Running...

I love Forrest Gump.  It's one of my all time favorite movies.  And it has a special place in my heart because if you knew me before 1994, you only knew me as Jennifer.  But...this one time...at band camp...this cute boy called me Jen-nay (just like Forrest Gump) and it stuck.  Five years later, I married that boy.  And today...I just felt like running.  

I got off track with my training for my upcoming Survivor Harbor 7 miler next month.  A couple weeks ago I was plain ol' laid out with vertigo--seriously!  When I asked the doctor why I got it, his only answer was, "I guess you needed to add one more thing to your list?"  Great.

I didn't decide to go running until about 7:30 tonight.  First I said to that cute boy sitting on my bed, "I think I'm gonna go run."  He said "Ok, have fun!"  I said, "What?  You're not gonna try to talk me out of it?  You don't want me to just sit & hang with you for a bit?"  He said, "No, I know you want to run.  I'm not gonna try to talk you out of doing something you want to do."

Crap.  I really had to go run at that point.  

As I was walking out the door I said, "My goal is 5 miles tonight."  Side note--it's been awhile since I got a full 5 miles in thanks to the vertigo & just plain bein' busy!  This was gonna be a challenge, so I said it with a little snicker.  To which my sometimes annoyingly optimistic hubby said, "Good!  I know you can do it!"  Grr.

I'm an interval runner for now.  And I'm training that way because I'm running a longer distance on my next race than I've ever run before.  The walking part of my interval gives me something to look forward to--it's like my reward every 3 minutes and it makes me happy.  What I'm saying here is that I'm not a fast runner, which is okay by me.  I'm working on my endurance & while I've run 5 miles a few times over the past few months, it's been about 2 weeks.  And it was getting dark.  And my street has no lights.  So, it was also kinda creepy.  And I started making up excuses to stop in my head.  

I ran 3 miles on Sunday, so 4 miles today is good enough. 

It's getting dark & dangerous out here--I'm sure Joey is worried about me.

I can run 5 miles on Thursday--never mind that I have a field trip all day with Josie & a doctor appointment with Jackie after school...I'll fit it in, I'm sure!

It's getting really close to time for me to be online for my webcast appointment--even if C is there to get us started.

When I hit 4 miles, I decided to just do one more 1/2 mile loop & call it a night.  Four & 1/2 miles was a great way to end the night.  

And as I neared the end of that last 1/2 mile loop on my 4.5 miles, I approached my house.  In the dark, I saw a silhouette on my front porch--just the outline against the light from inside the house.  Honestly, it was a little creepy.  And I said so from the street--"Dude,  that's a little creepy.  How long you been sittin' there?"  

He'd just been there a couple minutes & he said, "How much more you got?"  

I was just 30 seconds from the end of my loop--the loop where I was gonna call 4.5 miles the end of my run.  And before I even could think about it I said "I have just one more loop!"  

Crap.

There's something about that cute boy.  I told him I was gonna do 5.  I talked MYSELF out of the full 5.  He comes outside for 5 minutes & I end up running the full 5.  

I'm glad that I just felt like running & I'm even more glad that cute boy was there to hold me to it!