Easy does it

I went running last night for the first time in what felt like a very long time (in reality, it had only been about a week). The weather had made a turn (again - really Mother Nature, this IS getting a bit silly) from nasty hot and it-hurts-to-breathe-while-walking-humid to a bit less humid, with a really REALLY nice breeze.

Now that I am aware of the raining, cool weather we will endure today, I totally get it. Last night though, I just really REALLY felt like I needed to take advantage and get.out.there.

I posted an accountability status on my FB profile of

"I.MUST.GET.OUT.RUNNING.TONIGHT"

and got the response I had hoped for. A handful of my runner friends who now knew I hoped to get out there and were guaranteed to follow up if they didn't see the post that shows up automatically via dailymile.com stating I had indeed gone out.

It was not until 8:20p.m that I finally stepped into my trusty runner and headed out for my run of "around 4.5k".

I wasn't as organised as usual, and hadn't looked at any of my maps. I was going blind, in some ways, and having to estimate the distance using one of the routes around my house.

Lucky for me, I remembered mapping out a large square-ish route going down my usual hilly road, but then heading west towards my old neighbourhood before turning back up and running a steady incline for 1.5k and then heading back home. I remembered it being somewhere between 4 and 5k (it ended up being 4.75k).

As usual, it took the first km to shaky the cobwebs off the old muscles, catch my breath, find my pace and then sit back and start enjoying my run. I found the air still heavy and my pace was ajusted accordingly. And when I turned that corner and felt a wonderful breeze blowing over my face, instead of cursing the headwind I would have to deal with while running uphill for the next 1.5k, I smiled and thought of how nice it felt.

And to the nice man who ran by me up that hill while I was on my walk break and gave me a good pace to mimic when I restarted my run, I thank you. You are what kept me going in the right direction and at the right speed halfway up that hill (before you turned around, obviously finished with your run). When you passed me, I thought you were running fast and stong and it made me feel the same when I could match your stride with relative ease.

All in all, the run was nowhere near a "good" time, but it WAS invigorating and I am so very happy to have gotten out that door.

This weekend, I hope to tackle 10k again. I have been offered a chance to run in a night race in the middle of July (go here to check it out) and that will be my first timed official 10k... so I want to get at least 2 more runs in for that distance before that!