Eight miles!

I ran eight miles. Holy moly. I RAN EIGHT MILES. WITHOUT STOPPING. I am currently lying in bed unable to move. My left knee is hurting, my hips hurt, my feet hurt and I have never felt more proud of myself.

It was in the upper forties today so after a really nice afternoon with my bff, I laced up my sneakers, bundled up in my new running shirt from my aunt and headed out. The reason I like running on the track (aside from it not being the treadmill) is that it's flat. I was worried about the distance - I knew it would be super tough and I wanted to make sure there weren't any hills. There's a stretch of road near my apartment that's fairly flat for the first mile so I went out and back four times. It got a little monotonous after the first hour but it was so nice to be running outside and so much better than running 104 laps on the indoor track. I'm actually surprised by how well the run went. I looked at my splits and couldn't believe my time. That's the average pace that I run on shorter runs, three miles and five miles. I cannot believe I was able to keep that pace steady for eight miles. My brother-in-law commented that my training is paying off and I really felt it today. I'm so proud of myself. Of course I wish I ran faster, I feel a little self-conscious about that, but I ran eight miles without stopping once and just four months ago I was struggling to run two miles. So I'm incredibly proud.

Here's a picture of me after: