Three Mile Run

I’ve taken a few days off from my blog because my life was getting a bit overwhelming. Then, my best laid plans to post last night fell through, and this morning, and…well, let’s just say nothing has quite gone the way I planned today!!  So here’s the first of my “catch-up” posts.

Saturday morning I was scheduled to do a 3-mile run…my first since the 5k I did on Mother’s Day.  I had planned to get up early but I overslept, and then, to top it off, I could see rain on the horizon.  Ugh!  I debated whether to go right then or wait until the line of storms passed through, but eventually I decided it was better to get it done earlier.  I did end up changing my course, though, because the one I’d originally planned was farther from my house and I knew I had to hurry.

I started out pretty well, but I had purposefully set my “virtual partner” to go at an 11 minute mile because I didn’t want to go too fast and tire myself out.  I really enjoyed the route…it was on the water, and there were lots of neat little surprises along the twists and turns.

Those were some geese and their little baby goslings.  The mama geese was not too happy to see me, lol!

I also saw a really neat bridge along the route, too.

There were several people fishing there when I came by.

Once again, I got all confused on the course (you’d think I have no sense of direction, but I do!!).  I ended up going the wrong way twice, but at least I had a general idea of which way to go.  As I got to about the 1.6 mile mark, it started sprinkling on me.  I wasn’t too worried, but the darker clouds were beginning to scare me. At that point, I was actually feeling really good, so I sped up a bit in order to try to beat the rain.  By the time I got back to my starting point, it was raining a bit harder, but, thanks to my wrong turns, I still had another tenth of a mile to go.  I hustled like crazy, past my car and back around.  Finally, I was at 3.0 miles!!  I was so excited–I was tired but I felt so good.

By the time I got there, it was pouring, and I was going to just jump into my car, but then I figured I might as well take a picture in the downpour, lol!

Later, after grocery shopping, I went back and took a better shot.

As it turned out, another storm came by the second time around, and once again, I got poured on.  I did, however, get some cool photos of the sky.

I felt really good after the run, with lots of energy.  Here are my splits and timing:

I hate that I seem to have issues with my starting pace–what’s up with the 40-minute mile?!  At any rate, I was excited about my overall pace–under 11 minutes!  Considering I went into it with a planned pace of 11 or more, I was quite happy.  And I couldn’t believe how good I felt afterwards!  I went grocery shopping and even cleaned the house! I bought myself a special bottle of wine to celebrate, but my neighbor invited me over and instead I had a fruity adult beverage (all tracked, of course!).

So that was Saturday’s run. I really had planned on writing about today’s run (which was a totally different animal than Saturday’s run), but as it turns out, I have been sick all day with some sort of stomach bug. 🙁  I am having a hard time focusing on anything right now, so I will have to save that post for another day…maybe tomorrow if I’m feeling better.  I really want to share my two new goals here on my blog, but I need more enthusiasm to write about them.

Meanwhile, this was a picture I had planned to share last night, and then this morning, but things didn’t work out.  However, it’s technically Memorial Day, so I wanted to share this:

This is not just any flag to symbolize Memorial Day. It is the flag displayed at the grave of a soldier who died in the Vietnam war, just 8 days after his 21st birthday, only 5 weeks before I was born. I took time on Sunday to go to my local cemetery and walk around the whole thing, reading every gravestone that had a flag displayed on it.  Some of those soldiers, blessedly, lived long, healthy lives after their service.  Some, like the one shown above, did not.

Today, we should all remember that freedom is never free. Honor those who have fallen, and honor the families they have left behind…or the families they never had a chance to start.