O.M.G.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen I just set a 1 mile PR today!  I have NEVER seen a time that low in my LIFE!  My previous 1 mile PR was set at the 2010 Harrisburg Mile, when I ran the mile at 11:53.  This just SMOKED that!  What a great Friday!!

And tomorrow is 11 miles.  I won't be running that fast, but I feel much better about my long run tomorrow now.  :-)

Running

Three years ago I started running.  I had wanted to start, but found reasons to put it off.  It's too cold out, it's too hot out, I ate within the last hour (I figured that rule worked for swimming, it sure must work for running).  Then I decided I should just do it.  But, I needed something to focus my attention on and found the Harrisburg Mile.  Each July, there is a one-mile race in Harrisburg.  It's a pretty big deal.  Much bigger than I thought when I signed up.  But, ignorance is bliss they say, and I signed up.  I trained two months to run 1 mile.  Seriously.  It took me 2 months to run one mile consistently.  But, I trained and I ran it.  I finished last, because as I said it's a pretty big deal.  People RUN this.  And I mean like in 5 minutes.  Like I'm at the halfway point and they are done.

The following year, I ran it again.  Trained a tad bit less and honestly felt like crap that night.  I walked a little bit, but finished in sooner than the year before.  It was a hot and humid night and I was happy to see the finish line and the nice medic people who put me in front of a fan and gave me lots of water.  I needed it!

And all this reminiscing?  Well, that's because it's Harrisburg Mile night and I'm going at it again.  I haven't run in two weeks.  It's just been so darn hot.  And honestly, I should keep my mouth shut on that one.  My very good friend just ran a half marathon in the same type of weather I'm complaining about running 2-3 miles in.  But, I've been kinda lazy and haven't run.  So, wish me luck tonight!  I have to run one mile in this icky weather.  And hoping I can do so faster than I did two years ago.

What's up with awful runs?

I must apologize in advance.  I did not run on Saturday.  I had a couple adult beverages on Friday evening and was no quite up to running Sat. morning.  LOL! 

But, I did not let that deter me from running this weekend.  I got up this morning and decided to go out before we took my MIL out to lunch to celebrate Mother's Day.  I put on a pair of my new capri pants (that did not have a liner!) and headed to the local park.  I wasn't wasn't feeling the run today, but since I had swore I would run this weekend, I had to go.  So, my decision was to see how fast I could run a mile.  I headed to Shelley Park and walked to the start of the path. 

I started off at a good clip.  I was excited thinking I was making good time as I ran.  When I got to the end of the path to turn around, I was at 5:54 for 1/2 mile.  This was a great time for me!  I think the best I have ever done at the 1/2 mile mark is 5:45 and that was sometime last spring.  So, I was psyched!  I turned around to return to the start and felt pretty good. 

Then I hit the hill.  I kinda forgot about the hill.  It's really steep and I've been running on fairly flat side walks lately.  I was totally unprepared for the hill.  And the run went down hill from there...well, I wish, but you know what I mean.  I felt awful going up the hill and wanted to stop with every step.  I continued on though and finally got back to the start.  And had the worst 1 mile time I've had in ages...13:24.  :-(  It has been a very long time since I have run a mile in 13 minutes.  I had gotten used to running the mile in the low 12:20s and had hoped to be around that when I hit the end of the path. 

Yes, I will chalk a good bit of that up to the hill, but it still doesn't take the sting out of the disappointment I felt when I hit the stop on Garmin and saw that number.  I'm thinking I may try to run a mile on Sunday mornings just to see if I can improve that time.  I just know that I was really sad when I saw that time...