Just What I Needed

Life has a funny way of giving you just what you need exactly when you need it.
Yesterday was dear hubby and my five year anniversary. Yay! His words - wow, who would have thought? Mine...absolutely! He is my soul mate and I know we have many more years ahead of us. There will be uphill battles and times of joy and celebration. Days we feel awesome and in sync, days when we feel blah and out of sorts, and days when we may not feel much at all because we are too tired. But we are both marathoners and really should be used to the emotional roller coaster of training and racing.
In celebration of our day we both took off of work and made plans to run together after dropping darling daughter off at school. I mentioned my plan to my coach and he scheduled us for 5 miles. It didn't occur to me until after our run that we ran 5 miles for 5 years. I see a tradition starting here!
The goal of our run was simple. To run together. He has been hurting so going shorter and slower was fine by him but he did give me permission to leave him behind. Nope, not going to happen on our anniversary but the run did entail a lot of backward glances to ensure he was still close behind. We run along a highway stretch that pretty much requires a single file run in many points for safety reasons.
For the most part the run was uneventful except for that one crossing where I took my first evasion maneuver to avoid being hit by a truck. It sounds worst than it was but still caused me to jump and put my arm out to push dear hubby out of the way. Fortunately, I keep a close eye on things and can hear what is going around me. I knew he was stopped and looking both ways but more so away from us to ongoing traffic. I saw the oncoming traffic stop as a car wanted to turn but was letting us go. I always run a distance away from vehicles when crossing in front of them. I heard the truck engine whir, I put my arm out to push dear hubby further away (but didn't make contact as he was far enough away), and took a couple of steps further away from the truck while looking back. The driver looked so sorry he made the initial start to go but in all reality probably didn't move a couple of inches. He saw us. He was sorry. It is okay. We are all fine. But I am writing this to remind us all to be careful and for drivers to look both ways and never start to move until you do the look. Safety message done.
The run started out feeling slow and sluggish and I tried to not worry about pace. It is time to run for fun and we were running uphill but in all honesty, I did try to pick up the pace some when I heard my first mile was a 10'00" pace. The run felt good. My breathing was increased but I wasn't panting or feeling overly exerted. Imagine my surprise when I saw my final splits: 10'00", 8'51", 8'17", 7'59", 7'13". My overall pace was 8'29". Happy, happy, happy!
My goal marathon pace is 9'00". I still wonder how I will do that for 26.2 miles but it is okay to wonder. I will set my tier of race goals and post that later. For now, I know I ran subtle upcountry hills for 5 miles at a pace 31 seconds faster than my goal marathon pace. The marathon is at sea level, has some hills, but has a good portion of flat running. Only time will tell. Have faith! And yesterday's run was just what I needed to build up my confidence a bit further.
Daily Gratitude: I am thankful for a great run!
Daily Affirmation: My heart is opening to love and letting go of negativity.