I didn't know I had it in me!

So, over the last year I have taken up running and I have gone from not being able to even run a mile on the treadmill, to regularly running 2, 3, and 4 miles with no walking at least twice a week on the treadmill. Now that it is spring I have been trying to run outside and finding that I can't go nearly as far without walking when I am out on the road.

I decided to give it another try today. My sister plotted a jogging course through my parents' neighborhood that is 2 miles long and I planned to run it twice in a row. My goal for today was just to run most of the way on the first lap and try not to have something of a decent time but obviously not as good as my treadmill time for that distance.

Well I managed to actually run THE WHOLE WAY on my first 2-mile lap and felt great about it when I stopped home for a quick drink of water. I set out for a second go at it but planned to alternate walking and jogging. I jogged and jogged and for some reason, never felt like walking. I got close to the halfway point and decided to take a longcut that I knew would add a mile to my distance, planning to walk most of the way back. I kept planning to start walking at the next landmark, but then when I would get there I would feel fine and want to run on. Finally I found myself less than a mile from home and picked up the pace to the finish. I ran the whole 3 MILES outside right after running the whole 2 MILES outside!

I was kicking myself for not timing it, but then as I was stopping in the driveway, my iPod stopped playing and I remembered that my running playlist is exactly 60 minutes, and that I had paused it during my water stop.

Today I ran 5 miles in 60 minutes! That is a steady 5 mph on the street and if you had asked me this moring whether I was capable of doing that, I would have said "Are you kidding? Of course not."

I am so excited to have the whole summer ahead of me to conquer that road!