Accidental 9 Mile Run

Right at 5:30 I busted out of my office (we work til 5:30, not 5… don’t get me started!) and booked it to the closest bathroom. I hate changing in the bathroom because I think anyone who’s acutally pee-ing in the stalls next to me see all these clothes on the floor and my feet shuffling around and think I’m a lunatic. Oh well. So, I changed and hit the running route near my work in no time.

Within the first mile I knew this wasn’t going to be my run. My left ankle has been feeling super sore/off lately and it was definitely screaming right from the get go. My shins started to hurt too, which while I’ve run every day for the past 8 days straight (which is VERY odd for me) they haven’t been too sore this week, so I was surprised. But, on I pressed. It was a GORGEOUS day and I ran along the St. Joseph River and saw a local college’s rowing team out practicing, so I had some good entertainment! I did a 5.5 mile total out-and-back along the river and went through spurts of “This is great! I love running!” to “OMG! This SUCKS! Just make it back to your car and you can stop.” It was just one of those runs.

When I first started off I planned to do 6 miles. At mile 2.5, I decided to just stick to 5.5. By mile 5.5, I decided to push to 6, which turned into 7, which turned into 8, which finally turned into 9. Which WOULD HAVE turned into 10 (I mean—if you’ve run 9, why not just push it into double digits?), but I had to get home to clean up the apartment and pack for this weekend (we’re heading to visit my fam!). Oh well. Those 9 were plenty for a random Thursday-night run.

After the out and back at mile 5.5, I just kinda ran around my college campus and a few near-by neighborhoods. I also hit the track at the high school across the street for a few ½ mile sections. As I was on the track it occurred to me that less than a year ago I couldn’t have even run around the track ONCE without stopping. It really is amazing what your body can do when you push it. 9 miles later and I was SO glad I did the run. I felt kinda crummy (I ate a big lunch and it was trying to make a reappearance around mile 6), but when I finished I felt 1000 times better. Full on runner’s high.

Mile Splits:

Mile 1: 9:20 (I always start out too fast)

Mile 2: 9:40

Mile 3: 9:35

Mile 4: 9:45

Mile 5: 9:25

Mile 6: 9:25

Mile 7: 9:28

Mile 8: 9:30

Mile 9: 9:27

Average pace: 9:30(ish)