Seriously!  I wanna know!  I decided mid-workday to sneak in a few miles before yoga tonight, and by the time I started at 5:15, I was down to only 30 minutes of available run time.  Fun fact:  I was halfway through my first mile before I realized I did–in fact–only have 30 minutes; up until then I thought I had 45 minutes and that yoga started at 6:15, not 6 pm.  However, 30 minutes is better than no minutes, and I simply repeated that to myself over and over again.

I headed out and somewhere toward the end of the first mile, I turned onto Girard Ave and ran into a sucker of a head wind.  First mile: 8:25.  Not too shabby for a warm-up and feeling crappy.  Not only was I out of breath and feeling sluggish (a.k.a PMS), I was fighting the wind for more than a mile.  Imagine my surprise when my watch beeped and mile 2 clocked in at 8:04!  I knew I was putting in more effort into the wind, but didn’t anticipate getting much faster.

I ran the length of Girard, and after the wind grew stronger as I rounded Parkdale Elementary and turned onto Buffalo Rd toward the circle, it died down.  At the circle, my watch beeped again: 7:43.  No way.  Now it was on.  I’d had negative splits each mile, and my OCD-self just had to keep the trend going.  I pushed up Main Street, trying to fight for each second but starting to really tire.  Once I turned right onto Olean and then Oakwood, I was at 3.5 miles but wanted that 4th.  I ended up doing that ‘turnaround thing’ a runner does when she’s basically where she wants to finish but still has a little more distance to go, so I continued down Oakwood, then ducked left on King, then turned around and ran back up Oakwood…and then back again.  I was so tired and when my watch finally beeped, I started walking and could barely contain my heaving chest.  Mile 4: 7:35.

Muscle memory, guys.  That, and some real mind-over-matter.  Honestly, it’s all the training I did last summer.  I may not have felt like I had it today (and on many recent runs), but clearly my legs did.  And before my marathon training, I never would have pushed myself to that much discomfort so easily.  This run definitely buoyed my spirits, re-ignited a desire for speed and gave me a little more confidence in my fitness level (even if the Lloyd’s taco truck in my tummy says otherwise).  It also–just as any good workout session does–renewed my desire to keep less-healthy food choices to a minimum.

And, lest I bore you with more details of my run, check out my new shades!  I’d actually been thinking of buying a pair of these Goodr sunglasses for awhile now, and it turns out I won them in the Winter Warrior Challenge!  I wasn’t able to attend our party at the end of March (SUCH a bummer), and Debbie just gave them to me this week.  I’m in love, and they are totally making me re-think my decision to get prescription sunglasses for running. If these aren’t ‘me,’ I don’t know what is!