It's been awhile..

Sorry I haven't blogged in awhile. Things have been crazy, but in a good way. So lets start out with my vaca. So we left for Gatlinburg TN for week and boy we were excited to get away. We rented a nice log cabin tucked away in the great Smokies. The weather was amazing. We did the whole tourist thing which included a lot of Ripleys things. We went the most beautiful aquarium. My favorite part was the underwater shark exhibit. Kinda reminded me of Jaws, where in the movie the people happen to go under water to see the sharks however none the pipes exploded and the tunnel was filled with water up to your chest. Kinda exciting to see a plague about scratches in the glass from a shark attack in 2009. Wonder what happened in there. Took some awesome pics, ate wonderful food, celebrated dh 36th birthday and drank some awesome white lightening.. Wooowee that was so strong alcohol. Not to tipsy though, ok maybe I was feeling good. I also got in a beautiful 6 mile run. So exciting to me to say that I have actually ran in TN. The weather like I said was awesome. Woke up to 50s and NO humidity. Made my run just perfect. We then went white water rafting which all I can say was scary and exciting. I would of course do it again but most likely without the kids.  All in all we had a great time but so ready to get home. I didn't get to run much, which was hard for me but I really enjoyed being on a break from everything. I'm already planning my next trip!!! 

Home meant back to work and back to my running routine. I love/hate summer. Love cause I can log in some longer miles before work. Hate cause it'a freaking hotter than a habanero pepper..I had some really great runs coming back. To my surprise the weather wasn't all that bad. The first day of summer was beautiful and awesome running weather. However today was HORRIBLE. I can't say HORRIBLE enough. After today my plan to run a half in July is out the window. Yea I'm a puss so what. But this mornings run was not mentally brutal, my body did not want to run. Period. I knew after 4.11 miles I was done but I COULDN'T be. Like I have said I stick to my goals no matter what and today was one of those no matter what's. I went from outside to dreadmill to outside to back to dreadmill. I was 97% done at 8.something miles but I couldn't bring myself to quit. I started to post about it on FB and I thought I am going to use this post to push me. I could not fail myself. I had to dig deep and deep is an understatement. I was pissed, I was almost in tears, I was quitting. I DON'T QUIT. And I did it come hell or high water. I can't say I'm proud of the run but I can say that I am proud of myself. I would rather be proud of myself than proud of a run ESP when it's a hard ass run. I really never knew the meaning of perseverance and dedication until today and I can honestly write that. It just shows that even the most trained, hard core, bad ass runners have some horrible runs, but what's worse is when you just give up. Don't because I don't regret that run, I would have regretted it had I stopped. The feeling of regret or wish I are the worst for a runner. When you feel like quitting remember the feeling. Keep it with you ALWAYS on every run, hard or easy. That feeling will make you think twice about not going for a run or quitting. So day was a hard lesson for me. Exhausting yet fulfilling. How could I not be proud of that?