Day 1 is done!

Okay, one run down, countless runs to go. I actually was thinking along these lines a few times during my run this morning, then realized that this is stupid. If all you think about is how much there is to go, it will just be depressing. Same philosophy will apply at the start line: if you stand there thinking that you have to run 26.2 miles, you might just want to lie down and cry. Well, at least I would. Better to take it one step at a time because that way you can think about how each step is progress toward the goal.

It was by no means the most pleasant run I've ever done. Before I left, the RealFeel temperature was already in the 90s (this was around 8:40am). At least the humidity was 'low,' by which I mean in the 80% range. However, I did like the ample shade provided by the lovely trees in my neighborhood. It really does make a big difference.

I used my fancy new phone rig, which worked relatively well, except that it insists on telling me my time (that and it was preset in kilometers...good thing today was only three miles, which is a little less than 5k). I don't want to know my time. In fact, I rarely keep time except during races (and then sometimes I force myself to forget quickly). As a relatively competitive person, I realized a long time ago that keeping time on every one of my runs was more harmful than good. You don't necessarily make steady progress when you run, at least not every time you go out. Some days, for whatever reason, you will be faster and some days you will be slower. This is just how it is. For me, I found that tracking each run made me frustrated when I couldn't figure out why I was slower on a given day. Instead, I decided to just go run with the belief that gradual progress would be made. I keep thinking that someday I will reconcile with keeping time and get better with it, but I don't feel that marathon training is the time to do this. I'm not running this race for a time, I'm running to finish. That's it.

It would be super cool, though, if you did shave off time every run you did. Imagine if you ran 5 days a week, 40 weeks of the year, and every time you took off 3 seconds from your mile. You'd take a minute off your mile a year. In 5 years, I would practically be ready for the Olympics.