8 on the 8th Results!

1:10. That's how long it took for me to finish the 8 on the 8th Virtual Race today right along side my virtual mansteak, kindly provided by Nancy, as seen on the left. The great news? I got to do it outside!! I flipped the treadmill the bird, got my layers on and headed out. It turned out to be a great day for it. Yes it was a little cold, but the sun came out and there was a ton of melting going on so I didn't have to worry about icy spots like I thought. There was plenty of puddle jumping to be had but that's fine with me, I was just so happy to be outside again! I felt good, felt real strong. I was actually going to add a mile to the end so I could get 9 in again but that turned out to be a bad idea. I get to the end which happens to be my driveway, and at that moment, the idea of running right past my house to add that 9th mile seems totally impossible and beyond crazy. I should have added a mile somewhere in the middle. Oh well, I'm not upset about it or anything, I was just really, really happy to be back outside and was pretty excited that I even finished the 8 given that I ran 4.6 yesterday. I'm sure I'll be feeling it tomorrow but for now, I'm pretty dang happy.

Highlight of the run: at about mile 3.5, I was shuffling down the path when a deer crossed no more than 5 feet ahead of me! She ran across the path, into the woods then stopped and turned around to get a look at me. I let up a bit and just watched her in awe. We both just kind of checked each other out for a second or two then went on our way. It was incredible. She was no more than 6 or 7 feet away from me. I could see every detail about her and she was beautiful. It was a really cool moment. Then, about 15 minutes later, I was positive I saw a snake on the path up ahead of me but as I got closer, it turned out to be a large stick. Get off yourself nature girl.