Due to our travel and the general over scheduling, it’s been a while since we linked up for the Friday Five, with these three awesome DC area bloggers: Mary at Mar On the Run, Cynthia at You Signed Up For What?! and Courtney from Eat Pray Run, DC. Feel free to join the fun with your own Friday Five post and be sure to visit and comment on the other blogs on the linkup!
Today’s post, we share Five Ways I Celebrated National Running Day!
1. I ran!
Obviously, on National Running Day, running is key. So I laced up and got out there.
2. I did my first “prediction run”!
A prediction run has nothing to do with your speed. The winner is the one who most accurately predicts his or her finish time. Which is a lot harder than it looks. We have a few prediction races in town, but on Wednesday night, I did my very first one. I was about two minutes off. The winners were off by about two seconds. Impressive.
3. I tried running “naked”!
While I have ventured out without an iPod, especially when it’s dark out, I have NEVER gone out without my phone and/or some kind of timing device. Oh, it was SO weird. I am absolutely so bound to my Garmin, and I felt so lost without it, especially for intervals. I ran as far as I could (about a mile, by my estimation), before I started breaking down into run/walk periods, based on my own counting. Unfortunately, my foot was giving me grief, so I walked a lot more than I usually would, but it was a fun run, so no biggie. Mostly. I still feel like it doesn’t count, since I didn’t have the Garmin data!
4. I found a new route!
I wish I had been able to bring my phone along just so I could share some of the pictures of this route! It was a flat and shaded loop. We ran through two different parks, one with a sculpture garden, and then through the most adorable beach neighborhoods. For a while, we were alongside a little canal, where I saw the most incredibly huge turtles. And there were even a few pieces of little dirt trail. It had a bit of everything, and it’s somewhere I would run again, just to switch things up.
5. I joined a running group!
This is a big one. For a long time, I have been incredibly intimidated by the idea of being part of a running group. However, since my motivation has been low, and the price as right, I thought why not? It would be good to get out there and get some encouragement from other people. The crowd was great, friendly and supportive, and the pace range was all over the place. I felt pretty comfortable and not particularly outmatched, so I am looking forward to attending a group run and seeing how it goes.
It was a pretty fun day. I was nervous at first, as I always am in new situations with new people. But I think I moved on pretty quickly, and was very appreciative to be with a welcoming group of people, all with a shared love of running.
What are some ways you celebrated the day?
What’s something you’ve tried recently to challenge yourself, running or otherwise?
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