"I just felt like running"

Well, I don't usually blog on the spot, I seldom have time in the middle of the day to sit down and record a thought here and there (not exactly true, but I usually prefer to waste my minutes doing something else like eating ice cream or chocolate . . .) but I had an exciting event occur today. No one else might think it's exciting but for me it was a milestone!





I am not a runner, used to run sprints in high school many years ago, and since then can barely tolerate jogging for brief periods of time - and I'm not kidding! Most people who know me know I love to walk and hike the foothills of Alpine. But occasionally when I don't have the required hour in the morning to do so, I put on my actual "running" shoes and walk / jog for two miles in about 30 minutes. Usually more walking than jogging, but over the last couple months I've been going out with Karianne occasionally and she has motivated me to pick up the speed a bit and it has felt really good. So today was one of those days where I needed to do the walk / jog thing instead of hiking.

I loaded my ipod with my favorite "country" and most inspiring music and headed for the street. Usually I warm up by walking up the big hill just right up the street from my house. Today as I headed for the hill I was feeling pretty good and just couldn't resist the impulse to get moving a little faster. I ended up jogging all the way up the hill. Wow! I didn't know I could do that! But I kept moving and kept jogging all the way to the top. When I got to the top it felt so good going down the other side that I just kept going. Pretty soon I passed the first checkpoint where I usually stop jogging and start walking and I was still feeling good, then I passed the second checkpoint where I switch again. Wow! I was impressed, don't know what got into me but suddenly I thought, "maybe you can jog the whole first mile". I was already halfway there. And so I did! Then I walked for the next 1/2 block and I was back to the bottom of the hill and decided I would try it again. (Two times around is two miles - or a mile for each loop) Same as before, jog to the top of the hill, feels so much better going down, kept going around the second mile!





All in all, I cut 7 minutes off my previous time by not walking, and accomplished something I really thought was impossible for me to do. Of the two mile route, I probably walked less than 1/4 a mile. It may never happen again but guess what? It's kind of scary now because I know I CAN do it!