4 miles. It wasn't pretty, but I got it done.

Friday after work, I headed out to do four miles.  Because of a trip to Pittsburgh, we decided to do the four instead of the scheduled 2.  Instead of doing the two, we opted for two much needed rest days.  While I was running, I was giving some thoughts to why I was doing this and how it was making me feel.  So here it goes:

1. I had to walk, and that was ok.  The day was warm and humid, and I knew that I was tired, but I headed out anyway to get this 4 miles crossed off of my list.  I started out and immediately noticed that my shoulders and biceps were tensed.  I tried to check myself and rotate my hands to loosen things up, but wasn't having any luck.  I'm pretty sure that this contributed to the dreaded side stitch, which almost always is my undoing.  I ran with it for awhile, telling it to go away, but it wouldn't listen, so I decided to walk for a bit, until it dissipated on its own.  At first, I felt guilty because I hadn't made it to 2 miles before I stopped to walk, but then I remembered my own post and decided that I was going to have fun, damn it, and running with a pain in my side wasn't fun.  I proceeded to "wog", which is a combination of run/walk, for the remainder of my miles.  To give myself some goals, I walked a song and ran a song.  My pace for the day, under at 14:00 minute mile overall, showed that when I was running, I was running faster than usual, which is a win for me.
2. I love sweat wicking fabric.  I admit it, I was skeptical about how much those $30 Nike shirts actually WICK when it comes to sweat, but after running in 80+ degree weather, I'm a skeptic no more.  The sweat started almost as soon as I got out of the car, and I never felt damp or sticky like I feel when I run with a t-shirt.
3. I remember when this used to be easer.  I admit it, for a few minutes (maybe more, I don't know), I allowed some self-pity to enter my mind.  I kicked myself for quitting after the last round of 1/2 marathon training and allowing myself to get back to square one.  Enough about that, moving on.
4. I never want to see my name next to a DNF, ever again.  I remembered that after the Cap City 1/2 last May, Nick and I registered for the Columbus 10k.  The thought process was that since we'd already been training for the 1/2, and finished 13.1 miles, we'd just take a week off from running and pick things back up again, keeping the momentum going for a SHORT 6.2 mile race.  What ended up happening was that we quit running altogether and began making excuses for why we weren't continuing with our training.  The result?  We got two technical t-shirts for a race that we didn't run and two DNF's next to our names in the official results.