A cool thing

A cool thing happened to me this morning.  I went to the Y to do a quick treadmill run (I've been doing those lately because I just can't take the pollen outside).  I ran 3 miles in 32:21, doing quarter-mile intervals at different speeds.  I've been trying to focus on getting faster lately - adding in interval runs and doing a lot more strength training.  Anyway, I was pushing hard and felt pretty good during my run.  I walked for about two tenths of a mile but the rest of the time I was running.

As I was walking out of the fitness center and heading to the nursery to pick up Mer, a guy who I'd seen working out while I was running stopped and asked me how far I ran.  He then asked if I just run "tons and tons of miles" and I told him I used to do fairly long runs while I was training for half marathons, but that now I'm just doing about 3 miles at a time.  He told me he was trying to get into running but he suffered from boredom and shin splints, and told me he was impressed with me and how I was "just chugging along" on the treadmill.

This made me smile so big on the inside (I smiled a normal amount on the outside so as not to look like a weirdo) because I remember when I was that person who was blown away by people who were able to run consistently.  Even 10 straight minutes of running seemed like a ridiculously long time back then!  Honestly, I couldn't really believe it - someone was watching me run with jealousy?  Crazy.

Little reminders like that of how far I've come keep me motivated.  I went from a total non-runner to running a half marathon, then got pregnant and didn't run for almost a whole year, and now I'm back to being a runner again with two more half marathons under my belt.  Other motivation to get faster - my dad has started running and sends me his 10K times fairly frequently (he runs 10K almost every day) and he's faster than me!  I know he reads this blog sometimes.  Dad, I'm coming for you.