10 miles and the 4 mile Mojo

I am proud to say that I, the species of a mix of Tigger due to my energy and Heffalump sadly due to my size ran 10 miles two days ago. I was not crawling at the end, I was not even out of breath! It did take me 2 hours and 15 minutes, sloooooooooooooooooooooooow. But I did it. I am now laughing at myself when I thought running 6 miles was daunting.

I had not run a long run in a few weeks, lack of time and my husbands work schedule coupled with rain for the past several weekends had made it impossible, so I had the opportunity on Friday and I and grabbed it. It was an easy long slow run with gu and my ipod and the ocean views, it was awesome!

I have to say that I never appreciated how beautiful the autumn is until this fall, when I run I have the time to really observe how beautiful nature and where I live is. The gorgeous colors in the trees, the blankets of leaves on the ground, the sounds of the crunching as I run over them, the sun glistening off the ocean; these are the sights I typically drive by not noticing too stressed or rushed on my way to something.

I have also learned that there is a 4 mile mojo affect. The first mile of every run is slow and tough, I am warming up, I am fighting all of the voices telling me I am too busy to run, too tired, too fat, I should be doing laundry, then mile 2 to 3 is usually when things start to hurt. By mile 3 I feel warm and start to relax and get into the music and then magically at mile 4 all is good, the high sets in and I feel like I could run for days and I realize that I love running all over again, it is the magic mojo 4. Anyone else experience this?

I have also come to the realization that while I am pretty uncomplicated in most of my life and low matintenace, I am a running diva. I have to have two sparkling waters and a cup of coffee and two scrambled eggs with cheese before I run, I need my ipod, I need my sneakers tied just so, not too tight not too loose, I need my hydration belt filled with my electrolyte micture, I need my gu, I need to be dressed comfortable enough for the temp, I need my hat or my visor, I need to know my course. I prefer the temp to be between 45 and 75 and I like to run between the hours of 9:30am and 4:30pm, not in the rain or the snow or humidity. I am basically a running pain in the ass. It is like this uptight monster has been released from my running all this for a run, seriously? Yep, I am a running diva and that is raspberry lime sparkling water if you please.