2nd Run

This morning I woke up at 7 am and walked down to the marketplace (what we call the cafeteria) to eat breakfast. When I got there I saw that it didn't open until 7:30 am, so I waited around for 15 minutes and then went inside to eat. I had a blueberry scone and a bowl of oatmeal because I know that you are supposed to have carbohydrates about an hour before you run. I usually do not eat very much food throughout the day, so I made a point of finishing the entire bowl even though I was full about half way through. Then I went down to the track to stretch before I began running. As I was stretching and listening to my MP3 player, the music all of a sudden stopped and refused to start again. I tried turning it off, but the whole thing had frozen up, and I immediately started to panic. I thing that is for sure is that I hate running. I am not running a marathon for fun, like some people, or to push my physical limits, like others. No, I am running to raise money for leukemia research and to get me through running I need my music. However, I knew that if it was going to be easy in the first place, i wouldn't be doing it. So I was determined to complete the entire 5 mile run, without any music.

Today I opted to wear my basketball shoes, hoping they wouldn't give me as bad blisters, and luckily, I was right. My feet felt fine throughout the run, although my left knee started to hurt moderately as I began my 2nd mile around the track. As I began running, still very sore from Wednesday, the first lap felt pretty good, and so did the second. But as I started my 3rd lap and all the way through the 2nd mile, I had a bad cramp in my side and my right shoulder ached. Nonetheless I pushed forward and miles 3 and 4 were pretty easy. Physically, I felt pretty good, and I wasn't worried about my body not being able to make it. The last mile was pretty difficult because my knee was starting to hurt a lot more and my legs were really wanting to quit. I knew that if I was really going to run an entire marathon though that I would at least have to be able to run a measly 5 miles. So I kept talking and encouraging myself to just keep going, just keep pushing and I am so glad and proud that I made it through the entire 5 miles and WITHOUT MUSIC!!! Now I have even more confidence that I will be able to run 8 miles on Sunday.