I'm ridin' solo! P.R.

I spent most of the day yesterday looking for a running partner to run 5 miles with. The pressure of not running hardly any last week, and the snow coming in 24 hours to cover our grounds again, was building. I text most of my running friends, but as it turned out with my schedule and theirs, it just didn't work out.

If you've been following any of my training, EVER, you know that running solo  has always been one of my mental blocks!

I was so desperate to get a run in OUTSIDE, that I decided to just get out there and do it! I found a semi clear spot. Turned on my audio book (which I HIGHLY recommend!). I decided that since I was on riverside, it'd be easy to map out my run for an accurate account of my miles. So I started my stop watch on my watch, and took off. I had planned to run to a familiar water fountain that I knew from previous runs was 4.6 miles to be exact.  That was until.........

----- I'm running up to an intersection where a truck is blocking the crosswalk for me to pass, so I just began to slow down to come to a stop. He makes eye contact with me , waves, and backs up. What he didn't realize, was a car had pulled up so close to him, that her front fender was already so close to his bumper. It all happened so fast, that I just kept going. I felt a little twinge of guilt for not stopping. But I don't think I have any obligations (legally) to stop. I hear the lady yelling out of her window-- remember I never came to a full stop- and the yelling got louder. I can hear her through my earphones, but can't make out the words. And the words get louder at a full on screaming of " GET YOUR &^# BACK" and maybe a few more select words. At this point, I feel SCARED to turn around, but I see my turn around point. So I sped up and ran another half mile away from my car. Coming to a more secluded part of the trail, OUT of the sight of the angered women!  I finally decided I needed to turn around and head back to my car, I knew that I was approaching about 3 miles out. I needed to get my daughter soon. So I turn around cautiously looking for the angry cigarette women. I see her pulling out, so I keep a steady pace a bit faster than comfortable.

I decided once clear,  to Slow it down a little until the last half mile of my run. I then took off running as hard as I could keeping descent form. I stopped my watching looking down at a time of 50:30. ( logged 5.9) I thought maybe that was wrong, but it couldn't have been, I'd only had to stop it once while waiting to cross at the front part of my run.

I then started to take in all the accounts of my run, that might have made me average an 8:33 pace. -Which still looks WRONG to me-

• I ran solo- Therefore not needing to waste breath talking.
• I was scared of the lady!
• I was scared of being in a more secluded area.
• based on my first mile, I was running about 9:20 pace before I had to run for my life :)
• I had to get my daughter, so the pressure to get done was ON!
• I had about 2  half miles  of close to sprinting speed.

So, I guess it may not be wrong. Just hard to believe!

It really is days like this when you are defined as a runner. I wanted it, so I got it!  I wanted to work hard for it no matter what!

We wont talk about the fact that my new kicks are dirty :-( But all in all, it was so worth it!

Hopefully I'll get out tonight before round two of the blizzard makes it's way in town!

Run happy!!