The Longest Run Ever. Again.

It must have been around mile four that I left my Negative Nilly behind. She was really holding me down. All I wanted was to run at least five miles, but when I reached five, I wanted to do six and a half; I reached six and a half and I wanted to run eight.

So, I settled the conflict by running 9.06 miles.

I kid you not, over nine miles: it's the longest I've ever run in my entire life (I know I keep saying that, but it's true every time)! It had crossed my mind to run a full 10 miles and count the run as a double on the February goal, but I realized that I might start working toward goals for all the wrong reasons.

But nine miles! It solidified my choice to run the five-mile rach at St. Malachi on March 10.

I had originally set out this icy morning to just get five minimal miles under my belt and out of the way. But I started thinking about the race in less than two weeks. I thought that if I continued to stop at five miles, my body would be ready to stop way too early in a 5-mile race. I hope to prepare my body to race double that distance in the next couple of weeks, to be doubly ready.

When I was a swimmer, my dad always said to me that if I wanted to be an excellent 100-yard butterflyer, I should practice swimming 500-yard butterfly. And when I would swim 100, I would be more than prepared for the feat.

(I never actually followed my dad's advice, but I understood the logic. I may have been too interested back then in rushing home to hang out with Landon and gawk at the evolution of late-90s music videos, like "I Want You" by Savage Garden and the Take That video with Robbie Williams dancing in the rain.)

P.S. Thanks to whomever nominated my blog for a Blog of the Day Award: that's awesome!