Unknown Thank You

Just when I felt like stopping and walking around mile 8 of my 11 mile run today I passed a fellow athlete headed in the other direction. She gave me a smile and said, "You go, girl!" Well, you can't stop after that, so onward I plodded for the next 3 miles with those words in the back of my head pushing me on. I don't know who the woman was, but I am so thankful to her for those words. Today was definitely the slowest long run that I've recorded, but without the encouragement from that stranger it would have been much worse. Thank you for the inspiration!

Physiology

Last Saturday I completed that longest training run of my life: 10 miles. And thanks to Abby, I did it "fast" too! We came in right at 1:40 at a 10 minute mile pace.
The body is a funny thing. It likes to be pushed and yet pushes back. It's like a rebellious teenager that wants to do whatever it wants and thinks (perhaps knows?) that it can. And the mind is even more funny. I ran for the first time today (Thursday) since that 10-miler. Partly due to the craziness of wrapping up trimester number 2, but also because my mind just didn't want to do any more. It told me: "Yup, that's enough. We're good." And yet my mind is excited and crazy with anticipation for the 11 miles that are coming up this weekend, and the 12 miles the weekend after that as a post-finals week celebration! Why? How can I be so resistant, scared, and timid but feel strong and like I can conquer this thing at any moment...sometimes even the same moment? Yes, we humans are funny. Testing the limits of body and mind simultaneously. And to think I'm planning for race number 2 without the full experience of the first :) Funny.