Another week...

So here we are, the first of June. The weather still doesn't feel like a Sacramento summer. It's up in the 80s finally, but nowhere near typical temperatures. Jacob and I ran together yesterday. It was really nice to have some motivation right there with me, pushing me until the very end. I think I have created this mentality that if it hurts, I should just stop. And not like ouch that hurts but like I'm pretty uncomfortable. How am I going to ever push myself if I just keep quitting? I'm really only quitting on myself and not giving myself the benefit of the doubt. So following him yesterday down West Capitol, it became a mental game. Follow him, you can do this. Side cramp? "You think that kid from Washington that ran 24 hours didn't have side cramps? C'mon he pushed through it, so can you!" Sore legs? "You don't think that marathon runners have sore legs? Get over it!" It was an exhausting run, but I felt totally awesome afterward. And Jacob was motivated enough to actually get out of bed early this morning and run again by himself while I got Isaiah ready for school.

So my face....I'm pretty fair complected. My face becomes ridiculously red when I run. Seriously. If you see a tomato with legs and frizzy hair running in my town, it's probably me. Why don't any of the other runners that I see have red faces? They glide by with their short shorts and long lean legs glistening in the sun. You can see every muscle in their legs contracting as every stride hits just perfectly. Their breathing looks even and they make it look absolutely effortless. Me? I plod along, every breath like I'm gasping in the middle of the Sahara. My pants, because I'm not feeling shorts-worthy yet, are more often than not stuck in the tongue of my shoe. My face is red as a tomato. My hair is fuzzy and sticking out in a million different directions. And yesterday, just because I wasn't feeling self-conscious enough, my underwear refused to stay put, so I felt like I had a wedgie the whole time. (The good news about this is that that means I think my butt is shrinking wooohooo!!)

I figure that if I'm putting myself out there now, pushing myself now, maybe someday in the near future I will be that gliding runner that makes the sport look effortless. For now though I remain a newbie runner, still finding my stride, still trying to figure it all out. And I'm ok with that because at least I'm out there. Right?