Well, I have been meaning for months to update the blog on what I've done to keep at my goals since moving to Raleigh but apparently it takes a major running victory for me to get around to actually doing it.
When I ran my first race this year in February I was thrilled to get a pace of 11:21 over the course of 4 miles. And by May when I did a 10k with a 10:32 min/mile pace; I remember thinking maybe next year I'll be able to do a 5k in less then 30 minutes. Then I thought nah, that would be less then 10 minutes per mile; there's no way I can do that. This morning, I ran the Day of the Dead 5k in downtown Raleigh in 29:45! That's a 9:36min/mile pace -- I've taken nearly 2 minutes per mile off my pace in 8 months!
I think in the 22 months since I started losing weight and in the 18 months since I started regularly exercising, this might be the first time I have seriously shocked myself with what I am capable of. I have lost over 80 pounds and gone from not being able to run 400 meters to finishing a half marathon but there are still athletic things that I think are left to other people, and running miles that have single digit minutes in front of them is one of those things.
If you're trying to lose weight or get in shape, please believe me when I tell you that the first day of boot camp last May, I literally could not finish the (very flat) warm up run without walking. And the second day, I was sore, achy and still couldn't finish the warmup run. Perseverance really does pay off and my new motto is "I didn't say it would be easy, I said it would be worth it." And honestly, the feeling I had when I saw the posted time of 29:45 actually made the sacrifices to get in shape worth it.
Maybe next year I can do a sub-2 hour half marathon? I was thinking that was a pie in the sky goal too, but now we'll just have to see.
