A Nail.

This is the third exercise-related post in a row!

Holy frijoles!  You'd think I was training for something ;-)  Bay to Breakers, here I come!

Last night, I extended my distance beyond.  Beyond what?  welp... I'll tell ya...

I ran 8 miles back in November of 2001, when I was 5 months pregnant with my second child.  It was a really hot day and a really hilly run, and we had gone out with no water.  I was toast by the end of it.  No more running for me for that pregnancy.

What I didn't know was that it would be over 8 years before I would be able to run again at all.  And over 9 years until I would be able to run 8 miles again...which I did last month...*applause*.

Last night I ran 8.25 miles.

The workout called for 8 to 9, and I really wanted to do the 9 super badly. I knew, though, that I had taken nearly 2 weeks off of all exercise and that it would be tough.  And I started at 8:55 p.m.  And I was doing it inside The Gate.  Not as dreary as a treadmill, but 12 figure-eightyeights (take ∞ and ∞ and then overlap them) of 0.75 miles apiece in the dark would be a migh-tee tall order.  And it was.

The first half was smokin'... in a not-overdoing-it kind of way.  The first 4.5 miles were finished in 44 minutes and wee bit o' change.  I thought, "that was good. I should just go inside now and eat dinner." Then I smacked myself (figuratively) and kept running.  My pace plummeted.  That's okay. Even though it bottomed out. Really, I don't have a problem with it.  Even though my grandmother could crawl backwards faster. But I focused on form and on finishing with a contorted grimace smile on my face :)

I ran between 8 and 9 miles ... and that's what I was supposed to do.

I am a nail.

As in "tough as."

I get the job done.

And then I came home, took an ice bath :) and made my Granny's Gadgets video.  Did you know we've done a dozen of those things?

I am a nail.

Are you a nail?