Sunday, September 16, 2012

158 Days Until the Disney Princess Half Marathon

running

Today's run was a LONG run.  I never in my life thought that I would run 5 miles.....ever.  I mean, who does that?  Who gets up before the sun on a Sunday morning to go run 5 miles??  Me.  That's who.

Today's run scared me to death.  

I ran for 5 miles.  It took forever to drive the route in the car.  We even did it twice to make sure I knew the route.  It seemed longer the second time than the first.   

I ran in a new neighborhood.  It was the local swanky neighborhood.   It was a big circle so I couldn't get lost, so that's a plus.  But, there were lots of dogs out this morning.  Lots of dogs.  They barked at me.  I didn't know if they were barking to say hello or to tell me to keep my running self away from them.   It took about 35-40 minutes of my run before the rest of the world woke up and started to let their dogs out, but once they did, I got barked at by dogs at 5 different houses.  One of the houses had two HUGE black dogs.  I seriously thought they could be bears for a fraction of a second.  (Not too far fetched.....we live pretty close to the Great Dismal Swamp.)  (In fact, my middle child (the younger of the twins) strongly warned me to stay away from the dead end streets so nothing would jump out and eat me.  I heeded his advice.)    I have never been as thankful for a sign that says INVISIBLE FENCE as I was today.  Thank you rich neighborhood people for taking care of that for me.

I had to pee for the first time during a run.  I was a little concerned that I would have to drop trou in the middle of the rich people's bushes and go.  Luckily, the feeling passed.  I understand now why all of the running magazines and blog suggest bringing a bit of toilet paper on the run with you.   However, I am not quite sure what to do with the used toilet paper.  New goal for the Princess Half Marathon and any and all runs leading up to it - finish and then pee.  Going to have to work on my hydration schedule to accomplish this goal.

So, I finished my run.  And since we all know that I have a tendency to talk to myself while I am running, I congratulated myself when I got back to my car.  I said some rather unladylike things to 5 miles.  (Okay, so I talk to distance too.)  I told myself that I kicked 5 miles' butt.  (Again, I really said something more unladylike, but if I ever make the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, I don't want to be cut because I put something inappropriate on the Internet.)  I did it.  I ran 5 miles.  And next week, when I need to run 6 miles, I am going to rock that too.    

Today's Stats:
5.1 miles in 1:07:25 (67.25 for the calculator).  That's a 13.1 minute mile....for 5 miles
And, my run today got me to Disney's Contemporary Resort on the 2012 course map.  

And, just because this next number makes me happy....
Mileage for the week:  12.77 miles.  That's ALMOST a half marathon this week!!
I ran those 12.77 miles in 153.92 minutes  (roughly 2 1/2 hours) at an average of 12.1 minute miles



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