Welcome! I’m Caroline
follow me
Subscribe By Email
Search The Little Things Blog
Follow Me On Bloglovin’
Categories
Archives
In my 13 challenges for 2013 post, I wrote that I planned on running 13 races over the course of the year. I’m planning on just over half of them being virtual races, and the other half being “in person” races. Jill from Fitness, Health, and Happiness is co-hosting a virtual race series for those trying to complete 13 races in 2013. Today I ran race #1 of 13 this year:
I was torn about trying to run this weekend or waiting until later in the week. The weather is not so good right now, so it took me about 5 hours to convince myself that running was actually going to happen. I checked the weather on my way out the door, and this is what it looked like:
Brrr. I re-thought my plan to run today, but then remembered this quote, and I was off.
It was fine once I started running, but a feels like of 12 is just really cold. And there was snow and a bit of ice covering the roads.
This was one of the most difficult runs I’ve ever done. It was cold, windy, snowy and icy, and snow was blowing out of the sky and up off the road and hitting me in the face most of the run. I had to run slowly at times because I was slipping on the road, and sometimes because the snow was so deep that I couldn’t move any faster. Oh- and I haven’t run that distance since my 5k race on Thanksgiving Day, so that definitely played into it as well. But, I still had fun! Here’s how my time looked:
Not so fantastic at all. If I was to gauge the success of my run on pace, this race would be an epic failure. But as I was running the last mile (which was particularly windy and tough), I started to think about how huge this race was for me, and how accomplished I felt. That’s a weird thought for someone who was running much slower than normal, right? But success isn’t just defined by time. I’ve never run in such bad weather before, and certainly not on road conditions like that! Last winter was the first winter I ran, and it was a really mild winter, so I never had to deal with much ice or snow. So, while I didn’t set any PRs, I’m still proud of how I ran and pushed myself in really rough conditions. So, in that regard, this race was a huge success! I do hope, however, that my future 5ks this year are a bit faster!
Now it’s your turn to share! How do you define “success” when it comes to fitness or racing?
Congrats on your finish! I would definitely call your run a success! The success is the run 🙂 You did it and didn’t use the weather as an excuse!
Congrats on getting it done. Winter sure doesn’t make it easy. I had planned my #tacklethemiles race for Thursday and I think Mother Nature may just help out.
Success. I think as long as I am happy with my running, fitness, and health, success will happen. Good results make me feel successful, and that does not happen if I’m not a happy runner!