Well, I did it! I went for my 7 mile run, and I only stopped to take my gu, to stretch, and I hit 2 red lights. I finished the run in 75 minutes - not too bad for a slowpoke like me!
I took much of Jenny's advice to not get discouraged by faster looking people i.e. not comparing. Instead I pretended we were all out there training together and I encouraged them and was inspired by their stories...the ones I made up in my head as they passed.
Near the end, as I got really tired of going up block after block of uphill I began to sing inspirational songs in my head. Songs such as, "Another block bites the dust! And another one's down and another one's down, another block bites the dust!" It kept me going.
Working on my stride was hard though. I just can't tell if I'm even on the right track. Though I did notice focusing on my arms, actually, seemed to help a little...at least I felt less tense and I
felt like I was being more efficient.
Anyhow, the point is I felt really good for most of the run, I finished it in no less time than usual (I thought I'd go way slower by myself), AND afterwards I ate a wonderful huge salad with lots of carrots in it. So if that cat from the last post doesn't want his, I'll take it.
Oh yeah! AND I used my sexy new sweat band. That thing is awesome! I didn't have to wipe the burning sweat out of my eyes once! I think that helped me a lot, since I didn't have to worry about being able to see and stuff. I was able to focus more on just running. Yay for sexy accessorizing.
