Thoughts for an Early Weekend Morning

I'd rather still be sleeping. But...Nothing boosts confidence like doing something you never thought you'd be able to do. Since I was wide awake for no apparent reason at 6:30 am, I went for a long run near my neighborhood. It's a route with about 7 hills, two of which are super steep, the others which are longer gradual rises. When I first started doing a shortened version of this route back in like May or June, I walked most of the hilly parts. I just couldn't make it up...like a Loony Toons character, I'd be chugging away and then grind to a halt part way up the hill. I've slowly improved on the hills and added mileage to the run. This morning, I made it up 6.5 hills and made the run a 4.5 miler. If I can do that, surely running 6.2 on a fairly flat course will be doable in about three week.
When it came to school or work, I've always been confident in my abilities. But in the past few years, I've felt that my body was on the downhill slide into old age and there was nothing I could do about it. I never thought I'd be able to run this far or fast again. I never thought I'd be able to get back in shape (30 lbs down 20 to go!). But I have, and I gotta say, it feels awesome! If I can do this, I'm pretty sure I can do anything at all.

5K Take Two *Updated*

This morning, I ran my second 5K, Strides 4 Kids, in Tower Grove park in south city. Like the superb boyfriend he is, B. got up early and came with to take pictures and cheer me on. My goal for the race was 30 minutes, although I secretly figured it would be closer to 31.

Here's me, pre-race, sleepy but ready to rock it:



I've never run in Tower Grove, so I didn't realize that most of the second half of the race would be an up hill battle (okay, maybe more like a slight incline battle...) In fact, after the 2.5 mile marker, with all the twists and turns in the road, I was completely turned around and was suprised when I suddenly saw the finish line in the distance.

This is me, realizing I'm almost done and trying to kick it up a notch:



I'd been keeping tabs on my time on my watch b/c this event didn't provide timing chips, and I wanted to know my exact time from when I finally crossed the start line vs the race clock. My actual time was about 10 seconds faster than the official clock:



Mission accomplished: 29:27 was my personally recorded time. Not only was I under my goal time, but I improved from my last race by almost 5 minutes...all that work is actually paying off. It felt great!
Now the question is: 10K? It's at the beginning of October...just not sure yet.

**Race results came out: out of 96 runners, I came in 56th, and out of 56 women, I came in 25th! I was so excited I went ahead and signed up for the 10K. Wish me luck!