10 Miles

Once upon a time, I ran 10-ish miles. It was hard, and it hurt, and it was really more like 11. That was about two weeks before my very first half marathon, and today, three weeks before my third half marathon I ran not walked 10 miles... without stopping. I wasn't terribly fast (it took me 1 hour and 57 minutes to do it) but it was the longest distance I've ever gone without stopping to walk! Milestone.

They say that the long runs are about covering the distance, and not the time that it takes you to do it. But I can't help but thinking, "why the heck am I so slow?!" I crunched the numbers, and today evened out to be slightly faster than a 12 minute mile. ...I'm pretty sure some people can walk that fast. Yes, I know it's faster than if I were at home in bed or sitting on my sofa, but it's slower than I was before running my first half marathon. But it felt better - a lot better.

Instead of getting frustrated and fixating on the things that aren't going quite how I'd like, I'm trying to recognize what's going well. Today, I didn't have to contemplate whether or not I could make it up the stairs on my own or ice my knees right away because they felt like they were being held together with old rubber bands. My hands and feet didn't swell, threatening to explode - and that's a serious improvement. Maybe one day I'll start running half marathons for time, but for now I'll be proud of the fact that in the past year I've gone from being a non-runner (who was terrified of just one mile) to running 10 miles at a time.

Here's to the impossible.