Week 7: Yeah right!

In last weeks post, I mentioned that thing were looking a bit rosy now. Well, scratch that! Today's run made mincemeat of that thought.

Five miles. Five easy miles I thought. 7 in the AM, no sign of the sun, piece of cake after last week! Yeah rrright!

The first two miles were OK. But the Campbell trail we were running at has its share of inclines and declines. I don't know if it was that or my misplaced confidence, but things started getting bad around the 3.5 mile mark. Last week I stopped at the three mile mark and felt great, but today two more miles to go. Heart rate way up, panting through the mouth, stitches under the ribs.. I had it all!

The worst thing about the Campbell run was that it is not a straight up and down run. The trail extended to only two miles. So for people doing 4+ miles, you come back to the starting point and go back out again. It's like landing in Mumbai, tired and weary after a 36hr flight from SFO, only to take off for Delhi and fly back again just because your ticket says so.

So when I got back to the starting point, I still had one more mile to go. The urge to stop was overwhelming, especially after seeing all the happy faces there of people done with their 3 miles. But I decided I was not going to cheat myself and went out for that last mile anyway. I'm glad I did. Unless I push myself, I will not improve.

This thing is not going to be so easy after all!