Third time is the charm for South Border Road – yay!

After last night’s mini-meltdown, and all of the positive support I received today, from those of you that read me, and my colleagues at work, I decided tonight was the night I would be able to run my route on South Border Road, with all of its hills included, without stopping. I wasn’t going to let it beat me. For those of you who haven’t followed my blog during my first two attempts, click here for the first debacle, and here for the second. I decided I was not going to wear the Garmin which tells me my pace and I was not going to wear the heart monitor to see if I was pushing it hard enough, or too hard. I was just going to go out there, and run, to see how it felt and so I could finish. I purposely did not let myself look at my watch once I started. How’s that for trying to get rid of the Type A personality, huh?! (Ok, I admit, I do know the exact time that I started including minutes and seconds, but let’s just forget about that.)

Want to know the really good news? I DID IT! And then some! I actually ran .4 miles further, so tonight’s run was 4.5 miles, in 45 minutes. The first 4.1 or so was a bit slower than before (when I’d had to stop and walk), so here’s the thing, tonight’s pace is going to be the new benchmark by which my runs on South Border Road will be measured. If I had to walk before, then that tells me I was probably running too fast to begin with. I can eventually get that time down, after all, I do have 6 months until the marathon. Before long, that 4.1 or 4.5 miles are going to start to seem like child’s play, right?

Why tonight? A few reasons. (1) Robert’s story about his friend with MS. (2) The support of people around me, and those of you who have written to me to pick me up when I start to falter. (3) Any doubts I might have had about whether or not I can do this were pretty much obliterated when I saw a colleague’s face when she told me that her dad had died from Acute Myeloid Leukemia (or AML for short.) In her words, the chemo treatments were “not pretty.” Thinking about that while running was starting to make me angry. I think that is the only time when angry energy can actually be used for good – it can give you a good burst of energy.

So, I’m going to close this post with a (cheesey as all hell, I know) a clip of the “Eye of the Tiger” speech from the Rocky 3 movie. The first I’m showing, even though it’s quite short, because well, it’s Apollo Creed, and who doesn’t love Apollo?

The other video is from Rocky IV, and it’s the famous training montage. (Remember how ridiculous it was when he pulled the sled?) I wanted to put in the montage from the Rocky 3 movie that I found on Youtube, which also included some shots of Apollo and the old guy who was Rocky’s coach, but they disabled the emedding.

Can you tell I’ve been subjected to these movies by my husband in the past? (This is the part where I roll my eyes, say “Lord, give me strength…” and laugh.)

If they don’t inspire you, then I hope that they give you a good laugh anyway.