8 Mile

Doesn't it remind you of the Eminem movie?  It does me.  Every time I see it, I think of Eminem. 

In reality, 8 miles has nothing to do with Eminem or the movie.  It has all to do with the run I had this afternoon.  I went out in a fairly nice day and ran 8 miles.  Which seems crazy to me.  I ran 6 miles last Sunday, which was the first time since October 16th (and the Baltimore Marathon Relay).  Then the lovely pulled hamstring happened and I had to start over again.  And I have finally gotten myself up to the longer distances...even if they are slow.

But today was a milestone, I hit EIGHT miles.  I had never done that before.  On the 16th of October (Baltimore Marathon Relay), I ran 7 miles.  It was crazy honestly.  I hadn't run all week and I was kinda nervous it wouldn't happen.  But, I went out anyway and chose to try.  You never know until you try, right?

It was a good run overall.  I had no worries for about the first 5 miles.  And even then, I knew the 8 would probably happen (I was about 98% sure).  The issue I had at 5 miles was how to finish the last three miles?  There's this one big hill that I just really didn't want to run up, so I tried to figure out how to avoid it.  Sadly, in my complete lack of foresight, I ran multiple OTHER hills to avoid the ONE hill I initially didn't want to run.  I did end up walking one block because the that hill was just killing me.  I really did not feel up to running that one.  I walked one block and then ran the last mile.

So, I ran 8 miles today in 1 hour 57 minutes and 56 miliseconds.  Which gave me a 14:44 mile.  Not what I'm hoping for come Feb. 27th, but I did do all 8 miles under 2 miles, which was today's goal.  I feel good about the race and feel it's possible now. 

And on my way home, I rewarded myself with an iced blueberry coffee.  Yum!