Running hard - the funcrunch files

This morning was very emotional for me. I woke up at 5:30 with my mind racing, and could not get back to sleep. I finally left home at 7 a.m. to head down to the Embarcadero for a five-mile run. I couldn't shut my brain up the whole time during the 30-minute walk, and had trouble keeping my composure. I figured once I started I'd run extra-hard to give my mind something else to keep it occupied.

I was planning to run faster anyway, to try to keep my heart rate in the 70-80% zone. I wanted to see if I could cover the whole five miles nonstop, without walk breaks, and in under an hour. I was OK at first, but by 40 minutes I was not feeling great. Turning around at North Point, the Ferry Building finish line seemed very far away. I tried to pick up speed. This is a flat, wide course, and the one chance I normally have (outside of a race) to run interrupted, so I can get a true sense of my pace capabilities.

I kept glancing at my watch, wavering between "I'm not going to make it" and "I'm just going to make it". The closer I got, the more the latter seemed possible. My goal in sight, I slowed very slightly and came to a stop in 58'23", for a pace of 11.7 minutes/mile. Whew.

Have to keep going. Have to keep going.