Progress

I am beyond glad I blogged (albeit sporadically) about my foray into serious running. When I head out now for a 10k run, it's hard to imagine that I couldn't always do this. That I couldn't always run for an hour. That I couldn't always run four kilometres in less than 25 minutes. Reading about the burning and the gasping and the struggle it took to get to the point I am at today makes me feel proud for sticking with - and also maybe a little crazy for deciding to do it in the first place.

There have been many, many days where I didn't want to run, but I did. I ran in the rain, I ran in the dark and I ran after getting home late from work. And on Sunday - at 8:30 a.m. - I ran 14 kilometres. Let me repeat that: 14km!!!! That's like three times more than I had ever run at one time in my whole life before March. I ran for more than an hour and a half. (I shall not discuss the negative comment I got about it taking an hour and a half to run 14k - to him I say, bite me I RAN FOR AN HOUR AND A HALF).

As I look at the training schedule that remains (I'm about half way through), I get scared. If I follow it (as I so diligently have) it means I'll be gasping through 16km this Sunday and I have to conquer five hills on Wednesday (oh, how I hate thee hills training) and before the end of the month I'll be up to running 18 km in one session and 50 km in one week. Do you know how long it would have taken me to run 50 km a year ago? Like a month, if I was having a particularly active month. But while the schedule scares me, it also empowers me because I know I can accomplish it.

Because I've already come so far.