Saturday morning it was raining.  Raining pretty hard.  It was also pretty cold, in the low 40’s.  I looked out the window and thought about running on the treadmill.  12 miles on the treadmill would be super boring…but dry.  I thought about cutting the run short.  I still had a couple more weeks to get in 12 mile runs before the half, I could just do 10.

I put on my light weight water resistant jacket and sighed and began my 12 mile run.

I got wet, very wet before I had even crossed the first mile and I thought to myself as rain blurred my eyes that I was stupid and crazy.  My cold had mostly left, but I still had some congestion and a cough.  What was I thinking.

And then I thought about being done.  Going into my warm house, all soaked and cold, and taking a long hot shower.  “Ok, I can do this.  How many people would use every excuse to not do this?  Well, I’m going to do it.”

I started to feel, happy.  I couldn’t look at my watch because it was tucked safely under my jacket, trying to keep dry.  I had no idea what mile I was at or what pace I was running.  I was just running and it actually felt really good.  For the first time in a very long time the pressure of my baby wasn’t quite as uncomfortable.  I didn’t feel like I had the urge to go to the bathroom.  I just felt like I was out for a run, and I was.  At some point, I had to stop at a red light and I looked at my watch and saw that I was exactly at 6 miles.  It was right around where I guessed I’d be.  I knew I’d need to take my chomps and my water at about 8 miles but didn’t look at my watch and just tried to figure out “where 8 miles was”.  After I finished taking my stuff, I did peel back my jacket and take a peak and was happy to see I was at 8.42, so I had been pretty close at guessing my distance the whole way.

I didn’t look at my watch again the rest of the run.  I guessed again at what should be a couple miles later and took some Gatorade.  The last mile was tough.  I just wanted to be done and I guess I did look at my watch once again to make sure I’d run 12.  I had and I had averaged 7:40 pace!  Most of my miles were actually in the 7:30-7:35 range but I had one mile that was up a long hill that was an 8:03.  What a great run!  I felt so wonderful afterwards.  The sense of accomplishment was heightened because I had extra obstacles and was lacking motivation to get out and yet I did it anyway.  LOVE runs like that!

I didn’t stretch until I was in the warm shower because I could already feel my body starting to tense up from the wet and cold.  All my clothes and shoes were soaked!  I loved everything about it and will remember it for some time!