Confessions of a newbie runner

Salut babes! I hope you all enjoyed every last ounce of weekend-ness, and that maybe you are able to coast on through this Monday on leftover weekend-gloriousness-fumes! I am actually not sure that sentence even made sense in the slightest, but you know what? I am starting to think that half the sentences that appear on this little diddy don't make sense. So I guess it is safe to assume that if you are still here, putting up with me, you have developed some sort of Laura crazy-rambles tolerance. Mad props to you if you have achieved that feat. My family and friends would probably love lessons if you are up for it.

Well, my weekend was a blast but it made me feel so old!! I road tripped down to my alma mater, with roommate and another good friend, so we could celebrate a 21st birthday. That alone made me feel old. But the next day when I felt like a train had hit me the night before, until about 3 pm in the afternoon, and I saw all my college friends bouncing around seemingly fine, I felt about 108. Needless to say I was asleep Saturday night by like midnight, and wished it had been earlier. Like I said, old. I have to say, I was pretty proud of myself the next morning though, because I did 3 of my least favorite things: I set an alarm on the weekend, I woke up early while on vacation and I went for a morning run. All three are things I dislike individually, but when combined you get a really cranky Laura.

Roommate and I are at the tail end of training for the DC Hot Chocolate 15k, and we had our last big run before the race this weekend: 8 miles. But roommate and I both agreed we wanted to push for 9 if we could. Honestly, the farthest I had gone at this point was 6.5 miles, but for some reason I didn't think 9 would be that different. I had been able to do 6.5 several times with little to no pain or sturggle. And true to form, I felt pretty good until around mile 5. Getting to six was a slight struggle but nothing unbearable, and we decided to use our Gu at mile 6. It was my first Gu experience, and it wasn't as bad as I expected. The taste was actually decent, and the consistency wasn't as strange as I expected. The Gu made mile 6 fly by, and 7 was fairly decent. Then all of the sudden at mile 8, from my hips down felt like lead attachments, and I wasn't sure I could keep my legs moving. And let me just say, I know that 9 miles is a breeze for real runners. Which is exactly why I still don't call myself a runner. I am still learning and certain things are more of a struggle for me than I expect. 9 miles was definitely one of them. I felt awful, and if roommate hadn't been there encouraging me to keep running, I probably would have quit and walked the finish. So big thanks to roommate for motivating me to go until we hit that 9! I am proud of us for not walking, and I know we are going to rock the 15k in 2 weeks!! I may be really sore today, and hobbling around the office but that feeling of accomplishment right after you run farther than you ever have is unbeatable!

I actually don't even have photos for you today. And there is definitely no fashion going on up in here, so I don't really know what to tell you. Hopefully my little "running is still hard rant" will suffice for today, and I know I will have plenty of fun photos for you later this week as family and friends start to arrive for Turkey Day!! Until then, stay fashionable loves.

Bisous!