Goal: 4 miles – Reality: 4.08 miles / Farthest and Fastest Run Yet!

I have to say, I’m pretty darn proud of myself tonight, which is a huge step up from a week ago when I found myself rolling head over feet down the main drag of my town (definitely a low point in my running life). Not only did I run farther than ever before tonight, but I took a huge chunk off my pace, too! Normally, I’ve been running somewhere between a 12’15″ and 12’30″ pace on average during my 3 mile runs. Yeah, I’m SLOW. I’m aware of that fact. Hence the subtitle to my blog.

Anyway, this past Tuesday’s 4.02 mile run was a 12’17″ pace, but today’s 4.08 was an 11’52″ pace. The only time I’ve come anywhere close to that pace before was on a 2-ish mile run!
Go me! Get your run on! Go me! Get your run on! (Please sing/cheer/chant along. You know you want to.)

And of course I learned a few lessons along the way tonight that I’m happy to share.

Lesson 1 – The giant oatmeal raisin cookie worked just fine as a pre-run meal.
Carbo-loading at it’s finest! (Disclaimer: I do realize how ridiculous a meal choice this was, but DAMN it was delicious!)

Lesson 2 – The mental training tips I noted in my post this past Tuesday actually WORKED!
When I found the negative thoughts (“you suck, you’re no runner, why even do this to yourself?”) starting to creep in tonight, I successfully stopped them in their tracks. Instead of listening to the negative voices in my head (you know you hear voices, too – they’re like bad imaginary friends, aren’t they?), I countered with positive affirmations. I told myself, “your legs feel strong, your breathing is great, you’re totally fine!” then I’d combine the positive thoughts with a little “run strong, finish strong” mantra, and I kid you not, it all worked! I was shocked, but it really did. I ran strong right through to the end today and never once thought I was really going to have to give up!

Lesson 3 – Whatever you do, DO NOT watch your miles as you run.
On Tuesday, I just took off running without real direction or any sort of geographic plan of action. Bad, bad idea. Unfortunately because of my total lack of planning, I found myself landing too close to home by the 3 mile mark. CRAP! That meant I had to run around my boring little neighborhood like a zillion times just to get in that last full mile. Of course that, in turn, meant I had to watch my mileage tracker ticking by, one painful hundredth of a mile at a time, the entire time, which only added to my “I’ll never survive this last mile” mentality. Today, however, thanks to a little pre-planning, I knew there was no point in even bothering to look at the miles I had covered until I was at the end of the mapped run. It helped me so tremendously in my run today that I just have to share that tip in case it helps anyone else.

And my last, but most important lesson of the day…

Lesson 4 – Anyone can become a runner.
As I’ve mentioned many times, never in a million years did I ever think I’d call myself a runner. Never. EVER. Nope, not me. I’ve always been the loyal hater of anything remotely running related. You know what, though? After today, I’m totally calling myself a runner.  And if I can run, I am living proof that ANYONE can run. Believe me on that one.

Up next is a 5 mile run scheduled for Saturday. Going into this week, the mere thought of 5 miles was terrifying. Interestingly enough, though, I find myself sitting here tonight actually looking forward to pushing myself 5 miles on Saturday, and I feel completely confident I’ll be able to do it.
Yeah, that’s right world. I’m a RUNNER now!

Keep on running!