5 Mile Run

Yesterday, I headed out to run 5 miles. I didn't know how it would go. I haven't run in several weeks and my knee is not 100% better. But, I knew I had to get out there and do something. Even a couple of miles would be better than nothing. I had to see where I stood.

So, off I went. No pain in the knee. I was slow, much slower than usual. I was ok with that. I decided before going out that I wasn't concerned with time. I didn't want to get caught up in that. I just needed to get the miles in.

I did ok. I ran through a cemetery for the first time. It was interesting. I had a hard time not stopping and looking at the tomb stones. I wanted to see the years to see how far they go back. I saw a birth date on one of the tomb stones that went back to 1813. Wow. A good number of the stones were made of limestone, which has started to deteriorate due to the weather. Those I would have had to stop to read.

I ran through the neighborhood I normally run through on this run. There is one house who has a die-hard Baltimore Ravens (NFL) fan. I've seen him putting out little yards signs on Sunday game day before, but wow. He went all out for the play-off game yesterday!

What you don't see in the picture is the banner hanging from the garage, the Ravens fans parking only sign, the mailbox cover with a Ravens theme. I was impressed. He really went all out to tell people he loves the Ravens. Guess his house was happy last night! LOL!

The only issue I had during my run was I had a bit of pain during mile four. I know it was from my scraped knee, but it wasn't enough to stop me from finishing my run. I will say the mental aspect of mile four was more of an issue than the pain of the knee. I wanted to stop at mile four. I wanted to say it was enough. I wanted to just head back to the car and say I'm good. Instead, I went for the last mile. I decided I wouldn't been happy with myself later if I didn't do the run I set out to run.

So, I got my five miles in at 1:12:41. Much slower than last time I ran five miles (like 7 minutes slower.). Ugh. But, time wasn't the focus, unlike last time when it was. I'll take it. My next long run is 9 miles. I had a goal of 2:00:00 for it, but I think I'll be happy with completing it. Sometimes you have to acknowledge you have more work to do and cut yourself some slack while you're getting there.