other accomplishments

Gatito Mal doesn't seem to be doing any better and if I come home from work tonight to find her dead because they didn't keep her overnight or just do the damn transfusion, I am not going to be happy. She climbed up *inside* my box spring last night (there's a rip in it from a cat we used to have who liked to hang out inside there too, sigh) and I had to drag her out, hissing at me, and make a little nest for her in her litter box room, so she'd stay contained while feeling safe.

But before that? Well, yesterday was supposed to be my day 3 of week 5 of c25k. I had my gym bag all packed to take to work with me. Then I didn't go to work, of course, and after I got home from the vet, traumatically pilled the cat, washed the carrier, and made and ate dinner, I really wasn't in the mood to get my ass to the Y. In fact, I stated on the forum where I talk about this with people who actually care (heh) that I was going to put it off till today, which would throw my schedule all off. And after awhile that started to bother me. But I still couldn't drag my ass to the gym.

So I decided I'd run outside. Let me tell you a couple things. As I may have mentioned before, the last time I ran outside I hated it with every particle of my being. It was so much harder than being kept pace by the treadmill, plus all the swerving around the people who let their rugrat dogs run across my path and the little kids on bikes, etc etc, really annoyed me. Secondly, day 3 of week 5 is the day everyone dreads in c25k. You go from, on day 2, running 8 minutes, walking 5, running 8 to running 20 minutes straight. That's right, you more than double the length of your previous longest run. So deciding to do this outside was, on the face of it, insane.

Plus it was drizzling out and starting to get dark. I figured the drizzle would be in my favor, keeping me from getting overheated and sweaty. And I figured out a place I could run that had nice long continuous sidewalks without any big major streets to cross. Because, see, I don't have any of your fancy-shmancy reflective running gear. I was wearing black yoga capris and a black hoodie--the death outfit for after-dark walking/running, basically. I was about ten minutes from my house and starting the running segment when the drizzle turned to rain. Still okay. It felt good, surprisingly. Definitely was not getting hot. And after starting out running at what I immediately knew was too fast a pace, I slowed it down till it felt like I was going at the speed I was used to on the treadmill. And then several minutes after that, the rain turned to torrential downpouring. At that point, my endorphins had kicked in and I just started laughing and, since my feet were now soaked anyway, stopped trying to avoid puddles and splashed right through them. And the only other people I saw on the sidewalk this whole time were one guy walking, a bunch of teenagers carrying shopping bags who must have gotten off the mall bus, and one lady walking her dogs. No obstacles!

I made it through the whole twenty minutes without stopping. In fact, I could have gone more. I was so proud of myself. I did my cool down walk back to the house. My son took one look at me as I came through the front door looking like I'd taken a shower with my clothes on, raised an eyebrow and said very dryly, "Uh, get caught in the rain?" In my euphoria I was like, "Yeah! I was running in it! It was great!" My euphoria was somewhat tempered when I realized I had probably gotten my iPod a little too wet, 'cause the backlight on it appears to be screwed. Oh well.

I returned to euphoria when I google-mapped my route and figured out I had run 1.8 miles in the 20 minutes, so 5.4 mph. You can laugh, but I've been running on the treadmill between 5 and 5.5 mph, so I *did* accurately judge my pace. I have never, to my knowledge, run a straight mile before, never mind almost two, so now I am really proud of myself. And feel the need to brag about it! Obs.

Say a little heathen prayer for Evil Kitty's antibiotics to kick in for me, huh?

xoxo