This morning brought me another up before the sun run with the local running group. 5 am comes a lot quicker than I would like but I still managed to get up and ready. I opted for my favorite running skirt and actually matched, for once! I grabbed an apple pie english muffin and fixed my water to take with me before heading out. I love running in our downtown area early in the morning. It’s so quiet. It feels like the whole town is still asleep. Probably because it IS. 

  
We got through our first mile without stopping at all. The weather was beautiful and the conversation was great. We both struggled some toward the end but we did end up finishing strong. We ended up with 5 miles at 12:50 min/mile. We kept a pretty good pace for our long run, actually. We would have been even faster but somewhere between mile 3 and 4 we dropped our pace a little too much. I was very happy with it though! My stomach wasn’t too happy afterward. I had some pretty rough issues with it but it’s much better now. 

It’s so funny how much has changed since I began my journey. I thought a little about this on the run. I remember a time when I couldn’t get to a 12:50 pace withut feeling like I was going to die. I pushed through each time but it was hard to enjoy because it felt so brutal. We were hitting a range of paces from 11-13 minute paces. Granted, it was mostly somewhere in the 12s but I did see some 11 during the run. When I got home and checked out what beauties my timehop app had in store for me today I found out it was exactly one year since my most awful fall. The fall that made me officially have to wear two knee braces and forced me to step down from my first half marathon. I remember sitting in the recliner at home that day crying my eyes out. I didn’t think I would ever get to finish a half marathon. I thought my running would be over too. I was out of commission, running-wise, for several weeks and was miserable every minute of that time. When I went back to running, I was slower and I had some slight PTSD type symptoms. It was a REALLY bad fall and scared me to death. A year later, I’m sitting in this same recliner writing about the great 5 mile run I had with my friend I didn’t even know a year ago. I’ve since completed 2 half marathons as well as some 10ks and 5ks. AND I’m signed up for a challenge at Disney World. If you had told me a year ago that I would be here, I would have thought you were crazy. I’m so glad I didn’t quit and my cranky knees are actually getting stronger. 

We went to see my father in-law afterward and found out he had been moved into his own room. No more ICU!! So we headed back home and started some home repairs. Okay, hubs did the repairs and I tanned but it got done!