Success...

Well, today was interesting. Today was only a 6 mile walk because it was the 10K training day in Indy. I say ONLY 6 miles and that kind of makes me laugh. Since I did 7 last week, I thought 6 would be a breeze this week. Boy was I wrong. Let me set the stage...I am at my sister's in Columbus this weekend. So, Andrea, Sue and I decided to walk together. Mom and Dad volunteered to come down and watch Kenzie so we could go walk. Andrea has this park here in Columbus that has a walking trail around a big lake. I thought that sounded awesome since it was 70 degrees today...well, so did 5000 other people. We had people walking dogs, people pushing baby strollers, families out for a stroll and lovers walking hand in hand. Then there were those of us who were there for serious exercise. On top of the chaos, this was my first time on a trail that was hilly and uneven. We weren't a quarter of the first lap and I knew I was in trouble. I was hurting and huffing. I don't think I mentioned that one lap around was 1.2 miles. So, we needed to do 5 laps to get our 6 miles in. My goal shortly after starting was just to finish in an 18 min. mile. I was really doubting that I would make that, but I was gonna try. Lap 2 was still bad...about lap 3 things loosened up and the pain was better. So, when it was all said and done...1hr. 44 min and 30 sec. I finished with a 17.5 min average. I was beyond elated. I thought that was incredible considering the change in terrain and considering I was sweating like a pig. All good things in the long term for training, but things that I thought might really make me lose time today. The fact that I was faster was so rewarding. I was a little irritated that my sister went out and just walked 6 miles with no training and walked several steps ahead of me most of the way. But, it was motivating to have her there because my pride wouldn't let me stop or slow down. I've been telling her how well I'm doing so here on the day she can actually see how I'm doing, i definitly didn't want to look bad. That was the motivation that got me through the first 2 miles. She was very encouraging and proud of me. (But I'm secretly hoping that she's really sore in the morning. :)