Am I becoming a runner?

The past few days have been pretty exciting! It was a beautiful weekend in St. Louis, and I got to spend a lot of it outside. On Saturday Matt and I hung out in the city all day to celebrate St. Patrick's Day. We munched on awesome Mexican (festive, I know) and had one, two or maybe three too many cocktails, and just spent the day enjoying the weather walking around and hanging out outside most of the day.

However, our weekend started with a nice five-mile St. Patrick's Day run. Well, run/walk. Matt and I had talked a little about getting into running together, but this was our official debut as runners, and I was very nervous. I've done a few 5Ks, and I've done okay. There were lots of walking breaks, but I always finished. So I agreed to doing this one. I've been working out pretty regularly since January after all. Then we found out it was five miles, not a simple 3.1. And the nerves followed right away. I really didn't feel like I was in that good of shape yet, and I didn't think I would have the attention span to run that long. I was wrong.

The race went great! I ran the first three quarters of a mile, which might have been a new personal best. I really am a true beginner! At a little over a mile, I started having some tummy trouble and we had to take a bathroom break. I felt a lot better after that, so after Matt had a beer mid-race, we were back to pounding the pavement. We finished in a little over an hour and ran way more than half of the race. The high I felt as I crossed the finish was so worth the nerves and the stomach ache. I suddenly had so much confidence in my abilities and I could tell that my hard work was paying off, even if I haven't seen much evidence on the scale. And I got to enjoy an ice cold beer after. What could be better than that?!

When I say hard work, I mean it. Breakfast smoothies have become a way of life for me. It's a long way from breakfast sandwiches on the way to work.

Then, today, Matt and I decided that we are going to run a half marathon this October. I really did gain a lot of confidence this past weekend! I was so so motivated all afternoon and started doing research on training. I couldn't wait to get home, change and hit the Katy Trail for a three-mile run/walk. I expected to run maybe half the route, and hoped that maybe, just maybe I would run a full mile without stopping. At 3/4 a mile, I was feeling awesome and started to smile as Fleetwood Mac came on Pandora and I knew I was going to run a full mile. Not only did I run a mile, but I ran a whole quarter mile past that and only needed to walk the next tenth a mile before I was off again. I ended up running 2.8 of my three-mile run. I'm so sore and tired, but so so so proud of myself and feeling more confident than ever about the fact that I might actually run a half marathon in the foreseeable future.

I had to share my accomplishment with my Instagram friends, obviously.

I just can't believe I ran a full mile for the first time ever. This might seem minor to most, but my god it's an accomplishment for me!