3 miles of hills and win

Ever since I started running about two years ago I have been a proud run/walker.

The couch to 5K running training program got my butt off the couch initially and broke the crazy difficult concept of running down into easy to handle pieces for me to accomplish. At about week 7 of the program I stopped due to a foot injury (watch out for those desks at work, they'll attack you out of nowhere) and never went back to the program. Instead, I did run/walk intervals that challenged me but never lead to full on running for the 30 minutes like the program says you should do by the end of week 9.

Then came my gallbladder issues and various other impediments to training... not the least of which were my own excuses and laziness.

After signing up for the Lanier Under the Lights 5k on Saturday, though, I stepped up my training again. I started with 3/5 intervals... walk for 3 minutes, run for 5. Then I switched to timing my intervals with my music. I would run for two songs (roughly 8 minutes) and walk for a song. Eventually I increased the running and decreased the walking.

Today, I ran a full 3 miles without stopping for the first time ever. And not just any three miles... three miles of hills!

Of course, I have participated in a 5K race before and gone greater distances than 3.2 miles... but never without some sort of break (walking or full out stopping).

Today's run was a big deal for me... a mark of major progress in my training. On top of the usual endorphin rush, I had this incredible sense of pride in myself. I can only hope that this sense of accomplishment will carry me through my last two training runs this week and my race on Saturday.