12 Miles

Finished my first twelve mile run today. I finished around and hour and 50 minutes, averaging about a 9:10 minute mile pace. The weather was ideal, in the 50's, cloudy, and a light cool breeze. Last week when I ran 10 miles the weather was terrible. It was in like 35 degrees, it rained on me the whole time, and the wind was cold and stung my skin. The only thing good about these crappy runs is that it prepares you for the worst. Sure I hope that I show up on race day to ideal, beautiful weather... but mother nature does whatever the heck it wants to, so you have to be trained and ready to deal with whatever it decides to throw at you. Plus, as much as I hate long runs in crappy weather, I still think they are way better than running on a treadmill. I hate running on treadmills, it takes all of the fun out of running and just turns it into numbers. Plus, you can't naturally allow your body to adjust the pace while you run (I actually tend to run faster outside than indoors anyways.)

Today during my long run, I thought about a lot of things. I thought about the fact that here in a few more months I will be logging 50-60 miles a week, and doing 20 mile long runs training for my first full marathon. I thought about where I started and how far I have come. I'm still kind of amazed. If you would have told me a year ago that I would soon be logging 25 miles a week and doing 12 miles long runs around a 9 minute mile pace, I would have probably looked at you like you were crazy. If you would have then proceeded to tell me that I would be doing it all on a completely plant based diet, I probably would have just laughed and replied with a skeptical "yeah... okay." It's amazing how much we can change if we decide we want to better ourselves.