Couch to 5K: WEEK 8 IS DONE! ONE MORE WEEK TO GO!

Today before church, I went out for my W8D3 run. It was absolutely horrible! I ended up walking a couple times for a few seconds (once was halfway up an annoying hill) but kicked myself back in gear and kept with the running. It was NOT a good run by any stretch of the imagination. I let myself get waylaid by all kinds of negative thoughts... money, relationship difficulties, prescriptions vs. food vs. mortgage and not enough for all of them, obnoxious, mouthy teenagers, these hills really suck and I'll never be able to do a 5k and I hate this and I can't do it and OMG what am I gonna do about [insert various other stressors here] and I WANT TO CRY AND QUIT RIGHT NOW ON EVERYTHING!!!!!! Yeah, it was bad. But, no matter how ingloriously & slowly I finished today's run, finish I did. I'm NOT at all proud of how it went today (the other Week 8 runs were so easy and fun, a sucky run was very depressing... especially on top of my pre-existing depression of the day, LOL!), but hey - that's life. Some days are not good ones, some runs are not the best... but the trick is to keep going. So - regardless of my mental crankiness and downright LOUSY attitude today - Week 8 is finished.

Tomorrow morning, Week 9 officially begins!!! Wooohoo! My Couch to 5k graduation t-shirt has officially shipped, as per the email I got yesterday, and hopefully, God willing, I'll have my graduation run on Friday.

Even cooler: Today at church, I was reading the bulletin, and guess what my pastor's next four-week message series is titled? "BORN TO RUN!"

Next Sunday, the sermon is called "Focus," and is based on 1 Corinthians 9:24-27:

"Remember that in a race, everyone runs, but only one person gets the prize. You must also run in such a way that you will win. All athletes practice strict self-control. They do it to win a prize that will fade away, but we do it for an eternal prize. SO I RUN STRAIGHT TO THE GOAL, WITH PURPOSE IN EVERY STEP...I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should. Otherwise, after preaching to others, I fear that I might be disqualified."

Each subsequent week likewise has a running-related verse that would take too long to type out here at the moment. Obviously, the whole series a comparison between running for a prize and a life lived to glorify Jesus...there are definite parallels between the two (and now that I'm actually running, I can see that even clearer than before). So much of it is just not quitting...fall, get back up, keep going... FOCUS on that goal and give it your all.

Uh, where was I? Oh yeah... week 8 done. I plan on wearing my C25K graduation t-shirt to church Sunday (how timely is that??? Too cool!). Hopefully nothing happens between now & then to screw that up... I wanna be able to graduate on time this week and not let myself get derailed again, lol. I have that 5k on Halloween to train for, too... must get myself in shape to be ABLE to run the full 5k by then. :) Another cool side note - a fellow C25Ker at church pointed out to me...the final message in Pastor's message series is called "FINISH" (based on Philippians 3:12-21) and is on November 1 - the day AFTER, God willing, I finish my very first 5k.

I have to wonder if all this is some kind of freaky coincidence, or if the pastor saw all us church C25K folks Facebook status messages and got inspiried?? LOL! Nah.. probably just random coincidence...but still...how freakin cool is that??? :) To say that message series is timely (in more ways that one!) is an understatement. :)

OK, Week 8 is done - ON TO THE NEXT! 3 runs to go, and I'm an official Couch to 5k graduate. :) wooohoo!