Week 9, Run 1

A day off of school! I thought I would be sleeping rather late this morning, but my body decided it was ready to run nice and early, and I guess I’m fine with that!

So, today marks the beginning of week 9, a milestone I never thought I would attain! 30 minutes of running was a feat I could barely manage back when I ran cross country back in junior high. So I headed outside in my t-shirt and shorts today, ready to aim for success!

I almost felt horrified when Claire’s voice announced on the “prep talk” that she would only be talking to me every 10 minutes (as opposed to the normal 5). I didn’t want to go for such extended periods of time without hearing how far I had gone! But I decided that it might actually make the run seem shorter if I heard from her less often.

Also, today I ran with my dad’s GPS-enabled phone in-hand, to see how far I was running. My goal was to at least hit the 4-kilometer mark before my run was over.

So I started running! And running… and even more running. At about the 12-minute mark, I started to feel side stitches. I haven’t had much of a problem with side stitches, so I tried to slow down my breathing and take nice, deep breaths. Thankfully, the stiches went away almost instantly, so I continued my run!

Boy, 30 minutes can go so slow, but then fly by! That’s what happened today, at least. Once I heard Claire’s voice tell me I had finished, I felt amazing! I was still apprehensive though, as I worried I hadn’t run far enough. So, once I looked down at the phone, I saw that I had run 4.5 kilometers! That means I have 4 weeks to add half a kilometer to my time! I think this will be easily attainable!

With only 2 runs left in this program, I feel as if I’m actually accomplishing something impossible! This only goes to show that my long journey, no matter how long it seemed at first, all started with 1 step!