Lone Runner

Well, it's Saturday, and that means that today was a long run. For me, it was eight miles.

Eli (my husband) came home from work at 3:30 this morning, so I knew I wasn't going to wake him up at 5:30 to go with me because I'm just not that cruel. Laura wasn't going to be there because she's moving to a new apartment today, and I hadn't heard from Kat.

So, today, I ran alone (mostly). I hate running alone. But yet, today it wasn't so bad. I didn't have any excuse to walk. I didn't have anyone talking to distract me, but I was able to think through some things going on at work, and some stresses in my personal life (December always brings stress). I was able to imagine in my mind that I would be writing this post and be able to say,

"Today, I ran 7 and nine-tenths of 8 miles."

That's pretty dang impressive for me. As I was running back across the Lurleen Wallace Bridge on the opposite side, I remembered what Kat had said in the early summer on one of our first runs together, about me being a [dang] Energizer Bunny. That's really how I felt today. I kept going and going and going. I only stopped to walk at the water stops x 2, and then for a distance from the corner of the University side of the Quad to Denny Chimes, with under 1 mile to go.

You know, I never cease to be amazed with what our bodies can do. I was probably supposed to run further today if I plan to run the whole Mercedes Marathon (I haven't decided yet) but I feel really good about what I did today.

I had an inkling that I could probably run farther than I had tried, but that I was letting my fear of running alone hold me back with slower runners so that I would have someone to talk to. And I still don't think there's anything wrong with that. But now I know. I can run 8 miles pretty much without stopping, and I can run by myself without going crazy insane in the silence.