I love to run. Granted, I’m hibernating a bit right now, as I habitually do during the late Fall/Winter season. But come March, I’m always back at it, pretty regularly, with at least a couple of races on the calendar each year. Mind you, I’m not some crazy runner; I’m not obsessed with getting a run in every day and it’s not like I have a packed race-calendar. I run because I love it. And because it keeps me sane.  

I love the escape of a long run; I embrace the solitude. It’s just me, the sound of my breathing; the rhythm of my feet hitting the pavement. The cadence of my happy place. I rarely run with music, unless I need some extra motivation to get me out the door; I just don’t need it. I have myself. And my thoughts. 

My transition to distance was not without its challenges though. My approach of running as hard as I could…until I couldn’t, inevitably backfired in the beginning. What, you’ve never tried to run 6 miles at a sprint? Spoiler alert: it never ends well. Ever.

I’m not one for setting New Year’s Resolutions, but I really want to get back into shorter, harder runs. Don’t get me wrong, I love the time I have with myself on my long runs, but I really want to tackle a sub-6:00 mile. I’m not getting any younger here, so why not put it out there? I figure that if a top female marathon runner can run 26.2 miles at a 5:09 pace, I should be able to do one mile sub-6:00, right? 

Don’t laugh, I’m pretty sure I can do this. I’m generously giving myself until the end of 2019 to make it happen, and I’ll check in regularly with updates (even if they are ugly). 

I figure that actually writing this down is the first step to committing, right? As for the details into how I am actually going to make this happen? Gulp. Stay tuned.