500+ K!

Yep, today I passed the 500 kilometer mark in total distance run this year! Wow...that is kind of mind boggling. I also ran a total of 20.7 kilometers this week, which got me thinking that that is what I will have to do in one day on January 12. It actually seems feasible...in spite of the fact that my run did not go as well as usual today.

I kept thinking all week that we had to run 9 loops, but then I realized late last night that we only had to do 8. So that was a nice surprise. But unfortunately, I was not as well prepared as usual for my run. First of all, we went to Stefaan's cousin Veronique's poetry performance last night, and didn't get home til 11, and we were both ravenous (because we had eaten such an early dinner because we had to leave on time) so we each had a piece of pizza the boys had left over from their meal. So I went to bed too late and with food in my stomach, which I usually don't do. Then, one of my boys got sick in the middle of the night (too much pizza?) so my sleep was broken up. So I woke up feeling groggy.

Thankfully it is a beautiful, bright and sunny fall day, that sure helps. So we headed off to the lake and started running and it just felt so hard today... my legs were achy, but the biggest problem was my foggy head and my bloated stomach. I just didn't feel right. The third loop is always the toughest and it was extra hard, and then we started in on the fourth and it was still hard, and that's when I started thinking that this was good practice for Disney. Because at Disney, I am going to be jet lagged, my digestion will probably be a little bit mixed up, and we will have to get up at such an early hour - just like today, I probably won't be as well prepared as I am on an ideal day at home. Realizing this made it easier to just put up with how I felt and get on with my run. Once we finished the fifth loop and we only had three to go, it seemed better mentally even though physically it was still uncomfortable. I just kept thinking that it was good practice, good practice, good practice... All in all, our time was still quite okay (especially since I had to stop twice to get stones out of my shoe!): we ran the 11.2 km in 1 hour and 13 minutes. So I felt good about that. But I was glad when we were done!

Congratulations to Mom and Christy for the great job they did in their 5K yesterday - they both improved their personal records! Way to go!