8-24-13 Five mile run in the canyon

Initially my run today was going to a drop off at a park 5 miles away and run home (almost all down hill). But I woke up a half hour too late to do that. So I drove up to the popular entrance to the running/biking paved trail in Provo Canyon. I averaged a really slow mile and would like to say it was because I was going up hill, but that's not a solid reason. I stopped to walk too many times. But because of today I have decided to run outside (only on the treadmill when the weather is too severe to run outside or I am feeling especially lazy). The reason for the change to out door running is because I am running a marathon outdoors, I am running a half marathon outdoors, and I am running 2 or more 5k's outdoors. So why use the treadmill as a crutch. It will be a little of a learning curve to run outside, but I believe I can do it. Also the weather is cooling down so those 100 degree days won't be happening.

With doing 5 miles today I was full of doubt for the first 2 miles. Then I just swallowed my insecurity and started to run (at a slow pace up hill) and went until I was just around the bend from the 2.5 mile mark. I was feeling a little dejected at that point but was intent on doing better going back. I did do better and used landmarks like to did the minute earlier this week, and focused on making it to a land mark, running to that bench, or until I pass this couple up here, or until I reach the street sign. It worked really well.

On a side note, runners are some of the nicest people as you run by them. I started to smile more as I ran because of how polite everyone was, waving hello, and saying good morning. They all had smiles on their faces (probably not but it seems that way looking back). So to everyone who is running after I post this, I challenge you to say something like, hello, good morning, good afternoon, or good evening to the next people you pass while running.

Until next time...

Riley