imjustlori

Oh my goodness. I did the whole damn program. Through the cold, the fear of ice, the cold, the WIND, the threat of a damn large hill, the cold, I ran. I started with one partner, who kept me going in the early time (thanks, Brian! YOU made a serious difference to this effort!). I lost him as a partner and my daytime runs, but picked up a night partner in my husband who wanted to help me see this through to the end. He listened as I talked tough to myself, as I swore at the inclines, and he talked me through that damn hill. He was cheered to see me keep going when he couldn't twice, although I think he loved watching me set the pace. He's still pushing me to up my pace more, challenging me to make my runs better.

I've been running over three miles (uncalibrated) for the last three workouts on the Couch to 5K. Wait, make that four. I've added running wardrobe pieces for every week completed, and in two weekends, might actually buy myself that purse I used as a bribe in the early days.

Because in two weekends, I'll run that 5K. My expected time is between 41 and 43 minutes, if I keep my usual pace. But I've proven that when I run in daylight, I go a bit faster. While it'd be cool (hell, it would be AWESOME) if I came in under 40 minutes, I'll be happy to complete my main goal: to finish.

I have done it. I've created a runner. I couldn't do this back in November. I was losing breath in intervals for weeks. Tonight I had a light conversation with my running buddy while we kept up a good clip on the first mile. It's pretty awesome.

So thank you, ALL of you. For your encouragement, your interest, your good-natured putting up with this. I'm going to still run, and I will report on the race, but I expect the forever journaling on it to drop in pace as this just becomes a part of my life. Because you see, after the 5K there's still that 10K. And a half-marathon.