The Good and the Bad

Well, I had my official training run today with the Steel City Runners Club.

I wouldn't call it a successful run but I wouldn't call it a failure either.

The Good News: I had my fastest five-mile time. It was a small group of runners today because of the race at North Park that I had originally intended to run but registration was full. We were divided into groups by the mileage we had signed up to run. I registered to run seven. No one else had though; they were either running smaller or higher mileages. Two other runners offered to run their four-mile loop first with me and then run their five-mile loop while I ran a three-mile loop. It ended up that five of decided to run five miles together and figure out afterwards what loops to do next. I'm not going to lie. It wasn't easy but I pounded out five miles and recorded my best time.

The Bad New: I was so exhausted from the five-mile loop with my new running friends that I couldn't do two more miles. The rest of the group didn't continue either. I attribute my inability to run further to be a combination of my faster pace this morning and the fact that I probably should not have run six miles and lifted yesterday. I was so sore. Needless to say, I was pretty discouraged and mad at myself for not getting the seven miles in. Later at lunch with my boyfriend, he reminded me that I had only wanted to run five miles today and I only ended up with seven miles because I clicked too fast during the online registration. That made me feel a little better.

It was a good experience. It was nice not running by myself or at least talking with other runners. I guess slowly I am becoming an official runner. I love when you pass other runners multiple times on a run and you give them a wave or a smile. And I must be crazy but I joined the Steel City Runners Club today. I'm running again with them in two weeks and maybe once before that.

For now, I'm just going to try to stay motivated and not get to down on myself because of my pace. I just want to finish my first half-marathon!