National Running Day

I almost always love running when I'm finished, often love running while I'm doing it, and almost never love running before I start. Hence another morning when I managed to convince myself to wait until after work to go running. Even though I knew it would be no more appealing then.

In the morning my mind is willing to run, but my body is weak. And tired. And achy. In the afternoon my body is good to go, but my mind is cluttered and agitated from the stresses of the day. I know that many people run to relieve stress and anxiety. Stress makes me want to not run (although it does help the stress go away once I get going).

So there I was today, after meeting with a particularly toxic client, and then going to two grocery stores to get the best price on Copper River salmon, and all I wanted to do was go work out at the Y and read blogs on my iPad. Or crawl into bed with my iPad, either one. I actually contemplated postponing my run to Thursday morning, a couple of times. But each time I thought, "but it's National Running Day!"

And so I went. Two and a quarter miles warm-up, then the track for 800s.
Seven...if I could (I kept open the option of quitting at any time). There were two different softball games being played in different corners. I was a little worried about spectators or players getting in my way, but mostly they stayed off the track. I thought having so many extra people around might slow me down, but possibly it made me a little faster. Either that or I am actually getting faster...nah....

As usual the first two were hard, the next one was hard, the one after that was hard...well, you know. But after four I was on the second half countdown and the end was in sight. Many of my 800s were a little more than half a mile long due to some weaving on the track. My paces:

7:47
7:49
7:48
7:48
7:36 (where did that come from?)
7:48 (even though I had to stop when a little girl ran in front of me)
7:40

I jogged about a quarter mile between each repeat, and did an easy lap around after I finished before heading home. Total distance 8.26 miles, average pace 9:04.




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