Monday, May 5, 2008

I crossed a hurdle!

WooHoo!!! So I had every intention of doing Chris’ challenge and adding 10% to my furthest run, but I tweaked it somewhat. I had decided to not really increase my mileage for 2-3 weeks or so, and just try to master the miles that I have. Until now, the furthest I could run before taking my first walk break was 1 mile. And I’ve only been able to do that about 3 or 4 times. (yeah, I really did say ONE mile, it is what it is). I think part of it was a mental thing. The one mile mark is at the very top of a hill. I’m so dead when I get to the top, I think my head says to my legs “high five, you hit the mile mark, you didn’t stop halfway up, go ahead, take a break”. And my legs of course are all for that idea. Back to my run last night. I was going to do 3 miles. And I was going to run 1.5 miles before I walked. I was going to tackle that hill and the mile marker even if it involved tears. Or at least I really really hoped I was going to. I have to report…..wait for it……………


I KILLED IT!! I DID 2 MILES WITHOUT WALKING!!!!!

That’s right, who’s the runner now?! I got to the 1.5 mark (the first cemetery driveway) and still felt good, so I turned around and kept running. And then I told myself that if I didn’t hit the 2 mile mark (the fire hydrant that is next to a mailbox) then the extra I ran past the 1.5 just didn’t count. So I made it!

Tuesday is a 2 mile day, hopefully I can do it again. Wednesday is 3 miles again, we’ll see how that goes, Thursday is 2 and then Saturday is 3. I think if I buckle down this week and I should be able to do the full 3 miles without walking next Saturday. But I’m not going to get ahead of myself. Today is a rest day and I’m going to enjoy it :)

On to much more exciting news, Julie had her marathon yesterday in Oregon. Her best case goal was 5 hours and she got 5:01. High Five! Ok, so yeah, there’s that little minute hanging on there. But isn’t it better to miss your best goal by a minute than to have come a minute under your next goal? She also did a cool thing to get through the miles by dedicating them to people. I got mile 5 :) (I won’t lie, I teared up when I read that, commercials with babies and puppies get me too). I just have to say “Girlfriend, you ran 26.2 miles. All on the same day. You get to put the little 26.2 stickers anywhere you want!”

6 comments:

Jillian said...

YEAH!!! I'm so proud of you!! It's these victories that keep us plugging along - when you start to feel like maybe you're not cut out for this or you've plateaued...bam! You improve. and YOU, my dear, DOUBLED your mileage!! Way to go!!! High 5's all around!

BTW - I teared up when I read that she dedicated mile 5 to you...how awesome! I will definitely have to do that for my 1/2 (in LESS than 2 weeks..ahh!).

Chris said...

Holy crap, you DID kill it! Good job. You are obviously getting stronger and you can only get better. Congratulations again!

Now we have to come up with a new challenge.

Christina B said...

Hey - you totally don't know me and I don't even know Suzy (whose blog i found yours thru) but you are a true inspiration to me!! I LOVE the title of your blog - and if i would feel worthy of calling myself a "runner," I could have the same titel for my blog!! Anyhow - just wanted to drop you a note to let you know you're inspiring me! Keep it up and maybe I'll start running further too!! (PS...if this is too weird to you, feel free to let me know!)

Suzy said...

Good job Amy!

julie said...

way to go Amy! see, little by little, it gets easy.

thanks for the shout out. you'll be there soon enough...

*jen* said...

That's awesome, you go girl! Keep up the great work. :)