Running “things”

There’s just one long run to go before the Green Strides half marathon. 

That’s the first thing that came to mind as soon as Scott and I finished our 12.5 miler on Saturday.

That and “wow, we ran that pretty fast” when I looked down at my watch to see 1:57 as our finishing time. And I have to say, it was a damn good run – this in spite of not one, but two, side cramps that popped up during the run (which surprised me since it’s been awhile since one of those bad boys cropped up). 

Like I said the other day, this race in two weeks continues to not be about the PR or any pace goals, whatsoever. It’s about running strong, running happy…but I have to say, seeing us kill these longer runs with a pretty decent time at the end of it? Works wonders for the run-confidence. 

This run was really similar to last weekend’s 11-mile long run in that I felt really good basically the whole time. The only thing that was different this time was how much warmer it was (random heat wave in October, I’ll take it!) and that my joints started to ache just a teeny bit during the last couple of miles. I’ll blame that on wear and tear with the final weeks of half training upon us.

…in fact, I’m pretty sure I’ll be taking a self-imposed week off from running after this race in two weeks.  Give the joints a bit of a breather. Hold me to that one, ok? 

But anyway, what this run also reminded me? To always be thankful for runs like this. Confidence building, challenging-but-oddly-fun runs. I know this isn’t something to ever take lightly and I promise I do not take it for granted one bit. I have to be honest – with every run, I am just amazed at how good and happy and great our running seems to be. I don’t know what it is, but somewhere in these past few months, I’ve seemed to hit my running stride. I don’t know what “did” it, but I promise you, I really, really LOVE it and really, really appreciate it. More than ever.

In other running related news (i.e running “things”):
…I love when funny running “things” happen to good people. Like my sister who ran an unexpected 11+ miler on Saturday, but only because she’s uhhh, directionally challenged, shall we say? If you haven’t read it, you should check out her recap of Saturday’s shenanigans here, it’s pretty funny (especially because I’m pretty sure she jinxed herself with that one!) 😉

…and, while we’re on the topic, I also have to give a big giant shout-out to my girl Heather who accomplished a PDR this weekend. 13.4 miles! GO YOU!!

As you can see, a whole lotta running “things” going on up in my brain lately. I hope you don’t mind the influx of running ramblings lately; I promise I’ll switch it up on ya soon. 😉