i'm heading home

we started out the morning in the dark and bitter cold. goal: 80 min. run south on the Monon from 146th St. in Carmel. i packed my new gels in my sweatshirt pocket, grabbed a water bottle should there be no stops along the way and cranked up the music. perfect morning for a run.

eventually the day woke up, the sky got lighter and it warmed ever so slightly. the path was relatively boring, taking us through wooded residential areas and small bits of the Carmel arts district, but it was good to see new scenery.

our friend, Laura, joined us as a recently new outdoor runner. it was fun to have her along and she ran the whole time! good job, Laura!!

i realized with this run, more so than ones before, that this is just as much a mental game as anything else. i was my biggest fan on that track. strange as it may sound, i talked myself out of stopping or throwing up my gel pack (it didn't sit well initially with my stomach).

at one point i passed team members who had turned back for the second half of their run.

"i'm heading home," one lady said, and that lit a fire in me. we had finished our first half and, in doing so, had already accomplished a lot. we were heading home, toward the finish line, we could do it.

i finished at about 82 minutes because it actually felt better to keep running than it did to walk. my muscles seized up and the joints felt stiff when i began to walk. i felt incredibly pleased and am ready to go again.

this running thing is addictive.