As promised, I started my running plan which included a day of rest as day 1. I supposed that’s to make you say yes I can do this, so day one down!
Day 2, 3 miles at a comfortable pace. I usually start my “exercise” by walking from our place to the track but today I thought, if I do that I will be on the track FOREVER. About 1/2 mile of walking I turned up my playlist and started my run, which is slightly faster than others walking pace but whatever, I’m moving like a runner. As I approached the track I came up with my plan, I plan everything by the way. I started doing the math, 4 laps equals a mile I have 2.25 miles left, how many laps is that?
Then my mind was racing and I was panicking, what lane is that from? Now many laps from lane 8? How much longer am I doing this? Can I be finished by the time Greg gets here and be *sparkling* with sweat, like it wasn’t a big deal or big effort.
NOPE! (As a note I just looked it up and a lap is 400 meters, in lane 8 it’s 453.66 meters- for the sake of sanity in the future I would round down to 450 and be magically surprised when my future runs end those few blissful seconds early due to this measurement.)
By the time he got to the track I was breathing heavier, red in the face and got the words “mile… and a half, left. Mile… and a half” and puttered past him shuffling at my low and slow pace. Greg is a fast runner and I knew he was about to literally run circles/ovals around me- I started to feel defeated. Ah! Alas! At this mini moment of defeat my nike run app(which is my old standby running app) told me my split, mile 1 was 12:12/average a mile, but as I finished mile two, a negative split 12:05 average! Let’s take a moment to be greatful for small victories. Ok…back to the dreadful last mile. I increased my pace for a few seconds, and then realized I was getting tired, “damn am I able to finish? If I don’t I’m a liar on Instagram and my one blog follower will unfollow me, maybe I should walk the rest. NO! That’s cheating! You run slow so just, keep doing that and you will be done within 3-4 songs on your playlist”. That was my self talk and by the time me and me worked through that I had another lap done. Not knowing the distance above, I was convinced a max of two more laps. Nike said that was a lie I was telling myself.
I checked the app 2 laps later and saw I had .15 miles left and I was still under 36 minutes, I was at 34 and change! I everso slightly increased my pace and saw the finish line, I had no idea the real distance or how many ticks on the track it was but it was in front of me. I finished in 35:33, so red in the face but happy because I held myself accountable.
I clicked the button of the water fountain at the track as a disgusting reward, but I was thirsty! Nothing came out fml. Greg ran up to me, I told him my progress, he told me about his 6 and 7 minute miles as I whiped my nose on my shirt-allergy season and we walked home as a cool down. And look, totes met my step count plus 3,000.
Nikki Ginger 