162 Days Left

Today was an important day.  Today I decided that I can really do this half marathon thing. 

I woke up and got dressed in my running clothes.  I fed my kiddos some breakfast and ate a banana for myself.  We walked down to the bus stop and I sent them off to school.  My dear husband (who is home for the next month) took the baby home and I went off on my run.  I thought that I was running a quick and  easy 5K.  (Who would have EVER...in a million and one years...thought that a 5K would be quick and easy for me??)

The run felt good.  I have been accused of whining about the weather.  There was nothing to complain about today.  It was cool (to almost chilly....the kids wore sweatshirts to school today!)  I wasn't sweating.  The running intervals weren't hard.  I got the the first stoplight and had to wait for traffic and the light to change, but that even fell on a walking interval.  I got to the turnaround stoplight and still felt good.  I made it back to the cross streetlight and had to wait again.  I finished strong.  I still wasn't nasty sweaty.  (I was sparkle sweaty....PRINCESS sweaty, if you will.)  My face was pink from a good run, not red and blotchy like usual.  I even enjoyed the time out there.  At the turnaround, I thought that I have this.  I can run 13.1 miles.

Hubby, baby, and dog met me at the end of the run for a cool down walk.  When I got back to them, I checked my watch and got irritated by the time.  It took me 44.15 minutes to run my 3.1 miles.  That's over 14 minutes a mile.  That's slower than my 5K times from before having the baby.  That's the slowest I have run since July.  How can a run that felt so good have been so slow??  My fellow princess, Jen, told me that slow is the new fast.  This is a disappointing slow.

So, I did what anyone else would do.  (No, I didn't lie about the time.)  I rechecked the map.  I know that I didn't get lost.....my plan was to run to the third light and back.  I did that.  When I mapped it on MapMyRun.com, I found out that I did not run 3.11 miles like I thought.  I ran 3.37 miles.  That extra quarter mile brought my time back down to my normal.  If you take out the minute that I had to wait for the light to change so I didn't get hit by a car when I was crossing, it brought the time I was running down a little further.

All in all, a great run.  I felt good and I didn't hate it.  That's more important than the time on the watch.  Today's run also made me think that I can really finish 13.1 miles.  That's more important than the time on the watch too.   Somebody just remind me of this run when I have one that is frustrating.

Today's Stats:
3.37 miles in 44.15 minutes (13.1 minute mile)