Tuesday, June 10, 2008

4.5 miles. Woo!

4.5 miles is my furthest so far!! Not for running without walking, but for dragging my tookus.

I wasn’t going to run last night. Mondays are rest days. Although I think you are supposed to run on the weekend to deserve that rest day and I didn’t. But there was the nicest sprinkle going on that I wanted to run through so badly. I didn’t run this weekend because the weather alternated between EXCESSIVE humidity and heat or daily thunderstorms that knocked over trees and washed out roads. So, back to the sprinkle, it was calling out to me. It was telling me it would keep me cool and refreshed. It was telling me I didn’t really need to do the laundry. Since I’m such a sucker for ideas that sound good at the time, I suited up and hit the trail.

The park I run in is a mile and a half away, so I usually drive it. It sounds silly to drive such a short distance, but I’m still at a point where 3 miles is a common run for me, and the park is so nice to run in, I would rather do all 3 miles there. But last night I ran to the park for the first time and then did the main loop at the park and ran back. Even though I ran most of it, I did need to walk a little too. And let me tell you, I need to plan out my walks better than I did last night. The back and far side of the loop is right along the Grand River. I’m talking, its so close, even I could gently throw a rock into the water. The river is pretty high right now with all of the rain, and throw in the humidity, the mosquitoes were CRAZY!! And they love me. They don’t give me little bites, they suck all the blood they can get and give me welts. So when I wanted to walk so badly, I had to keep running. I can run faster than the little suckers, but not walk faster. Actually, now that I am thinking about it again, they probably helped me. I bet they gave me that little extra reason to push harder. I should write a book, My Training Partner is a Mosquito.

7 comments:

*jen* said...

Haha. Way to go! That's fantastic! You are certainly not alone in driving a short distance to get to your trails. The trail I run on sometimes is probably 1.5 miles (or less) from the house but traffic is too crazy and I find it much easier to just drive.
Way to go on the 4.5!!

julie said...

awesome. nice job! i love reading about your achievements... it's really exciting.

Anonymous said...

I'm just getting caught up with your blog today - 4.5 is really, really good. See how fast they come once you break that 3 mile barrier?

I'm with you by the way - mosquitoes love me too. This is not a good thing. It's why I probably won't do a lot of trail running this summer. :-(

Jillian said...

I can vouch for you on those mosquitos....I remember eating mouthfuls of them when I ran with you a few weeks ago..throw in more humidity and rain...and I can't even imagine the black clowd your probably ran through!! Great work on the 4.5!!!!! That's a huge accomplishment. You have made huge strides these past few weeks - I'm so proud!

Chris said...

Gross, Amy. I hate bugs. I know, I am not much of a manly man to admit that I don't like bugs. I also don't like to take a fish off the hook. But I digress.

Good job on the 4.5. It has got to be a thrill for you to push yourself that much further from your normal 3. Movin on up!

Megan Hall said...

I'd totally read "My training partner is a mosquito."

Just found your blog via CRN and wanted to give you a shout - because I'm a chubby girl who just finished her first marathon! So I know you can do it.

Karen said...

4.5 miles? Awesome!!! Makes me feel like I will be able to do this, too.