It's raining, it's pouring, the old man is snoring...

Hi everyone.

I thought I'd take advantage of the fact I've been wide awake since 6:30 and my man is still fast asleep, and the fact it's pouring buckets outside, to catch up on blogging. The timing is good too since I just accomplished something that, to me, is super awesome.

When I last wrote, I can't remember where I was in terms of my physical/mental state, but lately I've been running or playing vball when I can, though the weather has been working against me. I kept running knowing that I had a 5 km race coming up and would be horribly embarrassed if I couldn't complete that. I was a little worried because my last few runs I couldn't get to 5 km, even though it's generally easy to do. But come race day, I felt ready.

I just happened to have started a juicing "diet" (not so much a diet as adding some homemade natural veg/fruit juices to my regular diet for Friday and Saturday, and possibly only juice for a few days. I just needed to do something different to feel like I am starting fresh. But man did it pay off! I had my first juice Friday night with dinner, then I had two juices around breakfast before going to run. I felt good but nothing more.

The original plan for the race was that my team would run the 5 km, and then those who wanted to could run an extra 5 km back to my friend's place, who happens to live two blocks from me. I figured I'd see on the day of whether I felt up to it, but I haven't been able to run even close to 10 km this year, and 10 km is the most I've ever run, so I was likely not to join for the second part.

So... the race went well, but I find races hard in general since you don't have a good idea when it'll end. Since 5 km is only about 25-30 mins of jogging though, I knew it couldn't go on forever :). It was about 38 celsius with the humidity, so it was a tough one. But after resting for 5-7 minutes post-race to drink water, have our team picture taken, I suddenly decided I did in fact have the energy to run some more.

Everyone else bailed, but I decided, f%& it, I will run home. Long story short, I didn't exactly know where I was going, so that extra 5 km actually turned into an extra 8.5 km, and about 20 minutes in I was thinking I had made a bad decision, but I committed to my choice and never stopped running, making it home within the hour, for a grand total of 13.5 KM!!! The most I have ever ran. I did get a 5 minute rest in between, but I still consider it a huge accomplishment as I couldn't come close to even 6 or 7 km this year.

Today I begin my juice-only thingy and am feeling so energetic already. I am WIDE awake and just waiting for the man to wake up so I can use the juicer (it is very loud).

Have a great day everyone and keep at it, trust me, it's worth it.