Who Am I?

Well, hockey tournament number one is in the books, and I’m still trying to catch up on my life. We had so much going on last weekend, and with all the hockey games against teams that included former teammates, there was a bit of stress as well. Jamie’s team won one, tied one and then lost two, but they played well and I wasn’t unhappy. I missed JJ’s game because I was at Jamie’s early-morning game on Saturday, but his team did great, too, winning 8-4. JJ even got a penalty, my little ruffian. 😉

Jamie’s game on Friday night was a 7-3 win, and we are all feeling pretty good. 🙂  We went home and had dinner, and then I went straight to bed, because Jamie had an 8 AM hockey game more than 30 minutes from our house, and we had to be there by seven. But on top of that, I still wanted to run 7 miles, and in order for me to do that and be able to grocery shop in the afternoon before another hockey game, that meant I had to run before we left. So I got up at 4:30 and was on the road running, in the dark, by 4:54 AM. I ran 7 miles total (3 1/2 miles down and back), and I actually got home before the sun came up. That means I was back home before 6:15 AM!

As I was on the way back, I watched as the sun began to come up, and I marveled at how beautiful it was.

While I was running down the road and watching the sunrise, I had this sudden moment of disbelief, realizing that I really had gotten up at 4:30am to run before the sun was anywhere close to being up. And then, all I could think to myself was, “Who am I?” I just simply couldn’t reconcile this person who was out running on the road in the dark before the sun rose with the person that I used to be. I cannot stress enough that I was a really lazy person just a few short years ago. The thought of getting up early for anything was unpleasant, but the thought of getting up early to exercise? Impossible!  And yet, there I was, running on the road at 5 o’clock in the morning. 😛

I was listening to a podcast as I ran, and the interviewer asked the person what she thought her life would be like if she hadn’t lost the weight. I can honestly say I’ve never thought about that personally, because I just can’t imagine having not done it. I still can’t imagine it, and I guess that’s what shocks me the most: the fact that I can’t picture myself or my life any other way now. 🙂

Okay, enough melancholy and introspection. 😉 My run was good, even though I had to stop halfway and take off my jacket and rearrange my iPhone. I simply could not do that and keep running, but I still managed a good pace overall.

Well below my sub-10:30 goal!

On Mother’s Day, we had another 8am hockey game, and that was fun.  😛  Actually, the game was pretty awful, but I was surprised to find when Jamie was done with the game, that the coach had arranged for a nice little something for the mothers.

I know it’s not much, but I thought the carnation was very sweet. 🙂 All my boys made sure that I was taken care of on Mother’s Day as well.

You wouldn’t know that I’m a dark choco-holic, would you? The above gifts may or may not have contributed to my 2 pound weight gain this week. 😛

After Jamie’s game on Sunday, I asked him if he still wanted to keep up with his training for the Kona 10K next month by running a mile. He was up for it, and even wanted to do it fast, so we headed out on the road…and then he immediately had to stop and tie his shoe. :/ But still, despite the stop, he had a great pace! He really pushed it toward the end, and came out at 9:28 overall, which is a great pace for him!

As for me, I ran five miles Monday morning (to help work off the chocolate). My intent was to run it at a sub-9:50, but the lack of wind and moderate temp (compared to this past winter!) helped me not only nail it, but kill it, with an overall pace of 9:38!!  I felt really accomplished when I was done.

Yes, I was so hot by the time I was done, I took off my shirt. 😉  And yet, the next morning was even MORE warm and humid…

That’s almost 35 degrees warmer than last Tuesday! I started out hoping for a sub-9:30, but I was really feeling the humidity and the tiredness from over the weekend, and I couldn’t quite get there for the first mile. I got into my groove a little bit more during the second mile, and then for the last mile, I only looked at my watch once, at the half-mile point.  I saw that I was at a 9:11, and I decided to just go, and not worry about my time to see how well I could do just by feel. When I was done, I had to immediately run into the house to get ready for work, but I made sure to check my time after the Garmin uploaded.

Woo hoo! Finally got that sub-nine mile that I’ve been looking for. It’s amazing what you can do when you don’t let your mind trick you. 🙂

We have one more weekend full of hockey, starting bright and early tomorrow morning (65 miles from our house!) with a tournament for Jamie, as well as two games for JJ, and then we’re done. Baseball will still be going on, but I’m looking forward to not schlepping my kids from rink to rink, at least. Hopefully summer will get here soon and I’ll be able to sit by the pool and read a book! 😉

I’ll report back next week, after the tournament, let you know how things are going. Hopefully I’ll be a lose this 2 pounds I gained. :p Ah, well, it was damn good chocolate. 😉