Gonna Fly Now

I've been enjoying my return to running for more than a year now. I'm not sure exactly where it's going to take me -- maybe I'll finally run the marathon I've dreamed of running my whole adult life. I don't know -- I'm not sure my body is going to tolerate those really long runs. Maybe I'll enter another half marathon and see if this time I can beat my 1:57 PR. I'm not sure yet.

But I'm trying to get myself ready for whatever challenge I decide to take on, so my coach suggested I sign up for a 5K or a 10K as a fitness test. One of the races he suggested was Crazylegs, a 5 mile (8K) race I did a number of times back in the day, but haven't done for years. So I signed up and did some training, including a couple of practice runs up Observatory Hill -- the big hill near Memorial Union.

My coach's goals for me were 8:20 miles if I signed up for a 5K and 8:40 miles if I signed up for a 10K, so I decided an appropriate goal for an 8K was 8:30 minute miles. It was the first race where I had my watch to tell me how fast I was going, which was super helpful, because sometimes when I thought I was going fast I wasn't, and vice versa.

Anyway, I kicked my goal time's ass, with 8:09 minute miles:

Bib # Last Name First Name Time Age Place Overall Place Gender Gender Place 6816 ARCHIBALD SARAH 40:28 32 2266 F 470

It felt really good. I knew I had the power to achieve my goal, and that I'd put in the necessary training, but the Rocky Theme song that is blasted every year near the final stretch didn't hurt either:

Trying hard now
it's so hard now
trying hard now

Getting strong now
won't be long now
getting strong now

Gonna fly now
flying high now
gonna fly, fly, fly...