At least, that's what the coach's voice at the end of today's 20-minute run told me. I know 20 minutes isn't super long but I ran the whole time without stopping to walk. I've known for a couple of weeks now that this run was coming. The longest I'd run to this point was 8 minutes, then walk 3 then run another 8. I was nervous about this morning, almost as if I was in a race. I wanted to do it. I wanted that accomplishment. I didn't want to let myself down.
It was harder mentally than physically, though make no mistake I was breathing very hard at the end there. With 8 minutes left I was ready to give up. But I'd already run 12 minutes so there was no way I was going to let myself stop. I ended up speeding up. I changed my speed a little every minute. Sometimes I'd go at 5.0 mph, sometimes 4.7 sometimes 4.3, I just wasn't going to give up.
I didn't give up.
At the end of the run the app coach came on and said something to the effect of "you just ran for 20 straight minutes. You are a runner now." I wanted to cheer out loud and would have except, you know, the breathing.
Tonight I'm a little sore but I'm very happy to have dug deep and found the strength to hang on until the finish.
I will cheer out loud! HURRAY! That is so freaking awesome! I'm very very impressed and proud and motivated to work harder because you are da bomb-biggity!
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