Almost at one week and it hasn’t been too difficult to find a picture every day. Today’s topic is something that makes me smile. As many of you following blogger’s would know, I’ve been on a bumpy road for a while with things happening in my life and trying to find my true self and what makes me happy. I did think that this challenge may be more difficult than it ended up being.
I spent most of the day thinking about what makes me smile but all I could come up with was a few superficial things that may well make their way into my photo challenge in the weeks to come. It wasn’t until after work when I decided to run when the perfect thing hit me. (I know this is may be off track a little, but it’s my photo challenge and I will interpret it however I like. If you don’t like it, there is the close ‘X, up there. ^ 😉 ) RUNNING makes me smile. It gives me a sense of freedom and somewhat power within. It might sound silly but I feel stronger within my own self when I run because I am always trying to improve myself, push myself harder and generally, my body and brain react in a positive way.
I find it almost amusing that I am so into running now when 6 months ago, I was only doing it to slim down for my European holiday and even then, I was knackered after less than 1km. I would never have thought I’d be setting myself running challenges 6 months down the track. You could almost say, this is one thing I decided to do for myself. No one encouraged me to try it but now they encourage me to continue. (Does that make sense? It does in my head.) You could also say, I am proud of myself, my efforts and my PB’s along the way. Running is only something you do for yourself. It doesn’t help anyone else but you.
Back to today. The wind here this evening was hectic so I decided to have a treadmill session which I haven’t done in a while. My original goal was to run 6km, as today is an “on” day for running so I must run one of my 3 options, 5.2km, 5.6km or 6km; whatever my body is feeling up to. (They are my 3 set outdoor running circuits; so if I am going to run on the treadie, I must make it to 5.2km, AT LEAST!) Yesterday morning, I ran 5.2km so I thought I’d give my body a little bit of a push. Well, did I ever.
I made it to 5.2km, then 5.6km, then 6.0km. I was tired but I wasn’t exhausted. Anything after 6km was a PB, so why not try for 7km? It’s my favourite number so not a bad time to stop. 42 minutes and 7km later, I think to myself, 42 minutes isn’t a round ‘5’ minute interval, run until 45 minutes. 45 minutes comes and I’m at 7.5km. Another thought, 7.5km isn’t a round number, hit 8km. Hit 8km at 48 minutes; you can make 50 minutes, push. Hit 50 minutes, you can make ten more minutes, one minute for ever km you have covered. I did count the turn of the minute out loud and fist pumped at 60 minutes. (Well, that was the long story hey!)
Short story. 10km in 1 hour. TEN FLIPPING KILOMETRES! I didn’t just beat my record, I just smashed it out of the park.
Now the story is over, here is my photo(s). 🙂
One happy runner,
C. x
CANDICE ASHLEY 