You know you're a runner when...

So far I've spent most of my training not considering myself to be a "real runner". Mostly I thought real runners are the people who can run a less than eight minute mile all the while maintaining perfect posture and breathing, and still look great for those finish line shots the photographer takes. I saw my finish line photos for the last 5K, and they were not pretty. I look a little sick and bit like I'm about to fall over.  I won't post them.  In fact, I hope they're eventually destroyed.

So, I've been wondering when I would get to the point I really felt like a runner.  I think that may have finally happened this morning. 

I was running in town today, and hoping to get a little street/sidewalk running and some hills to train up for the Trenton 10K.  Things were going great, and my splits were almost about where Trainer Jeff told me to be.  I even felt pretty good.  Of course that was until I tripped on the sidewalk at 2.1 miles.  True to form, I didn't just trip, I bit it and took a tumble.  We're talking bruises, blood, and total road rash going on.  (I didn't take a picture, but believe me, it's not pretty) For a split second, I thought WTF do I do now before I got back up and just started running again.  Let me just clarify that had anything actually been seriously injured I probably would have stopped.  But I ran the rest of the third mile back home before I stopped to look at my knee and my hand.  The funny thing is that today was my best 3rd mile on a nonstop run ever.  Go figure!

So, I've managed to yet again display my outstanding clumsiness.  I hang my head in shame again for that.  But I've decided that getting up and continuing the run makes me officially a "real runner" now!

Clumsy Meet 5K

I ran my 2nd 5K last weekend. Unfortunately, I've been a bit overly frugal and have not bought many new items to compensate for the fact that there is now 30lbs less of me. So this means that I now have the super annoying problem that hardly any of my clothes fit. (I know, you are yelling at your computer that there are real people with real problems) I got up Sunday morning and was ready to go with some pants that were not overly big, threw my iphone with runkeeper in my pocket, and left the finish line determined to maintain proper form and stay tall and tight throughout the race. Well, not even a minute into the race my phone flies out of said pocket, people crash into me, I kick the phone, and conk hat brims with the one nice lady who stopped to try to help me. After hanging my head in shame and apologizing profusely to all around me, I managed to continue relatively unscathed, but it was a little difficult to get my head into the game after that. I managed to finish in 35:57 in the end which is a little over 6 minutes better than my last time, but it's still not quite where I wanted to be at this point in the training. I've also ditched the Gallorunning which has helped the training times a bit, but hills are still pretty brutal. Luckily I have some time to train before my next race on October 27th to get more comfortable. I'm just nervous, because somehow I was convinced that it would be a good idea to sign up for a race called the Winter Wonder Run which is basically a run through the woods. I'm really hoping my clumsy self makes it out of the woods alive. Don't worry, I'll have my iphone just in case. I'll just get an arm band for it to prevent any further running disasters.