8 Minutes At Miami Meadows

1. I ran at a new park on Tuesday. I love it.
2. I joined my pal, Caitlin, for the run at that new park.
3. It's getting dark earlier. Sad.
4. I totally ran for 8 minutes at the end of my workout.

Miami Meadows is a big stinkin' park in Milford (on the east side of Cincinnati). It took me about 20 minutes to get there, which translated to a rather dark ending to our little weeknight workout since it was about 6:40 (or 6:39) before I got there. I love Fall, but I hate that it's getting dark earlier. Booo!

It's a FAAAAH-bulous park! Click here to check out the park map (PDF). It's nice and flat. It's big. The running path is 1.3 miles around so it's easier to log some extra distance. It has a lake/pond, which means there are ducks, which I love (hate birds but love ducks).

Pictures of Miami Meadows I stole from my pal, Jesse (Caitlin's husband):

OH! Speaking of birds ... we saw huge bird just standing in the lake. It looked like a cross between a giraffe and a pterodactyl. Ideas? Crane? In Ohio?

Giraffe

Pterodactyl

So, aside from frightening birds and impending darkness, it was a great run. We did a Week 4 run (run 3 minutes, walk 1.5, run 5, walk 2.5, lather, rinse, repeat). On the last running interval, I broke away from Caitlin and decided to see how long I could go. Since I went for 6.5 minutes during my last experiment, and since I felt pretty good that night, I knew I could do better. I even had hopes of maybe reaching 10 minutes. Well, I didn't get to 10 minutes, but I did get to 8 minutes.

8 minutes of running without stopping! Wheee!

I will be returning to that park (probably on weekends though) and I will continue to run extra at the end of my last running interval. I'm officially hopeful of moving up to Week 5, Day 2 in the near future (it includes a few 8 minute running intervals). It certainly doesn't seem impossible anymore.

In conclusion, I am still really happy with my decision to stick to the C25K plan instead of my indecisive and impatient "let's try this" method. It's really nice to see and feel progress like this.

I'm also still really grateful to have people I can run with and talk to about the shared experience of running. I read something today about how surrounding yourself with positive people is not only good for your mental health, but it's good for your efforts to workout and get healthy. I don't think I'd still be doing this crazy running thing if it weren't for all of you who read and comment and talk to me about your experiences and let me vent about mine. So thanks, and keep it up!

Talk it out. Hug it out. Get healthy. Watch out for Pterodactyl-giraffe birds.

Ha!