152 Days Until the Disney Princess Half Marathon

I ran 10K today.  That 2 5Ks.  Before I started training, 5K (3.1 miles) was the furthest that I have every run in my entire life.  It was the furthest that I ever cared to run.  Now, I am on the path to 13.1 miles.  Today, I got just about halfway there.  Today, my run would have gotten me to Cinderella's Castle.  I would have passed 3 water stops and countless character stops.  I would be on the way back.

My runner friend once said that she doesn't hit her stride until about 4 miles.  When I first heard that, I thought that I would never make it to 4 miles to even find my stride.  Let's be honest, I didn't even know she meant by hitting her stride.  I think that I get it now.  Today, when I passed the turnaround that meant I was heading home, things got easier.  I wasn't fighting with my breathing.  I wasn't waiting for my tight hamstrings to loosen up.  I wasn't willing the watch to beep.  I was just running.  It almost (note, I said ALMOST) irritated me when the watch beeped to tell me to walk.  I guess that's my stride.  It's the point where I'm almost back.  I'm not there yet, but the hard stuff is over.  I an just run to the finish.

In other news, I experimented with GU today.  I had a PowerBar one and a GU brand one.  I ate (slurped, sucked, gurgled) the Vanilla PowerBar one before I left my house this morning.  PowerBar brand is pretty thin.  It's like the consistency of Aunt Jemima's syrup.  I washed it down with water and headed out the door.  At about 48 minutes into the run, I tried the Lemon Sumblime flavored GU.  It is thick and sort of grainy.  When I say thick, I mean THICK.  I'm not sure which one I preferred.  I can't say that I liked either one...they were both sort of yucky for a person who has texture problems with food.  It took me 2 whole minutes to get the GU down and then drink water after.  I think that the mid-run shot of energy helped me finish....or, it was all in my head and I just made myself think that it helped. 

I ran the same 5 mile route through the fancy neighborhood that I ran last week.  The only change was that I started my watch at my driveway and ran to the neighborhood instead of driving and parking.  On my 7 mile long run, I'll stop my watch when I get back home.  Today I ran there and did the loop and stopped the watch at the stop sign heading out.  I did my cool down walk on the mile home.  (I passed some yard sales, so it wasn't a complete wasted walk). 

Today's stats:
6.25 miles in 1:21:14 (12.9 minute miles)

And...a 10K counts as a proof of time for corral placement for the Princess Half Marathon.  If I can run my timed 10K a little faster than this run, then I should be able to get moved up from the back of the pack to maybe the middle-ish.  That gives me more time for character stops!!