Guess what I did today?

Today was my usual "run outside" day and I set a goal of running 2.75 miles.  That puts me at running 3 miles on Tuesday and then a trial run at 3.1 on the treadmill before the big day next Sunday.

I went to the park where I usually go and was just thrilled to see that there was a soccer tournament going on... so there were people everywhere.  The trail I wanted to run pretty much circles all the soccer fields, so I would have an audience.  Yay!  =p  Luckily, it doesn't bother me as much as it once did.

I decided to go a total of 4 miles... I usually go farther than just my run, simply because I can.  I walked 1/4 of a mile to warm up, and then started running.  I started using a new app, Runkeeper, instead of CardioTrainer.  I don't have a problem with CardioTrainer, but my sister got me using Achievemint and Runkeeper is one of the apps they track.  (Achievemint is one of those sites where you earn points for different things and when you reach a certain number of points, they send you money.  When and if I get a check, I'll probably talk about it more.  It'll be a while.)  Anyway, Runkeeper has a really cool feature where it will show you your pace minute by minute, instead of just mile splits.  My pace is anything but consistent.  I'd run a 13:00 pace for a while, then drop to 15:00.  It's not really important right now, but interesting to me.

So, as I was starting to get close to the 3 mile mark, which would have been my 2.75 goal, a friend of mine came to mind.  We've been online friends for over 5 years... we've never met in person, but she's one of my dearest friends.  She runs, and there have been a few times that she's sent me a message to tell me that she struggled during a run and I would come to mind and it helped her to push through her run.  Today also happens to be her birthday.  So, before my app told me I had reached 3 miles, I reached a decision...

It was time to pay her back.  She uses me as an inspiration to go farther, so to honor her birthday, I was going to use her as an inspiration to run my first 5k.  I kept running past 3 miles.  All the way to 3.35 (3.1 plus my .25 warmup)!

You guys!  I ran 5k!

And, let me just say this... I'm glad I did it today instead of next week when I'd be around a bunch of people.  Because I cried.  I cried walking back to the van.  I cried on the way home.  It was like an emotional enema.  Lovely imagery, right?

So, now I know for sure that I can run my 5k next week.  And I'm soooo excited.  

I'm going to run 3.1 miles Tuesday and Thursday, and I'm going to dedicate each run to someone, like I did today.  =)

After I got home and got showered, we threw together a picnic lunch and headed out to take a hike.  We ended up on a 2 mile hike... way more than one of us (ahem, Zoe) wanted to go.  She started whining and crying about half a mile in, so it was a looooooong hike.



She's lucky she's so pretty or I would have left her out there.  Not really, but after a while the crying was pretty nerve wracking.



Isabelle was pretty ticked off for most of the hike because she wanted to go climb the mountain.  But Olivia wore flip flops... not good hiking shoes for sure, but definitely not good for climbing the mountain.



Olivia was pretty easy-going, for a change.  Usually she's the loudest protester during our hikes.  I love her upturned nose.  =)

I'm pooped now.  Very active day.  16,000+ steps on the ol' Fitbit today.  I haven't hit a number that high in a while.