1st attempt at 3.1....I must love self torture!

Today was my first attempt at running the entire 3.1 without stopping to walk. I've started to think I might be obsessed with self torture. I had to take Will for his 2 year check up this morning and after a trip to the mall for a new pair of running shoes, we stopped at Chick-fil-a. On the way home, I started getting worked up about making my run and I decided I MUST do it when we got home. Never mind I had just ate, and it was 95 degrees at 1:30 in the afternoon.

I've been running in my neighborhood this entire time, but today we decided to run in a new place. If you've never attempted to run in the mid-afternoon, in the middle of summer in Georgia heat and humidity, you should really give it a try. Its has a drug like effect, hullucinations and all!

I felt okay when we started the run. However, right before the 1 mile mark, I started to realize that 1. this route was a lot more hilly than my usual route and 2. my new shoes were a lot heavier than my old ones. Have you ever had your thighs, calfs, arms, skin (from the beating sun) and lungs burning at the same time? Not fun. As the road went on, I started to get my second wind and thought that I was actually going to be able to make it. Then I hit the 2 mile mark. The heat was SOOOO bad. I kept thinking: "I've given birth....I can do this!

I know I looked like a complete moron that last mile, running through town like a dying turtle but I wanted to reach my goal (which started out to avg. pace at around 11 minutes/mile, but ended up just finishing without puking) so I kept trucking. I had never been so happy to see the inside of a recreation building in all my life. When we got back to the rec, I just laid in the lobby on the cool tile floor until I could get my breath back! HAHA

I was very proud of my progress. Even though my time was really slow (avg. 12 min/mile) I still managed to run 95 percent of the course. Considering I just had to take a month off due to some heart stuff, I'll take that. Now, all I have to do is manage a pace where Anthony doesn't have to struggle to run slow enough to not run off and leave me!