Hard.

Saturday, I ran further than I have ever run in my life. 15 MILES. Well, actually, it was 14.77 due to the running route. "How was it?", people ask. Honestly, the word that best describes Saturday's run is "hard". It was hard.

We got a late start due to my needing to go to the bathroom. We spent the first mile and a half or so catching up to the group. That means that we probably ran close to a 9 minute mile for a mile and a half. By the time we caught up, I was ready to take a break. But nope - I still had over 13 miles to go.

There were good parts. There were painful parts. And then there were the parts where my mind won the battle. I could go through a laundry list of things that I was thinking, reasons I couldn't make it, why it felt so painful, etc. The last four miles were agonizing. We dropped back from the group because I "needed" a water break. I walked for a few water breaks over the course of that four miles. And then I walked just to walk. Now, we probably walked less than a tenth of a mile, but I felt like letting myself stop was letting my mind win. I was pretty bummed. I didn't say a word to my trusty running partner that stayed next to me the whole time. He stayed there, through walks and all, despite being exhausted and wanting to be done himself.

Then we finished. We finished probably a minute behind the group - not bad. Mike turned to me and gave me a high five. I was kind of confused why he gave me a high five, because I felt like I had totally failed. And then I realized, something that I would realize over and over in the next couple of days, that I ran 15 miles. No matter how hard it was, how many times I walked, how slow I ran, how bummed I felt, I finished. I guess that's the cool thing about running :)

Oh, lastly, thank you to everyone that I talked to over the past few days that helped remind me that I did run 15 miles and that is something to be proud of. I have the best support crew in the world.