My first 5K

I had been feeling under the weather, not sure if it was allergies, & worried I would be out of breath the whole time. Distance running has never been my thing because it's hard for me to focus my mind on positive thoughts. "Man I wish I could stop" is what my brain likes to chant anytime I run longer than 6 minutes. While I know 3 miles is not that long of a distance, especially for the fitness level I have reached, I still worried about my ability to get through it. My friend Erika gave me a great goal to work with: no negative thoughts while running. Don't worry about speed, don't worry about finishing, just focus on having NO NEGATIVE THOUGHTS. And guess what, it worked!

I had the pleasure and honor of running with my sister-in-law. We don't get to see each other nearly as much as we wish we could so the excitement of being with her made it impossible to have negative thoughts. We got so caught up in chatting with each other during the race, that I hardly even realized I was running. We decided to take a nice even pace. We ended up doing a steady 11 minute mile and finishing at 33 minutes. This is actually a slower pace than we are both capable of and afterward wondered what our time would have been if we really pushed it. But the truth is, even though I wish I could brag about a faster time, this experience has equipped me with some nuggets of knowledge that really make me excited:

1) I am much better at running that I think I am. During the race I knew when I was running slower than I could & I know that I could have kept running for a lot longer. I felt strong and I faced how much endurance I really have. The fact that I was able to jabber away the whole three miles means I don't huff and puff as much I think I do.

2) 3 miles is not a scary distance. That is simply in my mind. I'm used to the Crossfit way of running 400m and 800m & really blew up how long 3 miles was going to feel in my mind. It is actually quite short and I look forward to running 3 miles when I get home and really going for it. How fast can I really run it?

3) It's all in your head. My brother and I have a joke that throughout life you are simply learning things over and over again that you already know. Well I was just reminded of the power of our minds, once again. Thinking positively and feeling joy throughout this run made it painless. I had attempted 3 miles run many times throughout this last year. Sometimes I finished but felt like my brain drove me nuts during the whole thing and felt like I would never do it again. Other times I just stopped and walked. But I just let my mind rule. If I let my healthy, fit, and very capable body rule and make sure my brain is being nice to me, I actually really like running. Who knew?

So while I can't wait to run another one and report a much faster time, I feel so happy that I've had these discoveries about what I'm capable of. Phew. It feels like a relief to not be afraid of running. And I already have a date with my sister-in-law at the next Midnight Margarita Run in Austin. Can't wait! Plus how can you be in a bad mood when your little nephew gets excited to run with you? You simple can't. Life is good.