Last weekend, my husband Tyler bought me MACE to take along on my runs. This might not seem like a fabulous gift to you, but this meant the world to me. This means I can go running late at night in sketchy neighborhoods… JUST KIDDING!! I think every girl should carry one of these when they are running, I just never got down to the sporting goods store to purchase one (Thank you Dicks)!
I’m even tempted to Mace the cars that almost hit me. It probably wouldn’t do any good!
Basically, I run slow. Tyler (my super athlete husband) can run circles around me, despite how much more I run than him. And for awhile it really bothered me. I would put myself down in hopes that someone would tell me the phrase I so depserately wanted to hear “it doesn’t matter”, “at least you’re running and we’re proud of you”.
But what if I didn’t run to be the best, but ran to do my best?
The problem is, I’m an extremely competitive person and I want to be the first one to finish the line… But I need to be happy with competing against myself. And be proud of crossing the finish line.
I’m learning to run farther, maybe not faster. I’m learning to become comfortable with my pace, and love myself despite how slow I am. If my prime running speed is a 10 min mile, I’m going to love that 10 minute mile. Every minute of it. And when someone brags talks about their 7 min mile, I’m going to congratulate them… not compare myself. I’m proud of my milage… I’M PROUD OF ME.
So seriously people, I’m learning to love the sport, embrace how I feel at mile four (wanna give up, wanna give up, wanna give up) and PUSH through it. I might never win a marathon (or run a marathon) but I’m going to love every mile that I do run, because I’m doing this for ME. My body, my health, and freedom. I refuse to compare myself and become injured as a result.
BE PROUD OF YOURSELF… you owe yourself that much!
PS. my hubs is super proud of me and hugs my super gross body after just about every run and tells me how amazing I am. I’m so grateful for him 
So I’m done with my excuses (except for the one about my finals next week… Still holding onto that one) and I’m hitting the road. Hard. Well, hard-ish. Since buying these amazing new running shoes (that are very veeeeery stiff) I’ve been working on breaking them in. And today, after like a month, I’m back up to 5 miles. With two blisters on each arch 
. It felt amazing to be out there for almost an hour, listening to music, and I seriously couldn’t stop smiling. I mean, its been more than a week since an outdoor run… I was free!! At about mile 3.5, a lady in her car gave me the strangest look because I was smiling so big!
Tomorrow, the hubs and I are going to run some trails and hopefully hit that 5 mile mark, again. I figure there is no way I can run 10 at once at this point, I may as well get it in separately.
Goal: 5 miles again tomorrow.
Goal: log 40 miles this month (at 20 miles so far).
This shamrock 1/2 marathon is going to kick my butt, but I’m not going to give up. Not ever going to give up!
Ok, so you remember all those great new years resolutions you made back in… January? How are those coming along? I mean, it’s been about 35 days since we carefully carved out all the goals for the new year, some were naturally extremely unrealistic (like getting all A’s), but others were easy (like laugh everyday). Just in case my new years goals weren’t enough pressure, I also set month goals, like eat veggies every day (check) and buy new running shoes (check). Maintianing this blog every week was another January goal (check), but I failed in running 9 miles this month. My excuse is that I purchased new running shoes and needed to break them in! I think I’m good to go because I did almost 5 on Saturday and don’t have any blisters.
I need to catch up and run my goal of 11 miles this month in order to prepare for the Shamrock 1/2 marathon in 6 very short weeks…
In short, my goals are to say good bye to the unhealthy eating, and hello to the trails this month! Wish me luck!
I sincerely hope I’m offering just a small glimpse of encoragement to those who have extremely busy lives and are struggling with maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Sometimes things need to be removed from our lives in order to make room for our workouts, and other times we just need to get up earlier, workout instead of watching a TV show, take a walk on our lunch break, or park further from our jobs in order to get some much needed exercise in.
You can do it!
