10K today!

And I ran the whole thing!  Yes, the whole 10K (6.2 miles).  The weather was BEAUTIFUL, 50s and sunny with no wind and I was never too hot or cold during the run.  I ran very slowly so my breathing didn't get labored either. I listened to music the whole time. It was a very nice, easy run. 

Well, it wasn't EASY, easy. My back started tightening up at 1.5 miles again, but I fought it the whole rest of the way so it wouldn't stop me. By fought it, I actually mean I did the opposite of fighting. I purposely relaxed as much as possible, slowed down when needed, moved my center of gravity back a bit, breathed deeply sending the oxygen to my lower back, etc. I don't know if it hurt less today or if I just refused to let it sideline me on such a great day when my wind, legs, and attitude were cooperating.

My miles were 11:29, 11:53, 12:08, 11:51, 12:09, 12:01, and then the last .8 miles was 12:53 (after finishing strong on the final .2 for the 10K, I walked a cool down). The Garmin said I burned 759 calories. I don't wear the heartrate monitor though. My 5K was something extremely slow like 36:30 and the 10K was 1:14:00. It's tough to see the very slow times when the run felt like such an accomplishment. Oh well, I still feel great for having run that far without any walking.

Mile 2 contained a very short but very steep hill. As I approached the hill, there were 2 other exercisers also approaching and I was getting nervous because I was going the fastest (unbelievable, I know) and I wondered how we'd all converge on that steep incline, but the other two hit the bottom of the hill and then turned around.  I couldn't believe it.  Both of them skipped the hill and went back the way they came. And they weren't even running together. Crazy. So I was able to do my football player-like leg pump with short steps to get up the incline and then was began running again at pretty much the pace before the hill.  That's great for me. Often that hill kills me and I sometimes have to walk at the top to catch my breath. I rarely take a route that brings me to the hill, usually just on long runs when I'm training for something more than a 5K.

Today, part of what motivated me to keep running was that I wanted to run around some different neighborhoods to check out the houses and see if I could find any for sale. My parents are considering moving here sometime in the foreseeable future and so we are learning about the market and trying to find houses they may like. I suppose if we found the perfect house, they may decide they have to buy it now and then we'd have to rent it or something until they are ready to move. Or maybe they would just let it go and find another good house when they are ready. It's such a great buyers market now, though. But it's only great if you want to buy now, I guess.

My grandmother is doing better. She was moved to a larger hospital in a town about 20 miles away when she was going through the worst of it. Now she's back in her hometown hospital which I know is more comfortable for her.  Her daughter, my Aunt Kathy is there this week looking after her and her care.