Staring at my Runkeeper Map

The above is the map from my run/walk last night.  First off, yup, there's my pace.  Yes.  I'm slow, but that's ok.  I shouldn't feel like I have to state that so I'm going to try to make this the last time I do that.  Because...

No matter how slow I go, I'm still beating everyone on the couch.

I  know that, I really do.  Yet I stare at this map and I realize a couple of things.

1.  I attempted to run on the uphills.  This is not my favorite thing which is why I've always avoided hills in my past training.  This time I'm trying to go for it and actually train on them regularly.

2.  My running pace (between 12 and 14 min/mile) is better than I expected it would be at this point.  That makes me happy.

3.  Look at those hills!  And, given how things are going, I anticipate adding the larger loop that goes futher uphill (about twice the climb) at some point in the next few months. Probably once I get to the point where I can run this loop without walking. 

That map makes me pretty proud as I return to running.  It gives me hope for things like future half marathons.  Ones like San Francisco.  Or even this one again.

Although I'll probably do that one without the cinnamon buns next time.  For the record on this one, I was totally last place in my event (the 8 mile cinnamon bun run where you had to eat cinnamon buns at stops throughout the course to complete it).  I was slow.  I wanted to die on the hills.  It has some serious hills.  And I was dead last.

And then I went and walked around the farmers market with my medal and felt amazing.  Sure, I remember I was last.  I'll always remember being last.  But I finished.  And if I keep up my hill training, next time I won't be last.  Next time I might even take on the half marathon challenge.

And finally, I'm going to leave you with this picture.  It's part of why I run.

There's nothing like an early morning run with a great sunrise.  The peace.  The quiet.  The amazing place I live.  And the way I feel after I get that weekend morning run in.

I have not forgotten about my plan to post my food at the end of the week.  I will confess that as much as this was for accountability, I often forget to actually take the picture of my food.  I'll get better as I go along (just shot a picture of my latte at my desk), but it's been interesting so far.