finally feeling good-ish

This morning's run was in Celebration. It was a beautiful course, but no bathroom, which meant my bladder screamed my entire run. Stupid bladder. The route started at the movie theater and wound around several bodies of water, over several boardwalks, through conservation areas, and past million dollar homes. An absolutely gorgeous run. It would have been even better if it were less hot, but whatcha gonna do in Orlando? Two loops equalled six miles.



I ran the first mile without walking, which was approximately fourteen minutes. Then, my running buddy Laura kept running while I walked with her. Yes, like my cousin, she is good at the slow and steady run that I suck at. Laura is awesome and did her four required miles without walking. She rawks! It took us 47 minutes to do the first three miles. You know I always shoot for the elusive 38 minute 5K, so I was a little disappointed in my time and decided I needed to step it up for the second loop. This meant ye olde standby run/walk ratio.

I started my second loop with a run 2 walk 1 ratio but was only able to keep that ratio for maybe a mile before I settled into a 1:1 ratio. My second three took me about 43 minutes, so I did shave four minutes off, and gave me a negative split, which is awesome! But I wish I had been a bit quicker.

Let's talk about my coach. I love my coach. I love my coaches from last year, too, but I get way more one-on-one time with this coach. He only has a total of nine people to coach whereas my other coaches have something like thirty people to coach, so it makes sense that he would have more time to devote to each of us individually. It's nice to have him running beside me, encouraging me, and offering me advice on breathing and posture and pace. It makes having to drive so much farther to train worth it because I am getting so much more out of my training this year than I did last year.

I've been pretty pain-free during my runs, which is fantastic. But in the car on the drive home this morning, my left foot seized up something fierce. I stopped at a store, and cried out in pain when I tried to stand on my left foot. I walked the pain off. I think it has to do with my shoe laces. I need to get new shoes sooner rather than later; I'm pretty sure that will help solve some of my foot pain. Tonight, twelve hours after my run, my left foot hurts again. I have it elevated and have been massaging it. It'll get better.

I'm pretty pleased with the run from this morning.

Oh! In my last mile or so, as I ran across a boardwalk, a giant owl flew across the boardwalk not two feet directly in front of my face. It was awesome! I called out to two bicyclists who were standing a few feet ahead to see the owl. They then pointed out a young two-point buck standing down in the conservation area staring up at us. And me without my camera! It was so awesome! I couldn't stop for long, though, as I was racing my clock and didn't want to break stride.

Best part of my run this morning, aside from the wildlife sightings, was at the start of my second loop. I was on a boardwalk, and it was during my two minutes of run time. There were two older ladies walking a dog on the right side, and three bicyclists approaching from the other direction on the left side. The bicyclists very kindly yielded to me, and I thanked them as I ran past the two ladies, and past the bicyclists. One of the older ladies said, "oh, there's a runner coming through."

A runner.

She called me a runner!

Because that's what I am. Funny how something so trivial can ameliorate my mood!