High FIVE for us!!!

On our plates last night, a five miler. At this point in the game, every long run mileage increase is scary because each one can be classified as a PR in distance. Three miles, then four, and now five. Five for some reason, seemed so much more daunting. So after letting our tummies settle from dinner, and putting the babies to bed, off we went. (Don't worry we don't just leave them home sleeping alone. My youngest sister lives with us and she was in her room, probably talking on her cell phone and texting the whole time.)

I'm not gonna lie. I was scared. Would I make it? Did I hydrate enough during the day? Did we wait too long after eating? Did I use my inhaler at the appropriate time before leaving? My prior fail run left me with way too many worries, and I could tell Jacob was worried about me pooping out too. He won't leave me in the dark so if I don't make the run, he doesn't make the run. He has a lot more weight to lose so a little more is on the line for him than finishing the training run and getting to the point where he can run a half marathon. He is super hard on himself and if we run into any hiccups in our training plan I am worried that it could be a disaster. It has been in the past...I can only hope that since I am on board with him this time I can pull him through any rough patches that make him want to give up.

Mile one, he asks me our time. Thirteen minutes. Slow for the normal hard-core runner, but for us that was making good time. We still hadn't technically run a full four miles yet so we weren't sure how five miles would be. Since we have been averaging twelve minute miles, I wasn't going to complain at thirteen, considering we had to sustain it for over a mile longer than we are accustomed to. We continued on. I didn't remember where on the map the other mile markers were so we just started looking for our own milestones. First it was, I see Whitey's. Than it was I see Stone. Then I see Industrial....followed by Harbor. And finally we were in the home stretch. It took us 62 minutes, so somehow we picked it up at some point and wound up finishing with an average twelve minute mile, give or take a few seconds.

I felt amazing. Tired, but amazing. There was a little bit of shin and knee discomfort toward the end, but nothing that was anywhere near pain. Things I noticed on our run: 1)Jacob's head is pretty shiny and he has the sexiest calves I have ever seen. 2)My shadow is changing. In my midsection, in the area that used to be just a big blob of thickness. I am trimming down and the muffin top has more definition instead of just extending the entirety of my waist to underarms. (I'm not being negative here, that's actually really exciting because I can see that I am trimming down!!) 3)It truly is mind over matter. Your body really CAN go further than it alone will allow you to. You have to engage your body and your mind to push yourself past the limits.

As we started our cooldown, Jacob looked back and me and said very simply, "I'm proud of you. I couldn't have asked for you to do a better job tonight. Everything was perfect." I'm proud of you....at that particular moment, with sweat dripping down my face and my heart racing...I had never heard sweeter words coming from his mouth. Other than "I do" of course. =o)