Real Pain

Saturday. 

Saturday, saturday, saturday. 

Saturday mornings are long run mornings! 

Yesterday was the first time I did a long run by myself.  I slept in a little bit, woke up at 7 and was out the door around 7:30 with the goal of 6 miles. I detoured through Atlanta and by mile 3 I said I'd do an extra half mile just for kicks. 

Well between my detours and just feeling pretty damn good, I hit 6 miles and was not very close to my apartment.  The longest I've ever run is a 10k, so 6.2 miles.  

Saturday, this past Saturday, I ran 7.14 miles. SEVEN POINT ONE FOUR. Holy balls I almost cried. I almost quit a few times too but I refused. I was in so much pain, I had a side stitch so bad on my left side I was clutching it with my hand, my iPod had died and It was getting steadily warmer outside than when I started, but I finished it. I ran all the way to where I started running. 

I have officially felt new pain. Real pain. Real running pain. Nothing has compared to that pain I felt Saturday morning. But it hurt so good. I have now officially run over 50% of the distance I'm training for, and I'm a week ahead of schedule in my little training schedule for mileage. 

I also averaged 10:24 mins/mile. Faster than I really wanted but it just happened. 

Real pain has never felt so good. Even the next day it still feels good.