Not A Fluke

Today I proved to myself that running the 5k was not a fluke. I needed a little proving of this as the 2nd time I attempted the full distance I failed. Miserably. There were plenty of reasons (ahem, excuses?!) that I failed the 2nd attempt and I was feeling a bit less than encouraged about my ability to duplicate that previous success.

You see, the last time I attempted was during our mini-vacation at Great Wolf Lodge. My reasons (excuses) were as follows:

A) The room was excruciatingly hot and there was no fan to keep me from overheating.
B) There were 5 of us in a very small room and people were waiting for their turn on the treadmill, which made me uncomfortable and rushed.
C) For some odd reason, Canadians use the metric system and I couldn't figure out what my base speed was supposed to be. I fiddled with it plenty, but never felt I got it right. Guess I should have paid more attention in Elementary School when they taught the metric conversions.
D) I was tired from all that swimming, climbing, running the day before.
E) The room coffee was not enough to get my engines revved before I trekked down the hall to the coat closet they call a fitness center.

See ... lots and lots of reasons (excuses) for that failure. Today I did manage to complete the full distance again. Thank God!

I am still not *excellent* at it. It still takes a ton of self-talk to get me to the end of the run. I am still slower than a turtle swimming in molasses. But I am capable of running the whole 5k distance.

On a treadmill.

Now comes the hard part ... taking it outside and duplicating that effort. Towards the end of March I am hoping there will be enough meltage that I will feel comfortable taking the trek to the great outdoors. In the meantime, I am trying to up my distance to a full 4 miles each run out ... and then in April am hoping to up my speed to something a little less *turtle*.

But the good news is still ... it wasn't a fluke.

Yay me.