I nagged J to get out of bed this morning by reminding him that he had told me he would run with me yesterday, and we didn't ever go. I was planning on traveling home to Rhode Island to visit my family, and the train I was taking was leaving at around 2pm. I harassed him and reminded him that he promised we would go today and that we needed to go now.
As we walked to the park, J and I both felt some trepidation since the last run went so well. We both didn't want to crap out early on the run and feel like we hadn't improved. The weather was very comfortable, so we started to run. I knew in my head that I definitely could and wanted to run farther than I had last time, but as I was running down the trail I kept in my mind that if I ran all the way down the trail and back and made it to the middle of the parking lot, I would have run a mile. J and I ran side by side down the trail the entire time except where the trail was too narrow. J told me later that his goal for the day was simply to keep up with me the entire time I ran, but I had my mind set on making it to that parking lot. We made it to the fork in the trail where we started running our second interval the last time we went, and I commented out loud "If we make it to the parking lot, we will have run a mile." We were almost there; there was less than a quarter mile left to go. J nodded at me and we kept running. As we saw the opening to the end of the trail, a huge smile broke over my face, and as we sailed through the parking lot we gave each other a high five.
Then we kept running.
We ran back down the paved road through the park and grimaced at the hill in front of us. J said that it was going to be the hardest part of the day, and it was. It's not much of a hill, but it is enough to be a problem after you've run the first consecutive mile of your life. We both powered through, and continued to run back towards the entrance of the park. As we got closer and closer, I realized that we might maybe just maybe make it all the way back to the entrance. I said as much to J when we were about one curve away from the entrance. He shhed me, and we kept running.
When we finally made it to back to the entrance, we both were ecstatic and a little bit shocked. I was so impressed and pleased that J managed to keep with me the whole time. I couldn't believe that I was able to run as far as I did; the farthest I had ever run before was 0.8 miles, and this run was a grand total of one and one third miles. We did it together, encouraging each other, pacing each other. It was the most incredible feeling. We did a longer than normal cool down walk and I took a quick shower before I left for Rhode Island.
I can't believe we have come this far. On May 31, I did my first run of 0.29 miles. Today, thirty two days later, I ran 1.33 miles. In a little more than one month, I have added over a mile to the distance I can run. More specifically, J and I together have added over a mile to the distance we can run. I am so unbelievably proud of us.
No comments:
Post a Comment