runner's delight

For those of y'all who were wondering, what is this Music City Half countdown in Beth's side bar...let me fill you in. I am running the Country Music Half Marathon on April 24th of this year. I started running last year for one of my new year's resolutions, and I thought I would step it up a notch this year by signing up for a half marathon.

Last week was my first week of training, and I have a wonderful (and experienced) training partner Amy (check out her bliggity blog here). I must admit that after the bad weather/horrible training week I had I was kind of worried about my first "long" run this morning, but no worries. I finished the 4 mile run in a faster pace than I had been running all week,

I am really excited to see how far I can push myself. I have always been on the competitive side so I know I will enjoy some healthy running competition. The fun part about all of it is I can compete with myself and previous paces/running times.

The 4 miles we ran were actually part of the race and took us from the bars on Demonbreum down Music Row passed Belmont University down Belmont Blvd to Lipscomb. Oh...and I got to run over the interstate. It's the small things for me.

There were tons of folks out running (probably training for the same race) which made it fun for me because I tried to smile and say hey to everyone I passed. Plus, it helped me stay positive because I could NOT let these people down and walk one second. Oh...and I swear I got passed by the same guy like 10 times. He was running with his daughter so he would run passed me then jog in place for a few minutes waiting for his daughter to catch up then pass me again, etc. It was pretty funny and definitely prepared me for getting passed come race day.

I felt like such a dork when I had finished because I definitely turned to Amy and said..."That was so liberating." I do still stand by that statement, though. FYI. Oh and did I mention that old school Outkast got me through a majority of my run? You heard me. I'm talking BOB and Rosa Parks.