A New Lunch Break...

Last night this whole marathon thing started to become even more "real" to me. As I walked into the Garden prior to the Mumford and Sons concert (which was awesome as a side note), and worked my way into the Bruins Foundation Offices, there sat an envelope with my name on it: my official entry form into the B.A.A. Marathon.

I didn't waste anytime getting this filled out, but I can't lie stating I wasn't a little shaky filling it out. 26.2 miles... 26.2.  That's all that keeps going through my head through each of my workouts. 

When I woke up this morning bright (well maybe not so bright) and early (definitely early) I looked out my window to see that it was still snowing and not very bright out. I knew at work that nothing was going to be extremely pressing (or at least I was hoping) and originally decided when I left my apartment that I would force myself to run right after work downtown. As the day progressed, and I saw the sun outside, I couldn't help but make the decision to go for the 6 mile run during my lunch hour (talk about motivation to make sure you finish within an hour or so!).

[side note, I know I said 5 miles yesterday was today's distance but when I re-read my running schedule, I was a week off, and actually needed to be running 6 miles today]

The weather was perfect. The sun was shining, there was a slight breeze, but one that felt refreshing and not an added barrier to the mileage, and there were plenty of other people out there running as well. I decided to run down along the Charles and I will most definitely be doing that again soon. 

Today as I was running, my mind was doing it's usual laps around everything going on in my life, but I decided to actually focus on 'how' I was running around mile 2. I worked on making sure my stride was straight and not my typical waddle (haha) and also started to take notice on how I was pumping my arms and took caution not to cross them across my body but to "pick my pockets" as track had taught me so long ago. I've noticed as I add more miles I tend to start crossing my arms as I run, so I'm learning that will be something I'll need to work out to make sure I'm getting the most out of every stride and pump of my arms that I take. 

Overall today's run went pretty well. I learned that I run faster when there are people around me (I blame my competitiveness), which I'll have to make sure I don't push myself too hard at the beginning of the race due to so many people around and then die at the end of the race; and I also learned that Berkeley students might be the most obnoxious people on the sidewalks ever. [If you go to Berkeley, I'm sorry I'm not sorry]. Seriously kids... MOVE when you see not only someone running, but even other people who were just walking! They just stand outside their buildings, smoking their cigarettes, clueless to the world around them. But, for now I'll just look at it as practice at dodging other people during the race.

The 6 miles were done in about 1 hour 2 mins, which I'll take considering it's about 5 minutes faster than my 6 miles last Saturday (again not necessarily going for speed as much as endurance and being able to finish this race). The upcoming snowstorm I'm afraid is going to hinder my long run on Saturday, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed it's not as bad as they're making it out to be. 

And my day wouldn't be complete without a typical comment from my best friend... Thanks Shana :)

Tomorrow's Distance: 4 miles

And also a visit to my Bentley field hockey girls to check in on their off-season workouts!

[pray for no snow this weekend!]