My Present to Myself!

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If you hadn’t noticed, I’ve been doing a lot of runs and long runs on the weekends! Why? Well I’m training for Chicago’s Perfect 10 in just 2 weeks and I’m nervous but very excited!

Today was a big day on the training schedule: 9 miles!

Okay, technically Sunday is the big day, but after running with Chelsey on Friday afternoon last week, I decided I much prefer getting my long run over with at the beginning of the weekend rather than thinking about it all weekend and doing it Sunday. Plus, Sunday is my birthday. No 9 mile runs on Sunday.

  

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I was definitely worried about how long it would take and if I could mentally keep going, but I kept reminding myself that I ran 8.5 last week, so this should be a breeze!

I also replaced conversations with Chelsey with conversations with… myself. Although don’t worry, these didn’t start until later on in the run.

A while before my run, I had some awesome fuel that was 3 weeks in the making: OATS IN A JAR!!!!

For those of you who don’t know, once you get down to the end of a jar of peanut butter (or nut butter of your choice) you can make a steaming hot pot of oats (mine had chia seeds and half a banana), pour them into the almost empty jar, and tada! Deliciousness.

It actually ended up being a gorgeous afternoon, and although it got a little chilly and windy by the end, I felt great the whole time! The fall colors were gorgeous and it was fun to go further up on the lakefront path to see parts of the park I’d never seen!

I had to stop at one point so I could show you all this:

And then at my turnaround, I HAD to stop so I could show you this too!

I tried to zoom in so you could see the lake better… but my fingers were too numb to figure it out.

During my run, I brought a Chocolate GU energy shot and had a bit of it at mile 3.5 (since I saw a water fountain) and then I hadn’t planned on having more, but I had about another 1/3 at mile 7 because I felt a dehydration headache coming on. I wrapped it in plastic wrap so I could save some after opening it and not have it leak all over my shorts…

I don’t know what crazy people say they have to force these down, but I think they are DELICIOUS. I would totally eat them normally. Last week’s was strawberry banana and I was in love!

Yes, I am a little crazy.

You know what’s really crazy though? The old man I saw riding a bicycle… In a Mario costume. Full on Mario from Mario Brothers costume. I started laughing, it was too much! Love that man.

Other craziness that ensued? My conversations.

At mile 5: "hey, how about we do a 4 mile run now?” “Hmm… that seems a little far.” “Oh come on, it will be fun!” “I’d rather just take the bus.” “You didn’t bring your bus pass.” “Ugh, okay, I’ll run 4 miles.”

At mile 6: “Let’s just run 3 miles now!” “NO. I do NOT want to run 3 miles.”

At mile 7: “Just an easy two mile run!” “Let’s kick this run’s BUTT!!!!”

At this point, I decided to make this run my birthday present. I started thinking about how I’m about to turn 24 and never before in my life did I think I could run 9 miles. I reminded myself that I should be so proud of what I’ve accomplished and that I’m the most physically fit I’ve ever been in my life. And this is the girl who could barely run a mile in middle school gym class. We’re talking I barely made it in under 12 minutes… which was the cut off time for failing. And now, I’m kicking butt and taking names.

So Happy Birthday to me. 24 is going to rock.

 

I did it!!!!

My reception crew at the end of the run:

aaaaaand the ice bath afterwards… I thought the scariness of this photo was Halloween appropriate.

What have you accomplished that you are proud of? What do you love about yourself?