Wow - 8.2kms baby !

I was going to call this post "I eat therefore I run" in honour of the HUGE bowl of pasta I ate at lunch - but then I went for a run...

Ran with NRG tonight. After missing last weeks session, I arrived to the news that we would be running 8kms tonight. Yikes. I don't think I've ever run 5kms before (well maybe in those dumb cross country races we used to do at High School) so needless to say it was very daunting. We set out at what Steve described as a very slow, warm up pace (which actually felt very comfortable to me), then after 1.5kms we stopped for a stretch. We then broke up into two groups - one taking it a little easier and one for people who wanted to go a bit longer and a bit faster. Half of me thought I should stay with the easier group given that I had just increased my distance this past weekend; the other half of me was thinking that I needed to push myself a little by going with the longer/faster group. Then Steve singled me out to go with the longer/faster group. Yikes, yikes, yikes. I was very worried that I wouldn't be able to keep up, that I might drop off the back but I knew that I had to stay mentally strong - so we set off.

I found it a hard course. Undulating hills. It seems hills are somewhat of a strength of mine; I seem to power up them but die at the top (my lungs feel like they are squeezing out my ribs; my legs seem to be ok, thanks I think to lots of leg work at the gym). I only stopped once - to walk between 2 street lights. At the time I thought I was unfortunate that the street lights were only about 20m apart - but now I'm a little bummed that I stopped at all.... C'est la vie. Next time it's not going to beat me.

So there it is - I ran 8.2kms. I can't believe it. I read that statement and I really can't believe it. Woo hoo ! Happy days !