Except, of course, sleeping in. When that 5am wake-up call came, I reeeeeeeeeally just wanted to roll over and go back to sleep, despite the fact that I had spent an inordinate amount of time the night before coordinating my running outfit because I was so excited. With the blankets thrown off but my eyes still closed, I told myself, "Just get out of the house. Get dressed, get out of the house, stand on the porch, and if you still feel like going back to bed, you can."
Moving ever so slowly, I got ready and went downstairs for a light breakfast and a cup of coffee. There on the kitchen table, ever so strategically placed by my husband, was the most recent issue of Runner's World. I thumbed through as I ate my breakfast, feeling the excitement from the night before begin to tingle through me again. I was ready to get out there. DJ Research made a brief appearance to give me a good luck kiss and remind me, "Start slow," then he went back to bed.
Outside it was crisp and cold. I was glad that I had covered my ankles, despite the Hubs' teasing the night before. "How are you supposed to become a good runner if you can't even run with cold ankles?!" he had asked. Baby steps, my friend. Let us just applaud the fact that I got my butt out of bed before the sun, before asking me to run with cold ankles (I HATE the cold, in case you have yet to figure out). I walked a few yards to loosen up, and off I went.
This was the first time that I had run when it was still nighttime-dark outside. It was eerie. Our neighborhood is relatively well lit, but I still felt like the boogeyman was going to step out from behind a tree. I was all ears and eyes alert, and ready to claw the face off of anyone stupid enough to interrupt my run (at least, thats how I felt). The adrenaline of being so alert probably affected my overall energy levels, so thats something to keep in mind next time.
By the time the sun came up, I was just cruising along, talking to myself as I am prone to do. I won't give you a play-by-play of my run since it really wasn't that interesting. In summary, I finished in 1:43:48 at an average pace of 10:15 m/m. I was slightly disappointed with the time since I was hoping to run at least a 10m/m pace. But I told myself I wouldn't look at my phone (using the RunKeeper app) at all during the run, so I just kept pushing at what felt like 65%-70%. If I had looked at my phone periodically during the run, I would probably have pushed harder to meet my goal, which may or may not have been a good thing. Overall, though, I felt it was a good first effort.
My husband says that since I've upped my running I've been "positively glowing." I'm going to take that as a sign that I'm on the right track. :)
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