Weekend Ramblings

You know you're true friend when you agree to play airport shuttle service at 4:15am on a Saturday morning.

Either that, or you're just a runner that loves early Saturday morning runs, and figure you'd be up early anyway! ;)

Not sure exactly which one I am ~ hopefully a combination of both ~ so I drug myself out of bed at 4:15 to take my friend K (and her family) to the airport in the wee morning hours. I donned my running clothes, visor, and a pair of flip flops. With coffee in hand, my super shuttle did it's morning duty.

After getting home at 5:30am, I tossed on my shoes, stretched out my extremely tight muscles.....and was out the door just before 6am. The plan was 2 or 3 miles ~ whichever distance showed the least probability of killing me.

The first mile out was rough. Mentally, I was disappointed......seems like each time I take a step forward in my running, I end up taking 2 steps back. Some days I feel like I've spent the past 2 years spinning my wheels, and not really getting anywhere. The first mile of this run felt much more like the Pokey of 2 years ago.....not the Pokey that just less than 2 months ago, rocked the first 10 miles of the Valley of the Sun HM with Lisa (the fact that I crashed after those 10 miles really isn't the point, in case you wondered! :P)

I stopped for a brief moment after the first mile to stretch. Everything was so tight. I checked Garmie: 13:02. BLECH.

I decided to take a 3 mile route and see what happened. I figured that walking wouldn't be the worst alternative.

Somewhere in the middle of mile 2, I started to feel good. I was running continously ~ no walking ~ and was somewhere in my comfort pace. When I gave a glance to Garmie again, I was incredibly surprised. My *comfort pace* had turned to 11:15.

Well, friends ~ there is no better motivation for me than seeing a great number on good ol' Mr. Garmin. My fastest mile ever run was 11:15 ~ and some of you may recall that it was in a hail storm, in the freezing cold!!! (I really had just wanted to get home!)

So somehow yesterday ~ after all the beating my body has taken over the past 3 weeks ~ I somehow found some mental toughness to keep me moving. I ended up pushing for a 5K distance, and in the end, my arch-rival Garmie had nothing but nice things to say to me:

Mile 1: 13:02
Mile 2: 11:41
Mile 3: 11:38
.1 mile: 0:59 (9:55 pace - that's a sprint for me, in case you wondered!)

I am all for negativity ~ as long as it manifests itself in SPLITS!!!! ;)

Most of you already know my disdain for the 5K distance ~ and the fact that I've only run 2 of them in the past couple years ~ so the fact that this is my fastest 5K probably won't surprise many of you. Crazy, isn't it? Not bad for my surgery-recovering-snot-blowing-stuffy-headed-hacking-up-a-lung-haven't-been-running-worth-a-crap-body, huh???

Running is the eternal surprise ~ you never know what awaits you when you hit the pavement.

NOW....... if only the rest of my weekend had gone as well, I would continue to be thrilled! As I type this, I sit here waiting for my hubby to return from golf so that I can go the urgent care center by our house. Oh no...it's nothing super urgent.....just a nasty case of PINK EYE that graced me with it's presence upon my waking this morning :X Apparently, all the lovely snot I have in my nose has backed up into my eyeballs ~ lovely visual, eh?? So I am in serious need of some eyedrops...and don't want to wait until tomorrow when I wait up looking like the Monster of the Deep. *SIGH* I really hope my body gives me a break. I'm tired of being sick. Ahhhh, yes ~ I'm a mess.

So for now, I will sit here with my drippy eyeballs, relish in my great run from yesterday, and wait anxiously for all the race reports from all the great peeps that are racing this weekend!