I ran 5.5 miles alone! I rarely run alone; if I do it's normally a measly 2 miles or so. Today's run is the farthest I've ever run at once. Ever. I'm quite proud of myself... even if it was quite slow. Maybe I am actually starting to take this more seriously??? If running alone I normally go in the neighborhood by my house. I don't enjoy it at all but it is a safe place to pound the pavement. Well today as I was getting ready I remembered an old railroad track that cuts the neighborhood in half. When I was younger and this wasn't a neighborhood but was cotton fields (yes, Alabama is still the land of cotton) my brother and I used to ride our bikes on it. So when I was in the neighborhood for my normal 2 mile run I instead turned right onto what I've always been told used to be an old railroad track. It had 2 "creek crossings" one of which I managed to get wet at both going and coming back. That was fun in 28 degree weather (windchill of 20 with brutal winds). The trail starts off being surrounded by houses on both sides but then moves onto cotton fields, a nursery, and a cow pasture (nothing like the fresh smell of manure). It is mostly a dirt road with some muddy sections that were pretty well frozen today. The highlight of my run was almost getting hit by a kid on a 4-wheeler.... ahhhhh, I love living in the country!
I am embarrassed to write down my official time. But I figure I'll never improve if I don't put it down to look back on as motivation. I ran 5.5 miles on a dirt road with a few small hills in 1:09. It was my first time on the trail so I'll use that as slow excuse #1. Slow excuse #2 will be that I'm a cupcake. Plain and simple. This will be dubbed the railroad track trail and I hope to eventually cut 10ish+ minutes off of that time.
Oh yea... the best part of my run: Betsy (my garmin) says that I burned 735 calories. I'm sure that is not entirely accurate (by a long shot) but it still makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Now if I could miraculously drop 20 lbs overnight.... | 