Half-marathon training
Week fifteen, day two

I was supposed to meet a couple of the women from my team to run our four miles on the Katy trail last night, but I just wasn’t up to it. My back hurt, my head ached and I just plain didn’t feel that great. (Of course I felt guilty about canceling all night – stupid perfectionist tendencies.)

Luckily, I didn’t have to come in until noon today, so I went to the trail this morning (with pepper spray in hand) to get my four miles in. Started running….okay, the first mile always sucks…mile and a half, still sucks…almost halfway and still sucks. I started thinking that I hadn’t had a really good run in a couple of weeks. Not a mental block, I’ve been getting them done, but something always hurts or I just don’t have any zip. I was kind of bummed, wondering if I’d ever enjoy my runs again. Then I started thinking about other things, like tomorrow’s Cowboys game, and what to get my niece and nephew for Christmas, and what year did that Wang Chung song come out?

Somewhere around mile 3 I realized that the rocks in my calves were gone and I didn’t even seem to be breathing that hard. And gosh, it was really beautiful outside today (not that you would know it from the number of people wearing coats, long pants and hats on the trail, but it was about 68 degrees). I felt so good I even ran right through a couple of my walking breaks without noticing!

Maybe it was an early holiday miracle. All I know is that a bad run turned into a great run. Bring on the turkey trot!