Goal Accomplished

At the beginning of the year I talked about wanting to run a mile without stopping.  It sounds so incredibly silly, but it's something that I have NEVER been able to do. 

I began "training" once the weather wasn't so horrible.  Heh.  That wound up not being until around May.

It was horrible.  I jogged slower than I could walk.  I thought I was going to pass out from lack of oxygen.  I would alternate walking and running 6 times each for the distance of a mile and a half. 

Gradually, I made the walking distances shorter, and the running longer. 

I didn't feel like garbage after I ran.  I could actually catch my breath as I walked.  I was finally able to pick up my running pace too.

Until...

BAM.

Intense pain in my heel, arch and shin.

A trip to the dr revealed that I had Plantar Fasciitis.

Yay.

I'd been doing all the right things.  Gradually building up to increased activities, wearing the right type of shoes, doing the right types of stretches.  I'm just that lucky girl that this sort of thing happens to.

So I bought some special inserts for my shoes, and I stopped running for a month.

When I started back up again, I felt I lost all the progress I'd made.  Plus, my foot hurt something awful afterwards.

Of course I did what any normal person would do in a situation like this, signed myself and Blockette up for a mile race.  Yeah.  I'm nutty like that. 

I had speed walked 3 miles no problem for something for church a few weeks prior with minimal foot pain.  My husband thought I was a bit looney, for signing up, but I'm pretty sure he think's I'm looney all the time!  ;)  I figured if I was in a lot of pain, I'd just walk.

The race was on the 26th of October. 

I ran the WHOLE way!!!

Without stopping once.

Now it took me almost 15 min to run the darn thing, but I ran.

Me.

Non-athletic girl.

I ran.

Even more amazing was I felt I could have run even faster.  I slowed down to a super slow jog because Blockette needed to walk at the halfway point.  I told her that I had 30 years on her, and if I could do it, so could she.

When we knew we were coming up to the finish line I asked her if we should have a strong finish and she hesitated, but then wanted to know if she could try to beat me.  I said of course.  She was 2.2 seconds faster than me. 

It's funny how accomplishing a little goal can make you feel so awesome.  I hung my little ribbon on the fridge so I can see it everyday.

I've set myself a new goal.  I'm going to try to run a 5k a year from now.  Which seems totally crazy.  But then again, so did running a mile a year ago.