5 Miles & a New Watch = A Great Saturday

If there's one thing that makes me die a little bit inside it's hearing my alarm go off at 7:00am on a Saturday morning.  Especially when this is what greets me as I step outside:

But the excitement of using my new running watch for the first time almost made me forget that I wanted to go back to bed.  I've had my eye on a Garmin running watch for a couple months but couldn't justify the outrageous prices for such an ugly piece of equipment (no pink watches? forget it).

On Thursday the coaches recommended we look into a running/GPS watch, although they aren't required (nice sales pitch opportunity, Fleet Feet).  So, naturally I used this as my excuse to go out and buy one :)  I went to Best Buy because I had a gift card (be proud of me Mom).  They had ONE in stock AND it was the one I've had on my Amazon Wish List for months.  Meant to be?  I think so.  They were able to price match the price on Amazon (which saved me $50+)!  Clearly, I had all the justification I needed to buy it:

Hello New Best Friend :)

Needless to say, I was pretty excited to use it this morning on my first long run.  The run was great -- after the fact.  The first 3 miles were good and I ended up running with the 12 minute pace group for these miles...then we entered the final two miles of my worst nightmare: Trail running.  Ok, so we weren't REALLY trail running, but an uneven, snow covered canal is pretty close if you ask me.

Two Miles of Doom

My pace slowed WAY down the last two miles and by the last mile I was run/jogging -- pretty much just shuffling my feet and trying to remind myself why the heck I enjoy running.  I ended up falling back in with my original pace group and finally finished after an hour and ten minutes.

Sloooowly but surely, DONE!

It's funny how mental those tough miles can be... My brain kept telling me to just stop and walk as I was borderline hating life during that moment in time.  But the feeling afterwards, once you run through it and finish... Amazing.  Ask me at mile 4.5 how my run went and I'd punch you in the face.  Ask me afterwards and I'll say it was the best run ever (probably a slight exaggeration).

Tomorrow's schedule is a 3 mile easy run.  If there's any dusting of snow on the ground I'm takin it to the treadmill.  I'd like to keep the pseudo-trail runs as non-existent as possible please.