Happy Birthday to Neil!

It broke my heart to realize a few weeks ago that Neil’s birthday was going to fall on the one night during the week on which I have a class until 9 p.m. But that’s why you must celebrate the week o’birthday. And weeklong-celebrate we shall.

I can’t divulge too much about the week’s presents and plans (you know, in case he’s out there reading too), but I picked up a month’s supply of burrito cards from Chipotle after work today. And it really made me realize another reason why I love this running thing: freedom.

If you had told me a year ago to run the 3-mile roundtrip from the rec. center to Chipotle, my response would essentially have been, psshaw! No, I wouldn’t have preferred to drive, but I would have promised you I could never run that far and didn’t have time to walk it.

But today I booked it across campus after work, got in a brief run, picked up a gift that keeps giving for the man, and had enough time to wash up and get to class. No wasted gas, no wasted time. Just the freedom of having my workout and letting Neil eat his burritos too.

The trip took me about 10 minutes there, 10 minutes back (and almost as long waiting in line—what kind of idiot goes to a college-area Chipotle at 5 p.m.?), which is approximately the same time it would have taken to drive with all the traffic, bad drivers and poorly timed lights in the area. Not to mention the parking!

The only downside was that godforsaken weather: 30 degrees, seriously? For the first time ever I was underdressed. It wasn’t that bad with only a t-shirt and fleece, but my gloveless hands were really biting it. And I had just taken my gloves out of my bag and put them in the closet for the season. Gaffe after gaffe today, I’m telling you!

So, while today’s run put my April mileage at 18.57 miles (that’s 7.13 miles ahead of my nearest competitor—something tells me, however, that someone’s going to log all of their 300 miles on one day and give me the boot!), tomorrow and Friday will return my focus to swimming. It seems like forever since I last swam—although it was only last Sunday.

It will be a lunchtime swim, so I won’t expect a repeat of Sunday’s 5,000 yards. But a girl can aim high and dream. Who knows: perhaps Flipper will be there.

Increasing my frequency in running has really made me feel better while I’m running. It used to take me much more time to a) warm up to the idea of going for a run and b) warm up during the run. While I’ll do all this talk about kicking challengers’ butts, I assure you that I am my top competition.

Sometimes to trash talk with myself gets a little confusing, but it works out in the end.

I’m totally digging the process of becoming a better runner and seeing the fruits of my training, hard work and everyone’s great advice and even better support.