What better way to start your week?

This morning when I left my house are 7:15am my car said it was 60 degrees. 60 DEGREES?! I was cold! I didn't run yesterday and went to bed early last night anticipating what for me was a long run around campus of about 4.2 miles.



But the weather was awesome and my legs/lungs/brain were all cooperating so after I finished that loop I decided to go for a little bit more. I figured I'll never be able to run longer distances if I don't actually try to run longer distances.

I thought I'd tack on a mile or so on. Instead, I apparently added over 3+ miles and ended up running this...




Yes. That's right, mapmyrun.com says that's 7.9 miles, stopping only when necessary at crosswalks etc. I'm going to assume that's an overestimate, but still, that's over 7.5 miles! While there are plenty of people out there that run much farther distances and in much shorter time than it probably took me, that's still the farthest I've ever ran in my life.

My knees and hip flexors were in a bit of pain for the last mile back, but I knew if I stopped and walked any of it, it would be more painful when I tried to run the rest of the way. Plus, I hadn't planned on running this long and so if I stopped to walk I'd be late for class. Needless to say I was pretty pleased with myself when I made it back to the rec.

I think it's amazing the strength the body is capable of achieving. In March 2009 this was me.




After a serious double ankle sprain, I was terrified of running and to add to it, I hadn't ran since 7th grade. That's right people, 7th grade PE class.

I'm embarrassed to admit to this, but freshman year I put on the freshman 15...+5 more pounds for a total of 20 lbs of weight gain. I lost maybe 1-2 lbs during Fall 09 but I still was obviously not serious about my body weight/health/exercise and I was extremely unhappy with myself and the way I felt/looked.


Around January 2009, with the company of Mr. Levi Fuller and spring break just around the corner, I started taking going to the rec and working out every morning.

By February Levi had convinced me to hit the pavement and get running. When Spring Break rolled around in March I had lost about 7lbs, but still struggled to run more than 2.5 miles.



Despite yet another ankle sprain (if you sprain your ankle once does it make it more susceptible to re-spraining?) before I left for Hong Kong in June, Levi and I attempted the 4.2 "four corners" run that I had planned to do this morning. It was painful and slow and I couldn't finish it.

A week later, a couple days before I was scheduled to fly out to Hong Kong we tried again and it was just as painful and slow, but I finished the whole run. Levi has been such an amazing running partner through all this because a) he hates running b) he can run faster than me I'm sure, but runs slow to run next to me c) he is so supportive and excited for me when I have a good run.

After 3 weeks of running in extreme humidity and higher elevation (compared to good ol' College Station) in Hong Kong,



I came back to CStat and ran that 4.2 miles with no problem.

Since January I have lost 15 lbs and apparently can run nearly 8 miles. On October 9th, Levi and I are running a 10k back home in Sugar Land. I was worried yesterday at the thought of 6.2 miles, but apparently my body is capable of it :)



love, stine