Double Digits

Today I ran 10 miles. 10 miles!

Holy cow that is a lot of miles. The whole time I was running I just kept thinking about the totally awesome blog post I could write after such an accomplishment.

Not to take away from this personal achievement, but I have to share an interesting story from my run. I was coming up on the 9.5 mile marker and only had .5 left. I knew I could choose to turn right in a bit and go down onto the nature trail or I could stay on the path and keep running straight. There are really no advantages to either one, but I decided I would rather just keep running straight. About the same time I made this decision I looked up and noticed a small obstacle between me and finishing my 10 mile goal. A young buck. No, not a strong young man. A male deer. With antlers. Standing in the middle of the path.

I have seen plenty of deer on my runs before, but always the females and they always run away the second they see me. OK, well I guess this guy is a little bolder than the others I have seen before. So I decided to wave my arms and make noise with my water bottle while I kept running to get him to move. No such luck. I was still about 150 yards away from this guy and he isn't budging after all of my efforts. I didn't want to stop running so close to my goal so I kept going, hoping he would move as I got closer. Well, the good news is he did move. The bad news is, he was moving towards me. Uhhhhh...this can't be good.

I had no interest in taking on those antlers so I quickly made the decision to turn around and head back to the nature trail to finish up. Not without glancing behind me a few time just to be sure my new friend wasn't following me. The rest of the run was uneventful and I finished feeling so proud of myself and so excited about what I had just done.

I have just under a month left until my first ever half marathon. The excitment is building!