Stay Positive

    I ran this morning.  Yeah, yeah, yeah, I run almost every morning.  But this morning I ran outside.  Not the most brilliant of ideas I've had in a while.  It's about 90 degrees out there right now at 8:00 am!  With an added bonus of 85% humidity.  Not the most ideal running conditions.

    I had to do something today.  The YMCA and it's air conditioned, low humidity lovliness was not an option today.  So there was no other choice but to run outside. The first mile and a half went okay.  I only thought about keeling over every few minutes or so.  It was the last mile that liked to have killed me.  That last mile had me running headlong into the wind and the blazing sun.  I was outside a grand total of 28 minutes and I already had a funky tan line within the first ten.

    The half-marathon will be ran in September.  Last year's race (I only did the 5k) was a sunny, cool, still 55 degrees at the start and barely changed in my 28 minutes & 45 seconds.  (Side note, I lost 3rd place in my age division by that 45 seconds.  Bummer).  My hope for this year is the same temperatures, and a completion in less than 3 hours.

    3 hours is a long time to be running.  I get scared everytime I think about it.  I am fully confidant that my body will make it.  I might collapse at the finish and battle a a few pains here and there along the way.  It's my brain that is standing in my way.  It did it to me today too.  There was a brief internal debate on whether or nor I should even run today.  Dedication won that fight.  Then the whole time I'm out there, Brains is screaming "It Hurts! It Hurts! Stop running dumb ass it's too hot!"

    How am I supposed to re-program the noggin to scream words of encouragement while I'm out there?  I also have a habit of getting bored about half way into my run.  So not only is my brain trying to tell me that I'm in pain, it's also telling me there's other things I could be doing like watching tv.  So my new little side challenge is to get myself to think positive and keep myself entertained while running.  If I can manage to run at least every 5 days, work on staying positive and entertaining, I think I might have enough adrenaline & endorphins in me to finish 13.1 miles.

    It's a tall order (especially for me), but I think I can! ;)