Total distance: 1.47 miles
Yesterday was perfect for a run. It was an uncharacteristically cool day for July, somewhere in the 70s with no humidity to speak of. Unfortunately, I was so exhausted that I was pretty sure I'd collapse in a pile of tears if I tried to do anything... and then I ended up passing out cold for three hours (I woke up in exactly the same position I'd laid down in, which is unusual for me. I toss and turn like crazy.)
Mother Nature sighed, and was nice enough to give me another nice day today, similar to yesterday, perhaps better, with a vaguely cloudy sky. Trying to work up the motivation to get out there was hard. Last year it had become such a habit that I would automatically head out the door when I got home, but this year... obviously, that hasn't been the case. I tried to remember why I liked running, the feeling of my feet hitting the pavement. It sort of piqued my interest. I think the final push out the door was receiving a text message essentially asking me to cancel my plans for Saturday because someone assumed I'd be able to help out with a thing. This ongoing lack of respect for my schedule got rather under my skin and I decided to go vent my frustration outside.
I took off at an unsustainably fast (for me) pace. And it felt amazing. Normally I slow myself down after that first burst but today I decided to let it ride and keep it going until I couldn't. I'd only been out once since May's Dam to Dam, and that last run was a pretty feeble effort, so I didn't really expect much. But I merrily plodded along, surprising myself with each minute I continued. I hit the half-mile mark at 6:00, which was putting me on pace for a 12:00 mile - something I'd only done a couple times at the peak of the summer last year. The prospect of running a 2014 PR mile excited me, so I kept pushing myself. Some slow-down was inevitable, but I was hoping to complete the mile in under 13 minutes. (So far this year, I've only run one mile that was under 14, so shaving another minute off of that seemed - well, not impossible, but definitely hard).
It felt good to push myself. Up until now, I'd been pushing myself to finish, or to go as long as I could, maybe just another minute or two... I'd never tried to push myself at a faster pace, or to beat a time. That was new. But once it was in my head, I couldn't let up. I had to at least try. (Because playing little games like this - trying to reach various milestones - is how I keep myself going, how I keep myself inspired).
I finished the mile at 12:50. Not my fastest ever, but my fastest this year, and a lot closer to my average pace from last year. (You know, when I was running about three times a week.) Looking back at my 5K from Memorial Day when I broke 14 minutes, turns out... I ran it in 13:50. So I beat my time by a full minute. Excuse me while I high-five myself.
After that, I kind of walked for a bit, jogged a little here and there, without an end goal in mind, so I kind of just hit the end of the trail and stopped. So that was a little anti-climactic, but whatever. I DID GOOD!
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