Game Changer Weekend

When times get tough, you hope for that light at the end of the tunnel, right? It may seem so far away, but it's the thing that keeps driving you to push through.  I know the past few blog entries have been about the doom and gloom cold winter conditions.  I've been so down on myself about how the "running schedule" has been pretty much kicked to the curb... or at least severely modified.  In weeks past the "hopes" of getting to the predetermined mile mark was out there, but the results rarely matched up.  I felt I was letting Pina down after a run when we didn't get to point we wanted to and I felt upset at myself and hated the feelings after we "cut ourselves short".  I know that we said "Wow, we did all that in the snow, cold and wind" or that "we're getting stronger even if we didn't make our distance mark" but it still weighed heavy on my feelings of being successful at the Flower City Challenge Half Marathon.

Last week, I signed up for the Johnny's Running Of The Green, a festive 5 miler race happening this past Saturday. It was last minute. I needed to work out childcare that morning since my husband was already booked with getting in 16 miles for his marathon training.  I was so relieved and grateful being able to hook up with a new friend who was even able to coordinate a ride to the race for me. Jessica and I know each other from Library story time.  We are both members of "Rochester Mom's Run This Town" on facebook and she's becoming a great inspiration to me. We both have similar paces and deal with PF in our feet. I was so happy that she was going to be at the race. She was so motivating. She had a goal of running these 5 miles under a hour and five minutes.  She had set her watch (I believe) to give her a few chances to walk for a designated amount of time in order to meet her goal.  There was no way that I was going to stop her and even told her to "GOOOO" when we were on our last half mile of the race.  She ended up coming 4 minutes under her goal, and I was beyond excited for her. It was my first 5-mile race and was pretty excited to finish just over an hour. 

Next year, I'll beat that... 

Under and hour! 

Mark. My. Words!

The Sunday after the race the goal was 8 miles.  Another big milestone to achieve.  After the race on Saturday, I had so much confidence and motivation and was hoping it could carry me into Sunday's run. It was cooler than I had expected and we did battle some wind issues at times, but our path was CLEAR OF SNOW!! Pina and I met at the Tech Park and aimed to run a different route.  We even crossed Elmgrove road two times to dabble in the TSE parking lot and around the industrial loop.  The first 3 miles flew by. At mile 5, I started to feel fatigued, but there was NO STOPPING us at all.  Around mile 6, Pina gave me the most delicious "food break" I have ever had while running.  Some Date/Goji Berry energy bar with cacao and coconut flakes filled my taste buds. YUM! Holy cow, is that on my shopping list now.  (Wegmans Bulk dept for all that are reading and want to try).  When 8 was done, I felt something I hadn't in a while and wanted it to last for as long as it could.  I was so proud of us.  For Jessica, for Pina... we never looked back at and aimed high to complete the goals we set out to achieve this past weekend!

It dawned on me that I actually ran about a half marathon in distance in 24 hours. That is HUGE GAME CHANGER for me, mentally. I can't even express how badly I needed this weekend to end the way it did, and still two days later feelings of Sunday still linger.  I love it!

I owe so much to Jessica and Pina for being there this weekend for me. Running friends are the best! They really are amazing people and each have their own story on why they began to run. It's quite unique yet powerful and us runners are so lucky to be able to share it while earning more miles on our sneakers.

What moves me today? The feeling of improvement. I was looking back at some old posts in this blog and If we go back one year from this weekend, you'll get this blog post:

 Graduation Race Preview

What's funny is that I remember myself writing this post, crazy worried about running my first 5K... still experiencing the challenge of running for 3 minutes. It makes me realize how far I've come, and excited to see where I will be next St. Patty's Day weekend 2016.  And this feeling is exactly what I need to carry on with training for April 26th. 

FORTY DAYS AWAY... I can do this!