Discoveries ...

I ran on my own today for the first time. One of the hardest parts of marathon training is going to be motivating myself to train on my own and not just during the team sessions on Tuesday and Saturday. It was a beautiful day out and my training schedule said I should have run 2 miles today, so run 2 miles it was. I set out after work on the only 2 mile route I knew (it's exactly 1.1 miles each way to my friend's apartment). Which reminds me, I'm really going to have to come up with some better routes because one of these days, he's going to see me running and well, we just don't want that to happen ... and it's certainly going to get boring!

During my first run outside on my own, I came up with a few running discoveries...

• NEVER start the run off with a hill. I swear that hill outside my apartment doesn't look that bad when I drive on it almost daily. It sucks to run up ... especially in the beginning of the run. I do have to keep reminding myself that I live in Colorado and that this is a very hilly state but I'm going to have to work on finding some more flat roads.
• Colorado is also a very windy state. The breeze feels great at your back, sucks pretty bad when it's blowing at you. Makes it three times as hard to run, and breathe.
• The worst is running up the hill with the wind blowing in your face... I pretty much wanted to quit at that point... I didn't, but I sure wanted to.
• I need to invest in a head band. Getting bangs cut before starting marathon training was probably not the smartest idea, regardless of how cute they may be.
• While those waist bands with the water bottles in them may look ridiculous, I'm so buying one next time I'm at the store. It's impossible to run 2 miles in the sun without any water, and probably not good for me either.
• My other purchase at the store, iPod headphones that somehow hang around my ears... ear buds DO NOT stay in your ear while running. Also very annoying to keep fixing.
• Blowing snot rockets, while extremely disgusting, are completely acceptable and necessary while running.
• That same terrible hill at the start of the run was spectacular to run down at the end of the run :) See, the whole run wasn't that bad!

I realized today that I'm a runner now. I'm one of those people that I always see jogging on the side of the road (normally while I'm speeding by them in my car). I've always been jealous of those people, jealous that I couldn't do what they did. But I can, and I am. I'm a runner and I'm pretty darn excited about it :)

Daily miles: 2.5
Total miles: 8.5