes there was NO WAY I was going to run. I think I even went to bed at 7 pm. I thought it wise to rest up for the big run today.

Needless to say I was very nervous for the long run. Last week I ran for 60 minutes. How in the world was I going to do that and then continue for another 30 minutes? Especially after these two bad runs.....I kept thinking, "This is it. I can't possibly run a marathon. What was I thinking?"

So I tried to visualize myself having a wonderful run. I read some of John "The Penguin" Bingham's book, the Courage to Start. He is called the Penguin because he runs, but is maybe at the back of the pack, waddling. He writes of enjoying running when real young, but because he was so bad at it, stopped. Sounds very familiar.

I mapped out my route. I decided to run my usual route (4 or so miles), then I would get to the hill at Diamond Head. If I continued into Waikiki, then I could get 5 miles on nice flat ground.
Friday night I set out my running clothes and set my alarm for dawn.

And so, I set out, as the sun was coming up. I thought about how nice it would feel when I finished. I could read and hydrate the rest of the day.

As usual the first 2 miles (20 min) were painful. The sidewalk was steamy as I clopped along. My pace felt uneven. My calves burned. But after that, life was good (well, maybe not good, but I didn't stop).

I saw three fellow teachers on my way into Waikiki. It felt great to be outside and there were many people running. I actually got stuck behind one of the marathon training groups. I hope their pace was slow because I zipped right by them. With 20 minutes to go, I knew I could make it. With 10 minutes, my feet did begin to tire. But I was hard core determined to get back to the Diamond Head side of Waikiki and make 9 miles. Wahoo! I can't believe that I did it!

But I learned two things
1) I should carry money with me - because at the end of the long run in Waikiki I wanted a Gatorade, or coffee, or frozen yogurt, or that cute T shirt in the store. I passed a craft fair and the farmers market.
2) It may be a good idea to map my route better. After 9 miles, I still had to walk 3 miles home....that took an hour.

in the end, a very good day
keep on running :-)