jump start

As much as I despise getting up early (and I don't know about you, but for me, 5:30 constitutes "early"), and as much as I despise running on a treadmill (at least since I've started training)... I have to say it felt really good once I was in the gym and running this morning!  What a GREAT way to start the day. :)  What feels even better is knowing that it's already over and done.  I can come home without being sweaty and yucky and needing to shower right away.  I can relax and actually feel good to still be somewhat put together.  Besides our long runs every Saturday morning, I typically run or work out in the afternoon, in that gap between work and dinnertime.  I don't feel safe running alone in the dark, which means it's the gym for me if I go in the mornings—but (thankfully) I may have only run on a treadmill three times tops since I started training.  Today I bumped up the incline and ran a half mile farther than what I would have, all to try and match the effort it would take to run outside (instead of this machine propelling me).  Maybe it's the earlier time, or the shorter distance, but somehow I can go run before eating breakfast on a workday like that.  Breakfast is a MUST before Saturday-morning long runs.

I'm starting to feel the onset of a sore throat and mild cold.  It hasn't gotten worse over the last couple days, but I know something's there.  Just praying I stay well over this next week and a half before the race!  I think at this point, I will run that thing sick or not—haha!  Praying for wellness among all of us!!!

I've also started thinking recently about my time... Now that I'm at this point in my training, and seeing how it's all quite doable, I've wondered about setting a time goal for myself.  As a first-timer, my goal all along has been to "just finish" (and without walking).  I don't think there's anything wrong with adding a time goal, as long as I remember that the training/journey/process has been what means the most—not the day of the half itself.  But I also recognize that in doing so, one of my biggest struggles might be wanting to start too fast.  That was always my struggle in the past: impatience, fighting the mentality of "taking it slow."  There's going to be a lot of adrenaline on race day; I just have to remember how important it is to pace myself—and make myself do it.  (Don't want to give out at the end, especially knowing in my heart of hearts that I can run all 13.1 miles!)  Silly me, after that 12 miles last weekend and the time I finished in, I've been calculating what I could realistically do the half marathon in.  I'm even going to confess something here: I checked out the results from last year's race to see people's times.  Ahh!  I don't know where in the world I get this competitiveness from, but now that I'm this close, it's hard not to challenge myself further with possibilities and upping my standards.  I honestly think if it were just me setting out to run 13.1, my goal would be strictly to finish.  Throw in a bunch of people, and I have to prove that I can keep up.  What is wrong with the human species, lol.  Praise God for keeping me grounded!  My ultimate goal is to give Him the glory.  Always and in everything.