Goal Accomplished--Sub 35 minute 3 miles

Wow.. It amazes me how you can have one incredibly bad day and then have a pretty good one the very next day. Looking at my times, I don't know if anyone would really consider today better, but I certainly FELT a lot better running tonight. I just told myself from the first step that I needed to pace myself to run 3 miles, not to run 1 mile really fast. I stayed focused on my breathing making sure that I didn't get too uncomfortable because that meant I was running to fast to run the 3 miles straight I told myself I NEEDED to do tonight. I also promised myself that if I ran the first 3 miles, that I would allow myself to walk the last mile and half.

Here are tonights stats:

Total Mileage: 4.5 miles (First 3 miles done in 34 minutes) 
Starting Temperature: 98 degrees 
Start Time: 6:30pm
1st mile completed at 6:41 (11 minutes)-- Ran
2nd mile completed at 6:53pm (12 minutes)--Ran
3rd mile completed at 7:05pm (11 minutes)--Ran
4th mile completed at 7:22pm (17 minutes)--Walked pretty slowly
Ending Temperature: 98 degrees

The first mile as I said was pretty easy. It felt like I was moving slow, but looking at the times from yesterday, and today, going my more comfortable pace I was actually much more consistent and a little quicker than I really felt like I was moving. I started sweating pretty quickly considering it was 98 degrees outside. At times my ponytail would come around and stick to side of my face. This was kind of irritating. When I came to the end of my first mile I was feeling pretty good. I was confident that I'd make it to the second mile for sure. 

The second mile did get a little tougher. I started getting those thoughts in my head where my brain is trying to work against my body. I kept thinking "I'm tired. I'm going to slow down and walk..only for a second" and something somewhere would kick in and say "No. You have to do 3 miles and you are barely into the second one. Stop being a baby." It's kind of funny actually.. I feel like I have multiple personality's. And so I pushed on. 

The third mile I really really started to break down. I want to stop, but I want to keep going. I set a goal for myself, and I don't want to break it. There's also the thought that I would get to walk that last mile. I think this is what kept me going through this mile. There was sweat running in my eyes, gnats in my mouth, throat, and nose. My watch was sliding around on my arm. It seemed like everything was distracting me from getting to that mile marker. When I see the turn in front of me that opens out into the open, I start to move my legs faster, and faster. At this point i'm running a lot faster than I should be. My arms are flailing, and my breathing is anything but attainable, but  I hit that mile marker and immediately stopped (i know.. bad) and smiled. I did it. 

I wont ramble on about the last mile too much. It took me 17 miles to walk it. I was sweating so much it was disturbing. It was running in my eyes, which hurts like hell. I had a side stitch and I was really really thirsty( I dont bring water on my runs yet. Usually makes me feel like hurling). This walk seemed to take forever. I wanted to jog just so it'd be over faster, but I would have rather laid down on the canal and have bugs crawl on my face than to pick up my feet and run again.

I'm proud of myself. I set a goal and I did it. Now for the next couple days, I need to just improve on doing these three consecutive miles and then I can amp it up from there. Oh boy!