Who would have guessed????

I'm becoming an athlete!!  I am constantly amazed with myself and my physical abilities.  A year ago I was struggling to run three days a week and training for a 10k race.  It was hard, sometimes it was really, really hard!  The thought of trying to exercise more than my three runs was near impossible.  I was tired and at times wondered if I could actually do it.  I had days where I didn't even feel like I was a runner.  On the worst days I had little bits of inspiration that pushed me out the door.  I remember one particular day when I just didn't feel like running and was feeling horrible about it.  I walked out the door at work and along came Doug, a fellow runner, trotting along like it was nothing.  I took that as a sign and pushed myself that day.  There were other little things that helped me along the way.  After race day I felt like I could do anything though and decided that I would indeed run a half marathon.  Just one!  Just to say I did it!!!

This summer started off kind of rough.  Running was sporadic after the Half.  I ran short bits here and there but nothing consistent.  When I finally felt like I was back I got sick and knocked on my butt for days.  Last week I was better and decided that it was time to give it my all.  That first trip to the gym was a bit scary.  I had been so sick and it had only been about 24hrs since I started eating again.  I took things easy and things felt really good.  Tuesday was crazy hot so I stayed home instead of running but from there on I've been back to my regular routine.

What amazes me about all of this is how quickly I'm able to get back to my old times and distances.  It took me a year to get to running 10k and after almost 6 weeks off I will be back to it, if not this weekend, next weekend for sure. I ran 5k on Saturday and it was tough but if I had really wanted to I could have pushed further.  Tonight I did just shy of 6k and it felt great.  My routine at the gym is right back to where I was and I'm even finding some of it easy!  The really crazy part is that a few of the ladies at running tonight have me half convinced to run a fall half marathon.  They are running the Road2Hope in Hamilton in November.  I'll think about it.  I had decided I wasn't going to do one because I didn't want to travel and the ones here don't work with my pace or schedule.  This one would work with my schedule and is apparently mostly downhill.  Sounds like my kind of race:)  Who knows maybe I'll be writing a post in a few months about my second half marathon!!!  So much for just one eh???

Now to figure out how to make my big toes stop hurting!!!