AMBITION

Miles today: 5.9

Miles this week: 17
Miles in 2010: 107.7

watch this.



Doesn't it make you feel ambitious?

I am ambitious.

I am ambitious for attempting to run for 365 days in a row.

I am ambitious for trying to run right through my fall yesterday.

I am triple ambitious for my run today.

Why?

Well, last night after I got home, my knee was pretty sore and it woke me up a bunch of times throughout the night. This morning, Gregg put an ice pack on my knee when I woke up because it was super stiff and swollen.

It was my day off, so I slept in, walked around, did some chores, and my knee started to feel looser...so I thought I could go for a regular run.

I drove over to Lynchburg College and met up with Gregg and his lunch buddies to say hello and to start my run with them...not because I can keep up, but just because I like seeing them and I don't ever get to run at lunch time since I'm usually at work.

I ran through campus and up Vernon Street and Langhorne Lane, hung a right on Memorial Ave. and another right on Fort Ave. past the Fort Early Building. I was feeling pretty good on the run and my knee wasn't bothering me at all, so I kept running down Fort on what I like to call the "Me & Stacey Run." For some reason, this was a 5 mile loop that she and I did a bunch of times this summer...so it's our loop.

When I got out to Waffle House, I passed one of the lunch guys, Bret, on his way back from the turn-around point. I think my Garmin just had whistled it's 2-mile mark at me and since I wasn't hurting, I figured I could keep running and do the whole loop.

Well as I turned right on Fort Avenue by Grand Furniture, and then another right on Sandusky to head back toward the college, my knee started to kind of just throb. It was like there was a blob inside it that was jiggling around...and the only thing that didn't really give it that blob feeling, was if I just ran purely on my toes. So from about mile 3 (halfway down Sandusky) to the end of the run, I had to improvise my stride because if I let even the smallest part of my left heel touch the ground, it would make my knee just throb. UGH. My stride had to look super weird.

At this point, I was thinking...do I really still have 2 miles to go????

So, I ran on, past the $60 spot (this is on Sandusky where, this past October, Gregg and I found 3 separate $20 bills on our run) down the hill (in pain at this point) and back up toward Perrymont and Thomas Road. When I started the uphill toward Perrymont, I was in a lot of pain, so I'll admit, I just stopped and walked for about 5 minutes. When I started back down Thomas Road, I just was trying to be finished, so I ran through the pain.

Finally got back to the top of the hill and ran back down Vernon Street and onto campus. Crossed my fingers that Gregg might still be at the school so I could give him a kiss, but was sad when I realized I had missed him.

Slowed down and walked to my car, looked at my Garmin (5.9 miles!?!), and at this point realized I probably shouldn't have run that far. I hobbled into my car (my knee was swollen and hard to bend) and called Gregg on the drive home.

And what do you think he told me?

He said, "Didn't I tell you just to run a mile on the track?"

Yeah, he did.

Did I listen?

No.

He'd probably call me stubborn.

I call it ambition.