That Run

On Sunday a bunch of my running girls were in a local half marathon, so Lucy and I went out with our signs to cheer them on at 6:30 AM. We saw them at mile 3 and 10- I figured their family/friends were at the very beginning and end to cheer them on and they would need some pep in the middle bits- I am usually struggling around mile 10.

I am SO GLAD we went- it was AWESOME to be crowd support for once. I got to see the speedy girls in the front of the pack, all of the middle and then the girls rocking the end and sticking with it. The two places we saw everyone were very bare- no crowds to pull them through! I hope there were more folks on the course that we didn’t see- it is so hard to run those long races without crowds.

I love reading the signs, so I made one for some course entertainment (all women’s race- appropriate, no?).

After the race, Lucy and I headed to a local lake/park with trails and went for a run.

When I first started “running” I couldn’t run for more than seconds at a time. I would come back to the house and tell John that I ran “two mailboxes” that day. Meaning.. I was able to run from one mailbox to two more. At least they were country mailboxes so they weren’t right next to each other? As I started Couch to 5k I would think that I couldn’t wait for the day that I could run for miles on end without being in pain- my lungs, legs, etc. You always see those runners who are just gliding along effortlessly, at fast paces and not breathing heavy… I wanted to be them.

I’ve completed 4 half marathons and will complete my 5^th this weekend.. but I still have not reached the “effortless” level. 9/10 runs is a struggle- my breathing hurts, legs get tired, I’m still SO SLOW and I have to mentally fight myself every run to stay out there (or to even GET OUT there). Once in a blue moon I have an effortless run. Those (and the racing high) are the ones that keep me running. 

I had one of the awesome runs on Sunday. I was actually not really looking forward to it because the couple of times that I have run with Lucy she pulled so much that it was 3x the work for me to run and just miserable. I used the Gentle Leader on Sunday and we had some of the best 7.5 miles I’ve ever had (though definitely not the fastest!). My breathing was good, we kept an okay pace, my legs felt fresh, the weather was perfect. It was just really enjoyable and I wanted to keep going. If I wasn’t with Lucy and running the half in a week I probably would have.

Halfway through we stopped and fueled up (Gu Chomps for me, peanut butter for Lucy), Lucy got some fresh water, and swam around a little to cool off. The way back was just as fun. She did start slowing down the last few miles, so we cut out 8 miles short to the 7.5. Still a win.

Looks like I have myself a marathon training partner.