I forgot about International Women's Day almost immediately until I got home today to mark my running streak and yoga streak on our home calendar and there it was. International Women's Day. It is today. This led me to look into this day to find out what it is all about. Well, it is a day to celebrate women and the origins are tied to the political and economic side of womanhood but some may just celebrate being a woman. What you do is up to you but ladies, I celebrate you today! And I celebrate day 800 of my running streak.
At 3:00 am I heard the rain pouring down and had second thoughts about what to do today. You see, recently we have had some crazy rain that has brought driving visibility to zero here and there. I didn't want to go out on the streets with darling daughter under those conditions. Fortunately, the rain let up and we started our day with berry smoothie waffles, a 15 minute class of yoga for me - Beginner Relaxation to keep my calm on, a trip to the store to get some essentials, a pit stop at the bank, and then to the gym. Darling daughter eagerly hopped, skipped, and jumped her way into the Kids' Club while I went to the treadmill wondering how I would do today. My goal 10 miles. I needed a long run. A run in double digits to build my confidence. Today was the day or so I told myself.
I stepped onto the treadmill and started running pondering many things in life. Should I run the half on the 22nd? Is that smart with a 3 mile race on the 17th? How will my pace be on the 17th? Should I front load miles next week to allow myself a recovery day or two before the 3 mile race? How will I green up for the race? Where will I put my temporary tattoos? Will I have time to run with darling daughter in her race before I start mine? I should email the race director about that. I sipped my VegaSport Hydrator every two miles and was shocked to taste lemon lime instead of pomegranate. How did that happen? Did I buy lemon lime on mistake? Did I do it on purpose and forget?
Anyhow, as I ran along I pondered how long to run. Yes, my goal was 10 miles but I toyed with the idea of 11 miles. And I altered pace here and there. I did the first mile in 10 minutes. The next five were at a 9'40" pace and then I switched to a 9'22" pace. I was feeling good and strong. I was feeling...happy. Very happy. When I hit mile 8 I did the sign of the cross and sent a kiss up to Heaven for my Dad and instantly knew I had to run another 3 miles for the Trinity since each step I have taken, each day of my running streak, is a blessing from God. Mile 11 was at 9'05", my goal marathon pace, and it felt good. I was still happy even though I was counting down the minutes mainly because I only had 2 hours of childcare. I had every intention to stop at 11 miles but then figured, I had a few more minutes of childcare, why not do a warm down? I ran another 0.84 miles at a 10'00" pace. By the time I quickly stretched, cleaned up, and got back to darling daughter I hit the 2 hour mark square on the head. Talk about luck!
But what gets me is the wonderfulness of it all. You see, at mile 8 after my kiss to Heaven and commitment to run 3 more miles for the Trinity a new song started on my iPhone. I'll Stand by You by the Pretenders. Have you heard this song? It immediately touched my heart as I could envision saying the words to darling daughter. Just the lyrics are HERE and please, take the time to read them if you didn't watch the video...or watch the video. By verse two my mind shifted a bit from this song expressing my feelings to darling daughter to God being there by my side always. So very appropriate at this moment in my run and yes, I got all teary and hopefully any tears that fell blended well into my sweat.
Daily Gratitude: I am thankful for all of those who do stand by me.
Daily Affirmation: I will stand by my daughter, always, no matter what.