First Long Run Done...

...Or How Amanda Really is Doing This Whole Half-Marathon Thing.

It really happened...I woke up at 5:15am to meet a group of runners at 6:00am to go run 4 miles. Am I crazy? Yes. Am I determined to run this half-marathon? Yes.

I was a little nervous when I got there. Everyone was DEFINITELY a runner, and I, clearly, am not. They were all talking about 11:00 min/mile pace, 10:00 min/mile pace, NINE MINUTE MILE PACE?!...not me. I was just hoping someone would be run/walking because that is where I am at right now. Luckily, there was some girl there and she said she was doing it, but she was going four miles. Not the original 3, I had planned on. But whatever, I figured, at least I would have someone beside me who wouldn't let me quit. We started out pretty well, in fact, I even got ahead of her sometimes. My stride was quite larger than hers. We started on Texas Avenue, ran down to University,  turned onto Tarrow/Lincoln and back on to University. What I DIDN'T realize was how freaky hilly University Drive is...you know what sucks more than being at the bottom of a hill? Having run two and half miles already and knowing you've got to go up it! I realized my hill endurance is not where it needs to be. But I've got 15 weeks to work on it! I was slightly bummed on Saturday because my GPS was telling me that we ran FIVE miles and my pace was 11-12 minutes and I was super pumped. However, I realized that my GPS was totally wrong. The route was right, but it calculated the mileage wrong somehow. BUT I've got four miles under my belt and here we go...I'm really doing this half-marathon thing. I've got two friends who are doing it with me so I've got the support system in place, now I've just got to get up and run. :)