frost on my eyelashes. ice in my water.

This past Saturday was my best run yet. And I really needed a good run. I'd been feeling overall discouraged with my progress, only fueled by a complete lack of motivation, again fueled by my feeling discouraged. It's like debating if the chicken or the egg came first. I even tried to bail when my alarm starting crying at 7 a.m. on Saturday morning. I was just thinking of how bad I'd feel if I couldn't complete my run, and there I was on the Monon with everyone to witness. Brett literally poked me until I got up.

Even before we got out on the Monon, I was glad I'd gotten my bum out of bed. Our running coach at The Running Company chats for a couple minutes before we get started, and it's like he was in my brain when he said this is about the point it starts getting hard because the novelty and adrenaline of signing up is wearing off.

Umm. Yes.

But then another Mini-Marathon veteran pointed out how much progress we really have made by the 4 mile mark. From our downtown starting point, the race path weaves it's way west and we'll make a loop around the 2.5 mile famed oval at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. By 4 miles we'll be making a turn from (or to?) Holt Rd and we'll almost be to track. That's pretty darn close to the half way point because after that loop you're definitely on the homebound path!

Saturday's goal was 40 minutes or 4 miles, depending on your pace. And it was a whole 11 degrees on Saturday morning, making the muscles a bit resistant to warm up! Roughly into the first mile I set my eyes on a couple gals just ahead of me and made a goal to keep them in my line of vision. Having a moving target was awesome, and just like that I was to the half way point and on my way back.

Then I saw the wildest thing. About mid-way through the -back portion of my run, I passed a gal running in the opposite direction and it looked like she was wearing thick white mascara/false eyelashes. I thought that to be an odd for a Saturday morning run. (It was early. And cold. And I'm clearly a novice in the running world.) But that made me notice my own eyelashes, and that could actually see them through my line of vision. I started noticing more and more of my fellow runners with white eyelashes, and white hair, and white shimmers on the shoulders of their running fleece. I couldn't believe it, our own sweat was freezing on our bodies. Even my water I was carrying had started to turn to ice! Oddly enough, that was the motivation I needed to turn my spirits around.



I ran the full time and covered a distance of 3.6 miles. (I use MapMyRun to plot each of my outdoor runs.) If I had a fancy schmany iPhone there's an app for that and it will calculate as you run. I'm sure there's an app for my Droid too, but I run with my iPod rather my phone. That puts me in the neighorhood of an 11 minute pace. I'm happy there.

Now if this snow would just let up a bit...