Over the Hump

We ran 10 miles on Friday.

TEN MILES. It was hard, rough, and windy. It took us an hour and 41 minutes, and we ran slower than a 10 minute mile pace. Our normal pace is 9-9:30, so the wind really took its toll. Holly injured her leg and it was a total bummer. She felt so good too! I'm hopeful that she will have a speedy recovery... Gwyn and I finished and at 9.7 miles I felt like I couldn't push anymore. But I did it! WE DID IT. Now we start to taper in mileage and we prep for our race! I am going to start back to strength training this week more routinely as I "laid off" a little while we were increasing our mileage.

I cannot emphasize how important it is to have a support system built in to your running routine. I never would have dared to run 10 miles on my own. And this is the hump, the mental block that we needed to get past in order to feel good about our 15k. 9 miles was great, and 10 was difficult. But the wind was a reminder of how strong we are and how far we have come.

It is hard to believe that my 15k training is almost over and before I know it I will be running the shoreline classic.This training has taught me a lot about perseverance. It has taught me that I AM a runner and that I can do it!

I am also training for a half marathon which will be October 16th. It's the Indianapolis Half Marathon in Indy. I am nervous and I don't know how our training will go. The shoreline training was all spelled out and this one is new and more "on our own."

I don't doubt that my running partners will carry me through. I have no doubt that we will support each other.

Today, Mel and I arn the Arthur Cheese Festival "Rat Race" 5K in Arthur, Il. It was a blast and I made a new PR! Mel was sick and sniffly and I felt bad when she pulled back around mile 2. But I was glad in the end that I pushed on because I ran it in 27:29, which is pretty dang good for me!

Mel increased her time too. We were twinkies! :) You can see we wore our Penguin shirts and the same shorts. It was so nice to run this with her. She is such a trooper!

Here are my past race times:

1st 5k - Penguin in the Park 3/10 - 33:52:9 Results Here 

2nd 5k - Illinois Marathon  5/10 - 30:16 Results Here 

3rd 5k - Race for the Cure  7/26 - 31:36
4th 5k - Arthur Cheese Fest 9/6 - 27:29