Recognition

A couple of pretty noteworthy things have happened in the last twenty-four hours or so. First of all, yesterday afternoon a good friend phoned me and told me that he wanted to swing by my placed to drop something off. A little while later he showed up at my door with an envelope containing the exact amount of money that I spent to register for my upcoming 10K race! What a guy! I told him that he didn't need to make such a generous gesture and I assured him that I was already signed up for the event. But he insisted, saying that he really wanted to reimburse me for the run because he was extremely proud of how far I have come with getting fit. I was incredibly touched! I have some pretty stellar friends, let me tell you!

Then, today, I reached a new all time personal best with my jogging. I set out on a beautiful, scenic stretch of an ocean side walkway which runs along the perimeter of a huge park in a nearby community. I have mentioned this particular path before because if figured in a couple of very early victories for me at the start of this journey. Well, this afternoon, I actually started out jogging it and didn't stop until an hour later!

Obviously I have been training for my approaching race, but this is the very first time I have tried to do such a long distance without any walking intervals. I can't believe that I was able to do it! There are markers placed at every half kilometer along the route up until the 9K one, so based on those, and my timing up to then, I am pretty confident in inferring that I went further than 9.5K but less than 10K. In all fairness it is a lovely, flat path so the run was easy in theory; in practice, however, about a quarter of it had me running squarely into an extremely forceful wind so it wasn't as simple as I had anticipated.

The very best part about that run today wasn't actually going for an hour straight - although I am beyond thrilled that I was able to pull that off. The most incredible aspect was actually that I was able to do it without feeling like I had nothing left to give. I actually enjoyed myself! The amazing thing is that I accomplished a significant fitness milestone and didn't find it all that hard. I am in awe of the fact that I have gotten to this point!

One other thing happened today that left me feeling really great. As I was walking down a busy street to meet up with my husband after I had completed my run, I heard my full name being called from behind me. I turned and looked for the source and quickly zoned in on an old work friend, leaning out of the passenger side of a van that was facing in the opposite direction as it sat at a stop light. The last time I saw this particular person was exactly three days before I started this blog, so I know precisely what I looked like at that time!

Well, when I waved at him he exclaimed, "That is you?!" in complete surprise. He obviously thought that it was more likely that he was calling to my much thinner doppelganger than to me! I started to jog after the vehicle as the light changed green and he called back at me, "Holy $#!+!!! Look at how small you are!” That sure brought a grin to my tired mug in a hurry! As they pulled away I shouted back that I was down 120 pounds and he drove off with a huge smile and a look of amazement on his face. That was a really fabulous moment!

FOOD & BEVERAGES:
- 8 glasses of water
- 1 pan-fried banana and light peanut butter wrap on a soft tortilla shell
- 1 mug toffee nut steamed skim milk
- 1 egg white wrap on a whole wheat tortilla shell with feta cheese, spinach, and sun-dried tomatoes
- 2 small Mandarin oranges
- 1/2 cup corn with margarine
- 1 1/2 cups steamed broccoli and cauliflower with margarine
- 1 cup Salisbury steak with tomato sauce
- 3/4 cup fat free cherry yogurt with 1 cup Vector cereal

EXERCISE:
- 45 minutes of walking completed in 3 outings (10 minutes long, 20 minutes long, and 15 minutes long)
- 1 hour of jogging with a 5 minute warm up walk and a 5 minute cool down walk
- 1 hour Body Strengthening class