Sunday, August 7, 2011

Day 9 (8/6) unknown / 30:00

Well this was an interesting run...

Day 1 of my vacation and I'm determined to get off to a good start, so after the family gets up, I head down to the fitness center of the hotel to get in my long run and, wouldn't you know it, all 4 machines are not functioning.  I'm determined not to use this as an excuse to not run, so I leave the hotel and get my run accomplished outside.  Of course, I'm in Virginia and have no idea where to go or any way to gauge my distance.  I had decided on a 30 minute run, so I figured I'd just start and see where it would take me. 

I head down the street and around a corner and find a huge shopping center that isn't open yet, so I decide to make a large loop around the empty lot.  Well, the shopping center ended up much larger than I had anticipated, so rather than make the entire loop, I find a stop sign in the distance and decide that it will be my turn-around point.  I check my watch at the stop sign: 10:25, and decide to find out if I can make it back to my starting point in less time.  It's hot out and it's definitely hard work, but I'm proud to say I made it back to the hotel in 10:01.  Great news, right?!?  Except now I have to find a way to go another nine and a half minutes in order to complete my goal of a 30 minute run.  It's really hard to tear myself away from the air conditioned doorway, but I'm determined...

I head back across the street and run a few loops through a developing neighborhood which clearly posts that no one should be traveling through.  I see a few workers off in the distance and fill the rest of my minutes coming up with ways to talk myself out of trouble should one of them decide I shouldn't be there.  Of course, none of them care... I suppose I don't look like I'm going to do any damage with my sweaty hair and running shoes.

I get back to the hotel entrance a minute early and finish by running small loops through the parking lot until I reach exactly 30:00 on my fancy watch.  Thank goodness for that thing!!!  Otherwise, I'd have no way of keeping track of distance or time... and this post would be pretty much pointless :)

At this point, I'm exhausted but satisfied that I did well on my first day of vacation... off to a very good start on my goal to run at least 3 times this week.  And I also feel I've earned my day off from running tomorrow... I'm looking forward to drinks by the pool and don't plan to think about running again until Monday...

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