A little less slow

So, I had a really, like, incredibly amazing run today. Seriously. Let me set this up, to be remembered for the ages. I was in a crappy mood when I woke up and realized that I had slept in AGAIN despite having gone to bed reasonably early last night, which meant that I wouldn't have a lot of time to get ready for running and that AGAIN I probably wouldn't get homework done, blah. But I put on my running clothes, which I laid out last night in anticipation of this very internal conflict. Did I mention my running partner is out of town for the weekend?

Anyway, so I moped around and started convincing myself not to go, because I had a lunch date at 1:30 and it was already getting close to 11:30, when my plan had been to run at 11. But I wasn't going to change out of those clothes, so I made up my mind to do 4 miles - same as last week, a short one, but at least I was going to get out there. When I got outside I thought about turning back because it was raining and I was a little worried that either I would freeze or that I'd slip and fall and not have the old running partner to call an ambulance to haul me away. But it wasn't raining that hard, and it wasn't that cold, and thankfully it stayed that way.

I made it to my starting point in the park at 12:12 pm, started running. I said to myself, if I keep up a 12 min/mile pace, I will be back here at 12:50 and make it home in time to shower before my date. Well, clearly I am no mathematical genius, since that is actually 38 mins, not 48. So when I had about 3/4 of a mile to go, I got kind of bummed out to realize that I wasn't quite going to make it. I only had like 3 mins left and I'm obviously not running 3/4 of a mile in 3 mins. I started to feel sad about how I would never beat my road race time from December when I had a chest cold and hadn't run over a mile in like 4 months.

But oh, hallelujah. In fact I had been running for 10 mins less than I thought. So I picked up the pace a bit, and I got this huge retarded grin on my face. A good song came on my ipod shuffle. I kept going. And then just before I was going to round the corner for the last short leg, the Dropkick Murphys song "Tessie" came on. This is the best kind of runners high there is - on track for a new personal best, feeling on top of the damn world, and then a big time Boston pride song comes on for the very end of my amazing run. You better believe I sprinted that mofo, probably a little less than a quarter mile. With a huge-ass grin, that evoked some smiles and laughs from a few tourists who were walking around the park.

43 mins for 4 miles. It's still damn slow, but it's 2:30 faster than my December race time, and that was with a huge crowd encouraging me along. I cannot wait to go run another 4 mile race and see how much faster I can go. It made me realize that for all that it helps me, it's possible that running with a partner may be slowing me down. I think we both could be going faster but it's scary to try and push it sometimes. With music on, you don't really feel it as much, but without music, and with trying to have a conversation during a 4-6 mile run, often you feel every twinge. But with this one under my belt, maybe next week I'll be ready to push us to pick up the pace.